The Skriaig Mast Walk is tucked away near the tiny township of Glenmore, Isle of Skye. It is a relatively straightforward and accessible walk to try. Based on a mainly tarmac surface you make progress whilst being rewarded with fantastic views all around you. From the Cuillin ridge to the MacLeod’s Tables all in one panorama. For those with an interest in TV transmitters here is more information.
Getting to the Skriaig Mast Walk
Take the B885 Struan Road out of Portree, heading towards Struan/Dunvegan. Once out of Portree this is a single track road so take care and use the passing places to allow traffic to pass. The turn off for Glenmore is approximately 2 miles from the the junction of the A87/B885 in Portree. After 1.5 miles you will go past ACE Target Sports, keep going another half a mile and you will see the turning on the left signed Glenmore. Take this turning and follow this road for approximately 2.5 miles. Again this is another twisting single track road so drive carefully. The gate where the walk begins is on your left. Park carefully near the entrance, leaving space for any work vehicles that may need access. If you reach Glenmore you have gone too far and need to retrace your journey back to the gate.
The start of the walk
The Skriaig Mast Walk starts at a wide metal gate with a smaller gate to the right hand side for pedestrian access. The main gate is padlocked at all times unless maintenance vehicles are accessing the transmitters. Technically the side gate is just a metal fence panel held on with twine so is not actually a gate. Whilst it is not heavy you may need help to open it. Melanie opened the gate whilst Sarah followed with her trusty rollator. The surface here is grassy and a little sloping to the fence line but wide enough for wheelchairs, scooters etc. The local crofter comes through here with their quad bike, if that gives you an idea of width.
The surface is a tarmac road with a bit of rough grass growing up the centre. Predominantly a good surface with occasional potholes and loose gravel. Sarah was able to make good progress pretty much single handedly on the way up. The way up can be pretty steep in places but you can pause to catch your breath whilst enjoying the amazing views.
Views from the Skriaig Mast Walk
As we mentioned above the views are amazing from the track. Looking over the township of Glenmore to the Cuillin Ridge. Out west to Loch Bracadale and on a clear day over The Minch to the Western Isles. Further round the wind farms of Edinbane and Ben Atekil and finally to Loch Greshornish. We were mesmerised for a lot of the walk. The huge vistas also mean you can see the weather barrelling towards you. There is very little shelter on this walk so plan your time here carefully.
Cuillins over Glenmore 
Views west to the windfarms 
A faint rainbow 
View down the Skriaig Mast Walk
We walked for about 1km before Sarah needed to turn back. It was immensely tiring for her pushing up a steep hill from the very start of the walk. Up ahead in the distance we could see that the track splits into two. Each track leads to a different transmitter. Next time we will head for the right hand mast as we could see that from the Braes Road when we set off on our adventure.
Coming back down!
To get back to the car simply retrace your steps. The views in this direction are very nearly distracting. However, we couldn’t be too distracted as Sarah’s wheels were running away with her. As the track is quite steep the wheels were going faster than poor Sarah’s legs. Melanie had to act as the brake for most of the journey down. What are friends for?! With that in mind it would be quite the task for a self propelled wheelchair. Take very good care and know your limitations before you go too high.
Our lucky day!
When we finished the walk it was cold , just 3 centigrade and we needed the loo. We decided to be cheeky and pop in at ACE Target Sports to use the facilities. It isn’t too cheeky as Melanie does work there in the summer season and Matt the owner is also a good friend of Skye For All. Even though ACE is now closed for winter the log fire was burning so we took the opportunity to warm ourselves up a bit too. Matt and Steve sat with us for a while chatting and catching up on what we had been doing.
Next thing…Matt appears with toasting forks and marshmallows! Well you can guess what happened next…yep we toasted and devoured some marshmallows. Now that is friendship for you, not only a cheeky toilet stop but toasted marshmallows too. If you are ever on Skye be sure to take part in some activities at ACE, they come with the Skye for All seal of approval.
First para should tell us how long it takes to do the Skriaig Mast Walk. This is not mentioned anywhere in your blog.
Thanks for your comment Geoff. If you read our review we didn’t finish the walk, we only walked for one kilometre before it was too much for Sarah and her disability. On our home age we are careful to describe Sarah’s walking speed and her mobility as this affects how far we walk when we go out. Often we never “Finish” a walk in it’s entirety. We are also very careful not to suggest how far others may be or may not be able to walk as everyone has differing abilities. Where we can put distances we do but this just isn’t always possible or realistic for a lot of people. It is our aim to show if somewhere is accessible for those with less mobility and then they can go as far as they can or wish rather than trying to hit a target. Where we start walks that feature in full on other websites such as Walk Highlands or Forestry Scotland we always put links back or add a photo of an information board with a map. The Skriaig Mast Walk sadly isn’t really covered anywhere else. Sorry not to be more help but what we haven’t achieved we are in no place to blog about.