The Old Man Of Storr

The day before I hired my guide for the Cuillin, we spent a day further north on the island with a visit to the famous ‘Old Man of Storr’. This is a vast area of weird rock pinnacles with a spectacular mountain behind…

click on photos for full size/resolution – they are a mix of Richard’s digital (as marked) and my film SLR

It was a stunning, sunny day when we parked up and there were cars all along both sides of the road for about a mile in each direction as the small carparks were full – a very popular place! We set off up the steep, recently resurfaced path, taking the left-hand fork and later returning straight down the hillside. In about half a mile the magnificent crag-girt mountain comes into view looking very dramatic…

We always head across on paths to the left to the first rocky valley – there are several.

We decided to scramble along the ridgeline as far as possible this time – we usually just ascend steep grass to the first peak for the views. It was while we were up here, we could hear, and then see, a lamb crying for its Mum and stuck on the crag wall opposite. There was an easy route back down to the grass below but that wasn’t the way it was headed unfortunately!

There are superb towers and pinnacles along the ridge but they are crumbly and pretty much have to be bypassed…

Some of the bypasses are on very steep ground…

Photo R Wood

Great view of the Old Man from this ridge!

Richard went off to explore the next ridge while I headed for the Old Man and what I call ‘the valley of death’ – the channel of many and recent fallen rocks from both the pinnacles and the face of the mountain. These are his photos from his excursion…

We joined up again at the start of the Valley of Death where one of my favourite rock formations stands…

The Chimney Stack (my name)

Richard took nearly the same photo but his makes it look like there are routes up to the pinnacle in the middle (which I call the chimney – I keep expecting smoke to come out of it!) I think you could either scramble up the gully below it or rake across from the right (preferably with a rope for that one I think)

Both photos R Wood

I had a clamber up a great viewpoint peak…

R Wood

Richard had a fancy this pinnacle was a gorilla. I agreed with him but it later turned out we were seeing two completely different gorillas!

‘The Gorilla’ R Wood

While I thought it looked like a whole gorilla sat on a rock pedestal, he thought the top section was the gorilla’s head and what I saw as the pedestal was his shoulders. I can see it either way now but still prefer my version…

Gaining the cleft between these two peaks takes you much higher behind ‘The Chimney Stack’ – might have a look next time…

R Wood

We then both headed for the base of The Old Man where a French party were sat in the sun…

Superb study of rock architecture by Richard

We then headed for The Valley of Death. Richard refused point-blank to walk through this last time due to the amount of fallen rock and the notices telling you to keep out but I always insist on having a little gamble and walking through (as do most people I think) – this time he came with me…

Looking back at the Old Man…

The worst section is under what I call ‘The Gothic Cathedral’ – the spectacular pinnacle with whole sections of rock fallen out making lovely windows. Bonington climbed this in his younger (and doubtlessly rasher) days – it was a bit dubious whether he would actually get down again according to Patey who was with him at the time! Richard took a close-up of the ‘windows’…

R Wood

He also took a couple of superb studies of the imposing frontal crags of The Storr…

both photos R Wood

We then headed off for another viewing peak that I like (along with everyone else I think)

Great view back to the pinnacles and crags from here

We then set off around the corner above more crags for the route to the summit…

It looks like the route might be nasty but it’s fine really – there’s just one section with a choice of two loose paths around a corner which is fine going up but a bit loose coming back down…

It was at this point Richard decided he didn’t want to go any further so he settled down on a rock while I set off at a good pace on the easy path to the summit. Basically, the path rakes across below a craggy escarpment on a huge grassy shelf above more crags and the rate of ascent is pretty minimal really…

I saw a guy heading straight up a grassy gully between the summit ridge crags here and wondered whether to follow him. I decided I’d have a look from the top and see what I thought. The grassy gully goes up between the two sets of flat-topped crags on the photo above and looks fine but very steep indeed.

Meanwhile, Richard had an explore of where he was sat and got this photo of the crags below my easy route…

R Wood

While I was absolutely fascinated by the spectacular north-east ridge which is actually possible as there is a path below the more difficult craggy sections. You can access most of the peaks from the path so long as you come back down the same way – it’s a stupendous drop down the other side of them though. Looks pretty exciting – I might give it a go next time!

Before the path turned, I turned uphill as I couldn’t be bothered with the extra walk and it was just plain grass above me now. I soon reached the easy ridge walk back the other way to the summit. There were great views to the northern parts of the Trotternish Ridge which were dipping in and out of mist…

from the rock I called ‘The Lion’…

heading towards the Storr (above) and NE Ridge path (below)

I had a little explore along the easy parts of the north-east ridge but you can only get along the first section from the top – you’d need to be on the path below to get to the next peak. I then continued on towards the summit. Looking over the edge between the north-east ridge and the summit startled me with how small the rock formations and pinnacles looked from up here! 😮

everything looks small from up here!

That peak which is so easy to get onto from the path under the north-east ridge looks pretty horrifying this side!

I finally reached the summit (which isn’t scenic at all) and went to peer over the edge some more. Now, I don’t know if it’s just vertigo on my part or what, but each time I reached the very edge of the crags, the earth seemed to move! 😮 It could well have just been me going dizzy but it really felt like real movement – sort of like an earth tremor – horrid!

I soon left to explore further south where there is another interesting set of gullies which I’d thought from below could be descended but wasn’t so sure when I looked from above. This side gully couldn’t anyway!

I noticed no-one else went exploring around this area – it is interesting and more people should venture down from the summit for a look-around really – people are very incurious…

Not sure you’d get down the gully or the ridge here really – note the ‘stone creature’ looking over the gully edge – dog or frog?…

The craggy wall the other side of the gully was spectacular too…

It was all a pretty hairy place anyway and I wasn’t sorry to descend back down my easy route to the waiting (and sunbathing) Richard.

Leaving the summit area, a couple started down the top of the grassy gully I’d seen the lone guy go up earlier. I watched them for a while and also descended the very top section to the path going along under the north-east ridge. He took an awkward route but she decided it wasn’t a great way to go and started off straight down the grass which looked easy enough. Watching her though proved how steep it was – she was able to reach a hand out and easily touch the grass slope and she was going very cautiously indeed.

I decided not to bother as I thought it was probably quicker to retrace my route along and back below the easy northern ridge. I beat them to the foot of their route quite easily. They looked a bit peeved!

I picked up Richard and we set off back around the loose corner. Richard got this superb photo of The Old Man and surrounding pinnacles now the light had changed…

R Wood

We then descended via my favourite little lochan where I took my last photos before we descended back to the car…

As we neared the car, it started to rain heavily. We were surprised to still see many tourists heading up the hill. I’m pretty sure, looking at the size and build of some of them, that they have no idea how long, hard and steep the ascent even to The Old Man is – there were many red faces and people puffing and panting not long from the start of the path! Some breathlessly asked if it was far to the Old Man – we were honest and admitted that it’s a pretty long and hard climb but they still continued up into the rain. Hope they made it!