The Isle of Raasay & Duncaan

5 August 2008 - a glorious Summer Day
Start: OS Explorer 409 GR554341; Raasay Pier at Suisnish off the ferry!
(Walk 27 in The Jarrold Pathfinder Guide - Skye and the North West Highlands)

Set off: 0930 ferry - Check current ferry times
Return: 1630 ferry
Duration: 7hrs. Distance: 16km
Total Height Climbed: 443m

Note hill walking can be dangerous and this route is very long, these details are for info only.

I really enjoyed this long walk with Steve and Arabella (my human sister!) as we started off with a great trip over on the ferry having left the car at Sconser. It's only about 15 minutes but nice to watch the water and birds! From the pier you head north to Inverarish along the coast with lovely views back over to Skye. In the village you turn left (keep on up if you want to visit the shop but check if it's open) past the play park then up past the school and a few houses - we saw a Golden Eagle over the woods behind some of the houses. Keep on the road past the church and hotel towards Raasay House - burned down in 2009 - where the road goes right then left behind Raasay House and past a lovely old church yard and a picturesque cottage and carries on north. They have been building the new pier in front of Raasay House for some time so in the future, this would be your start point. Follow the road past this Pictish Stone and along this tree lined avenue! Keep on going and you'll emerge from the trees with some lovely views across the water to Camastianavaig and the peak of Ben Tianavaig on Skye. The sea was lovely and blue the day we went which you'll see lower down - almost tempting enough for a swim but we didn't!

You carry along the road until you reach Holoman Island which was an island as the tide was in. Just around here the road heads inland slightly and starts to rise away from the coast before you double back and continue rising once more before another double back left at the junction. You head up over the hill and down to the dip across the burn before another rise up to a layby with a bench and a clear path heading off right sign posted to Duncaan. Ah the joys of a day out as we rested here for a cup of tea (well, I had some water) and a bite to eat. I tried the dog food but it was nowhere near as good as the crisps and sandwiches. Suitably refreshed we took a photo across to Portree Bay as shown here next to the lovely blue waters seen prior to lunch!
From here we headed along the sign posted path which was very good and easy to follow as it rises steadily for the next 1.5-2km when you eventually spot Duncaan before you reach the first lochan prior to a steepish drop down to another lochan at the dip before the steep path up onto Duncaan. It is a steep but short rise up onto the flat top of Duncaan where there is fantastic views all around on a clear day! Just be aware that it is a pretty steep drop off the other side as shown below! We found a nice spot to eat lunch and soak up the views all round and fabulous they were too! There were quite a few people here too despite us not seeing many others on the way. An added bonus with this walk is that there is actually a Geocaching Cache hidden on top of Duncaan and this was our fourth cache and the second on Raasay! So once we were fed and watered, Arabella went first to look for it. We decided she'd look for a couple of minutes then Steve'd have a go. Unfair if I looked as my nose would find anything (unless distracted by the sound of an opening tupperware container which I have to say did distract me here - in fact, the chap stood next to the top in the photo opened his and I was there in a flash doing my best 'sit' and 'never get fed' eyes but Steve saw me and called me back!) Well blow me if she didn't find it within 10 seconds, we'd been sat about 5 foot away from it having lunch! If I hadn't seen her complain so much on the way up, I'd have said she'd been here before! So another cache ticked off, another lunch (sandwiches of course) ticked off and it was time to head back to the ferry.
To complete the circuit we re-traced our steps back down to the lower loch then up the other side for a wee dip of the toes, water bottle refill (for me) and a splash around! From here we headed south along the ridge towards Loch na Mna then swung right and dropped down to the river picking up a path which we pretty much followed all the way down to the trees. You follow a high fence then over a stile and down a steepish path to meet the forest track - the Pathfinder book description went a bit awry here but it is fairly straight forward. Turn left on the track and you follow this all the way to the old mine and a huge ravine which means a down and up where you can marvel at the pillars left from the old railway line built by prisoners of war. The path takes you through some more trees and out into a field where Skye comes into view again and the final stretch with perhaps sheep, rabbits and the odd eagle to distract you from the long distance you've travelled. You finally drop down to the ferry pier (note in future when the new pier is open you'll have the walk back along the road to Inverarish). A long old day but most enjoyable!