Walk: Tidal traverse to Skye’s Oronsay

📌 Isle of Oronsay, Isle of Skye
★★★

The raucous chatter of birds, the whistle of the wind, crashing waves on the shingle causeway: Oronsay can be a noisy place. One thing it’s reliably free of, however, is high season crowds, unlike the Isle of Skye to which this tidal island is intermittently attached. A tour of the coastline reveals an impressive inventory of precipitous cliffs, hidden caves, rock-cut platforms and rock pools teeming with marine life – all packed into a circumference of less than two miles. Pity the path on the mainland side is such a boggy one.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at minor road end, Ullinish, Skye

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NG 323374

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 57.348378,-6.452582

❌ No public transport within 1 mi

🚗 Car park

📝 Key info

▶ 5 km / 3 mi | ▲ 160 m | ⌛ 2.5 hr

Features: 🌊 Oronsay coastline; △ Oronsay summit (74 m)

⬤ Moderate | Boggy path to the causeway; faint, intermittent paths on Oronsay with pathless sections. The causeway to Oronsay is submerged at high tide. Aim to cross (in both directions) at half tide or below.

➡️ Anticlockwise lollipop circuit: start – tidal causeway to Oronsay – anticlockwise circuit of Oronsay – causeway – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Shags and chicks in cliff nests on Oronsay; ravens and jackdaws, seagulls, sheep and lambs. Cock crowing near the start.

Weather: Cloud increasingly breaking to give sunshine, light wind with temperature in high teens.

July 2019