Adam and I hiked the 80 mile long Skye Trail in Scotland last summer. This winter has been busy & fun, but I carved out some time to make a 10 minute movie about our 6 day hike. Enjoy!
Planning a Skye Trail walk?
Walking Highlands has wonderful resources on walking in Scotland. The information on the Skye Trail was accessible, accurate, & detailed. There are some trip reports and an online community.
We used the Cicerone Guide and the Harvey Map to keep us on track. This route had a good bit of off trail travel in less than ideal weather, having good maps was essential.
Gear: A few thoughts on what we carried.
We were happy to have a tent with bug netting. It was nice to escape the midges, & a tent floor was essential on the boggy ground.
My Purple Rain Adventure Skirt was easy to change into when we hit towns & I wanted to get out of my muddy rain pants for a bit.
Quality rain jackets & umbrellas were worth every “extra” ounce. We did stick with DriDucks for our rain pants, and Adam made his into a rain kilt. I was pretty happy with my rain gear, but Adam had to get used to having wet legs.
Our wind jacket & pants were worn every day. The Houdini remains my favorite layer ever.
A rare moment of sun on day 1 of the Skye Trail
We used Sea to Summit UL dry bags to keep our things dry. We each had 3 dry bags, one for clothes, one for sleeping bags, and one for odds and ends. No pack covers for us, but I did put the brain back on my pack so I could have some more storage capacity.
I bought a pair of gloves after having very cold hands on the Trotternish Ridge.
We had crocs in addition to our hiking shoes. It was nice to have a break from our sopping wet shoes. We would change into our crocks whenever we went in to restaurants & businesses so we didn’t leave muddy puddles everywhere we went. By the end of our Scotland trip our poor shoes smelled horribly from the putrid bog water & we had to throw them away. I used the Oboz Emerald Peak & was pleased with their comfort & durability. The grippy soles worked well in the bogs & the bright shoe colors made me happy.
We used down sleeping bags, and were able to keep them dry, even in our leaky, condensation filled tent.
Down sleeping bags in the tent- they worked!
We brought a cat food can alcohol stove and easily found fuel at outdoor stores. Denatured alcohol is called Meths or Bio Fuel in Scotland. We bought a cool looking gelled alcohol, but it was very slow to light, so we stuck with the liquid.
We did actually use our sunglasses & sun hats, though not much.
We paid for Adam’s phone to be activated during our visit, and I was able to use the gps function on my phone. We downloaded maps and information whenever we had wifi. We left our Spot beacon at home on this trip, and felt comfortable with using the cell phone for emergencies. We brought an Anchor backup battery, charging cords, and a wall plug adapter.
Our camera didn’t make it home with us. Adam carried a Canon S110, and took hundreds of photos and videos. The wifi photo backups weren’t working on the limited wifi we had access to. The camera fell out of a pocket on the plane ride home & all of our photos and the camera are gone forever. This was a pretty big blow, but thankfully I had documented our trip on my iphone as well. RIP camera, I wish you would come back to us!
If you have any questions or comments about the gear we used or trip details I can be reached via Facebook, Youtube, and email
