Scotland’s side-project that turned tripleplatinum:

Create the perfect island from scratch and it would look a lot like Skye, spectacular from the top of its Cuillin peaks to the sands of its Coral Beach.

The Black Cuillin

Walking on the Isle of Skye can be exhausting. Not always physically, but mentally, for its knotted topography means every turn reveals a bewitching new view of rough mountain and turquoise sea, of velvet landslide and fairytale forest, which can leave you reeling, your mind entirely boggled.

This largest and most northerly of the Inner Hebrides docks its 639 square miles of awesome in the Minch off Scotland’s west coast. The Cuillin Hills, Black and Red, form the island’s hub, from which a series of peninsulas radiate: Trotternish, Waternish, Duirinish, Minginish, Sleat.

The Black Cuillin are renowned as Britain’s most precarious and thrilling mountain range, a steep, splintered world of dark gabbro and basalt. A full traverse of its eight-mile spine whiteknuckles over 11 Munros and takes climbers up to 20 hours, requiring tungsten nerves for its flimsy arêtes and ropes too, to top obstacles like the Inaccessible Pinnacle.

But there are ways for walkers, rather than mountaineers, to explore. Loch Coruisk floods the cradle beneath the curving ridge, where you can hike a 4 ½ mile circuit around its shore in the Cuillin’s shadowy heart. The start is accessible by a boat ride from Elgol, or you can walk the coast path via the sands of Camasunary Bay – a six-mile (each way) adventure in itself, as you edge along cliffs, cross rivers and encounter a very tricksy slab of rock called the Bad Step.

That step is a notch in the base of a peak called Sgùrr na Strì, a hill which nudges only a little over 1500 feet but has one of the most prized vistas in all of Scotland. The best route up its bumpy, slabby slopes is from the pass at Drum Rain to the north which you can reach from Loch Coruisk, or after a long walk down the great glacial trench of Glen Sligachan.

Once up top, you won’t know where to look, so take a tour of the summit to pivot through views of Coruisk, across the sawblade of the Cuillin ridge, along Glen Sligachan, up to the sole Cuillin outlier of Blàbheinn, down across Camasunary Bay and out to the Small Isles of Eigg and Rum. As we said, you’ll likely find it exhausting , but in the best possible way. WALK HERE: It’s a 15-mile round to the top of Sgùrr na Strì from Sligachan, tracing the path south on the east side of the river and crossing numerous burns to reach a fork by Lochan Dubha. Go right on path towards Loch Coruisk and at cairn at Drum Rain (grid ref NG501213), take left option to climb south over rough and later trackless terrain to the summit. Return same way.

The Trotternish

Think landslip, think heap of rubble. But Skye never does things the dull way and even its landslides have scale and style. Stretching for almost 20 miles along the island’s north-eastern peninsula, the Trotternish Ridge is one long surge of rockfalls bookended by what look like two sculpture installations. The rocks here at the Quiraing in the north and the Storr in the south have slipped, stacked and crumpled into exquisite forms, forming intricate pinnacles and frayed ledges as the weight of 1000 feet of volcanic basalt has crushed the sedimentary rocks beneath. The Old Man and Needle Rock are Storr’s most famous shapes; the Prison, the Table and another Needle are the Quiraing’s. Each has a fairly straightforward route to ogle up at the rock’s tangled angles, but these can get very busy. Each has a longer circuit, too – looping up over the summit of the Storr itself or onto Meall na Suiramach behind the Quiraing – where you’ll not only slip away from the crowds and into the wilds, but climb into wider views across the entire sliding melee. And for real wilderness, you can backpack the entire Trotternish end to end as it dips and surfs like a wave of rock caught just before it breaks across the Sound of Raasay. WALK HERE: Download guides to The Storr and the Quiraing at www.lfto.com/bonusroutes