Sgurr Dearg: The Inaccessible Pinnacle (986m), Isle of Skye, Scotland
This is a lively story capturing the emotions involved in scaling the trickiest Munro in Scotland: The Inaccessible Pinnacle. It requires rock climbing skills and a cool head, and it's often one of the last summits which Munro-baggers ascend, helped by a rock-climbing friend or guide.
Colin Wilson wrote this account of the climb to a friend and fellow climber, and has agreed that it can be published on Walking Stories for the interest of other walkers.
As if the rock climbing wasn't tricky enough, Colin points out that a compass doesn't work on the Cuillins due to the magnetic qualities of the gabbro rock, so unless you have an intimate knowledge of the complex routes you could have difficulties if you have to descend in cloud
Contributed by: Colin Wilson
NB - the Munros are the Scottish peaks over 3000 feet first listed in Munro's Tables in 1891 by Sir Hugh Munro, one of the original members of the Scottish Mountaineering Club.
The first person to climb all of the Munros was the Reverend A E Robertson in 1901, although in the first list the Inaccessible Pinnacle was listed as a "top", not a Munro in its own right (a number of criteria were used to assess which was a genuine summit, and which was merely a "top"). Since then there have been some revisions to the list, so there are now 284 regarded as Munros.
Every year, thousands of walkers are ticking off the names of mountains listed as Munros, attempting to complete them all, and over 1500 have now done so.
Key Facts
| Location | East of Glen Brittle House, Black Cuillin Mountains, Isle of Skye |
| Date walked | Summer 2005 |
| Walk type | High hills and mountain hikes |
| Difficulty | Requires mountaineering skills and climbing equipment |
| Distance | 5 miles / 8 km |
| Height climbed | 3000 ft / 920 m |
| Time taken | 0 hrs 0 mins |
| Map used | Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 sheet no 32 |
| Walk source info | Covered in many Scottish climbing books |
| Getting there | A road bridge now connects the island to the mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh, which can be reached by train from Inverness |
| Places to stay | Youth hostel in Glen Brittle, wide range of accommodation on the Island |
| Disabled access | No |
