Isle of Skye Quiraing
The Quiraing is the finest section of the Trotternish landslide landscape on the northern Isle of Skye, a complex of tilted rock pinnacles, grassy terraces and dramatic basalt cliffs created by the same geological instability that produced the Old Man of Storr further south, but at the Quiraing reaching a scale and complexity of landscape quite unlike anything else available in Britain. The combination of the Table, a great flat-topped grassy platform visible from the road below, the Needle pinnacle, the Prison and the extraordinary views from the ridge walk above creates one of the most remarkable and most otherworldly landscape experiences in the Hebrides.
The landslide that created the Quiraing is still active, the instability of the Jurassic rocks beneath the basalt cap allowing continued movement that has disrupted the road across the ridge at this point on multiple occasions. The road from Staffin to Uig that crosses the ridge provides a dramatic view of the Quiraing landscape and the starting point for the walks into the interior of the landslide complex.
The walk from the car park on the ridge road into the Quiraing provides access to the most dramatic features, the path threading between the tilted rock masses and ascending to the Table with its surprising hidden grassland enclosed between the pinnacles above. The views from the ridge above the Quiraing across the Sound of Raasay to the mainland and north across the Minch toward the Outer Hebrides represent some of the finest coastal mountain panoramas available in Scotland.