The Cuillin Ridge On Visit To Isle Of Skye Inner Hebrides Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish fiddle music, of the Cuillin Ridge mountains, Scottish Gaelic: An Cuilthionn or An Cuiltheann, on visit to Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides. The main Cuillin ridge is also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin, na Beanntan Dearga, known locally as Red Hills, which lie to the East of Glen Sligachan. The Red Cuillin are mainly composed of granite, which is paler than the gabbro, with a reddish tinge from some angles in some lights, and has weathered into more rounded hills with vegetation cover to summit level and long scree slopes on their flanks. These hills are lower and, being less rocky, have fewer scrambles or climbs. The highest point of the red hills is Glamaig, followed by Garbh bheinn and Blà Bheinn. The peaks of the Black Cuillin mountains are mainly composed of gabbro, a very rough black igneous rock which provides a superb grip for mountaineers, and basalt, which can be very slippery when wet. . The highest point of the Cuillin, and of the Isle of Skye, is Sgùrr Alasdair in the Black Cuillin at 3,255 feetThe summits of the Cuillin are bare rock, jagged in outline and with steep cliffs and deep cut corries and gullies. Twelve Black Cuillin peaks are listed as Munros, though one of them, Blaven, is part of a group of outliers separated from the main ridge by Glen Sligachan. The Cuillin is one of 40 National Scenic Areas in Scotland. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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