Having to go back to photographic posts for a while as my back has completely gone and its future, at present, is looking bleak 😦 These were from our Skye trip this summer and have been waiting in the wings behind the walking posts since then…
(click on photos for full size/resolution – a few are my film photos, most are Richard’s digi ones as marked)
We had several rainy days on Skye but, on this one, it said it would clear up later. We mooched around in the car in one of the most interesting-looking places from the map – that of the Ullinish Peninsula on the west side of the island. At this point we had no idea you could get to a tidal island from the map.
We parked up at the end of the peninsula at a little carpark and went to see why there was a signpost. It said there was a walk of just over a mile to ‘Oronsay’ and looked a reasonable path so we put our boots on and went to see what was there. We were due a very nice surprise and one which used up a couple of hours of the day.
At the end of the track, we could see the island of Oronsay was across a little tidal causeway and that the tide was well out. I love things like that – the idea of temporary accessibility – and said we should go…
R Wood
We were by now being followed by a group of French tourists. The end of the track went down to the beach and causeway through a narrow limestone cleft…
R Wood
We were soon across the stony causeway and on the island…
Everyone except me headed for the high point at the far end of the island – I insisted on doing the bumps before that and was rewarded by nice views and an early idea of how big and how sheer the cliffs we were traversing the edges of were…
I took a photo back to my earlier lone peak…
And later discovered Richard had taken one of it with me coming back down it – he was nearer the edge so shows more of the cliffs…
R Wood
and as I was now lagging one peak behind, he took another of me looking over the edge of the top of the next peak – it was a long way down…
both photos R Wood
and I took one of him strolling to the very tip of the island…
That was the last of my photos as I hadn’t brought a spare and ran out of film. I hadn’t really been expecting a scenic day out. Richard continued to enthusiastically snap away though. Firstly, the adjacent island of Wiay and, past that, Idrigill Point…
From here, everyone else walking the island went straight back the way they came – silly people! They missed the best side of the island in my opinion – these are taken while wandering back along the southern side of the island.
A point with an eroded neck leading to it which I ventured onto despite Richard telling me not to – he soon followed on when I didn’t fall off it!
We then returned to the sheep tracks round the rest of the island. Looking back up to the high point of the island…
I soon found somewhere else daring to stand and peer – a completely undercut section of rock – Richard thought I was even dafter but still took a photo…
If I see something like that, I always feel I must make myself go and stand on it – it would have made a great diving board! We then set off to investigate a superb cave cut right through the rock…
You could scramble right down to the coast from here…
I set off for an investigate…
Steep cliffs the other side with interesting bright green mosses…
and an arete going down from the other side of the cave which wouldn’t be quite so scramble-able!
As it ends rather suddenly!
We then went off to investigate the next inlet which cut right back into the island.
Richard took a couple more photos back to the cave – one with his great zoom…
And then we went to investigate ‘the inlet of the dead sheep’ – so named by me because initially I thought there was a dead sheep lying in the cleft between the cliffs. it later turned out to be just some jetsam on the rocks…
While the sheep watched to see whether we’d been fooled…
We then set off back for the causeway and beaches where a nice lagoon had now formed…
Back on the mainland, I went ‘cattle-charming’ – one of my favourite hobbies as I love cows 🙂
Lovely little Hereford moos – I was sad to leave them and go back to the car but Richard insisted!
The Adventures of a Mountain Coward 
Sorry to hear your back is giving you bother – as I’m a month late reading this hopefully it has improved since writing. Skye is one of my favourite places 😀 but I don’t share you love of cows, except on a Sunday!
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Rotten bugger! Richard’s always saying that – I say “I like moos” and he just says with that horrid carnivorous gleam in his eye “I like moos too”. They’re such gentle creatures.
My back isn’t bothering me just now (climbing is helping it stretch out) but it could again at any time as my x-rays confirmed it is actually degeneration of the spine 😦
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Looks a nice way to spend a few hours. Did loads of coastal walking when younger, not much since I got the hill bug though.
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I actually find a lot of coast-walking harder than hill-walking – Dorset springs to mind!
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Very nice, that. I’m impressed with your cattle-charming skills. If you could get them to carry you around that would take the pressure off the sore back.
regards, Alen
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If you’ve seen the ridge on the back of a cow, you’d realise that it would put a lot of pressure on other bits! 😮
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Sorry to hear about your back Carol. Loch Brackadale is one of my favourite places on Skye and little known. Every island in that loch is special and the coastal scenery around that part of Skye is amazing. Biggest basking shark seen yet was around that area. I went to a private chiropractor years ago when my back was really bad and he did fix it at £300 for 12 sessions but he then wanted me to keep going back which I couldn’t afford and didn’t see a need to return. You can also get them on the NHS. I would seek professional advice if you go down that route though as it might make what you have worse. It did help me recover in a relatively short space of time and I don’t normally crack open my wallet, as you know.
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I’ve considered Chiropractice as we have a chiropractor at our GP’s surgery but I think it would make matters worse for an actual deterioration of joints and bones. The things they ‘break down’ aren’t present anyway – presumably because it hasn’t been going on long enough. I think physio will be my only route as it was for my hip – of course, that won’t work long-term but will slow down the damage.
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Sorry to hear about your back – I do hope it’s not chronic.
That looked like loads of fun 🙂 Apart from the coos of course! Although it fair looks like you charmed them there!
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It’s a great place for visiting when it’s too bad to go to the hills, that’s for sure. Those cows were only little and as docile as anything – they were wary of me to start with.
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I’m a bit behind with my reports but the next one is down Loch Quoich where of course there was lots of Highland coos. I was actually ok with them as they are so laid back but remembered your car camping incident there and was also worried their horns would scrape the van!
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I have to say I find all highland coos very laid back
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Re the osteo-arthritis, I’m an expert. Don’t despair as my latest left hip bout has mysteriously disappeared for a while. You could try Naproxen to reduce inflammation, if that’s partly the issue.
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I worry about reducing inflammation as I gather it would be there to attempt to heal things and I’d therefore be stopping it. The doctors are split on that theory… If it gets painful when I’m trying to sleep though, I have to admit to using ibuprofen just to shut it up so I can sleep – I hate being kept awake. The hip isn’t too problematic since I had physio and built up the correct muscles, but the back is dreadful when it starts 😦
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Like Mark, I know the other Oronsay off Colonsay which is a bit tamer but still has the limited accessibility angle and also historical interest. I’m amazed at your cliff top scrambling exploits – not such a mountain coward after all! Perhaps you should rename yourself Catttle Charmer instead – it looks as if you have a knack for that.
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It was big shelves going down that ‘cliff’ and, if you had the reach, anyone could get down and up again. It wasn’t scary at all as you were always stood on a shelf about 3 or 4 feet wide.
Cows will nearly always come over if you sit and apparently ‘ignore’ them – a lot of animals do.
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Wonderful scenery! Completely foreign to me. Would love to see it some day. You sure made friends with the cows. I bet you were careful not to sit on that thistle! Hope your back is feeling better. Take care. Bob
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We (me and the docs) think the back is the start of osteoarthritis so it will just deteriorate from here so not much of a future I don’t think unfortunately. My mother has been crippled with arthritis in her hips and spine for years now – I hope it doesn’t get as bad as hers!
The cows were lovely. I love how, if you get one to come and talk to you, the others just have to come and see what’s happening 😉
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You are the cow whisperer! Don’t put too much stock in what doctors have to say, just keeping hiking up those mountains for as long as you can! Bob
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I wish my body, especially my skeleton, would come round to my way of thinking but it seems very negative in its approach somehow!
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I didn’t know there was another Oronsay. I’ve cycled to the other Oronsay from Colonsay at low tide, great fun. Still, this looked like a agreeable outing. Filled away for future reference.
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I think there’s quite a few – there’s probably even more than one around Skye. I suppose if we translated it from Gaelic, we’d see why – it will be some natural feature or other on it. It was well worth a quick trip and used up half a day nicely with the scenic drive around there and back.
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We need to have a good look around Skye sometime. 🙂
Hope the back is not too much trouble 😦
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Put it this way, if I was a long, weak-backed horse instead of a long, weak-backed human, they’d have shot me!
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That is a great post Carol. I am sure I have been there when I was last on Skye, many years ago. Love the ‘cattle charming’ – I do like cows, but give them a wide berth…hope the back isn’t playing up too much…
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the back is improving just now but, if it is osteo-arthritis (which we think it is), it will continue to flare up regularly apparently 😦
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lets hope it doesn’t get too worse, and I am please it is improving for you 🙂
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I just wish it was improving for good – I’m not looking forward to the amount of pain and disablement I had last time happening again anytime soon! 😦
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Hope it gets better for you…it isn’t very nice being in pain and not being able to do what you love doing anymore.
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no it definitely isn’t. I now know what people mean when they say back pain is ‘orrid!
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