Glenbrittle

Glenbrittle (Gaelic: Gleann Breadail) is a remote area of Skye. It is most useful as a base for walking and climbing the Black Cuillin, including the famous "Inaccessible Pinnacle".

Get in

See Skye for long distance transport options.

You need your own wheels to get here, follow A87 to Sligachan (15 miles away) then take the road west towards Carbost, eventually turning onto the little lane south to Glenbrittle. The nearest regular bus route is through Sligachan; an occasional school bus reaches Carbost.

Get around

Walk, but in summer your gait will degenerate into a mad hip-hop dance as you flail away at the midges.

See

• 1 Fairy Pools are a series of pools carved out by the flow of the River Brittle — swim in them if you can stand the cold. They're reached by an easy, 2-mile return hike from the main car park, £5 / vehicle. If you begrudge that, there's a free car park half a mile north.
• 2 Glenbrittle Falls are the less touristy version, reached by a short walk from the Hostel.
• 3 Eas Mòr waterfall are the third falls, to complete your set. They're a 47-m drop into the gorge east of Glen Brittle House.
• 4 Rubha an Dùnain is a peninsula, now unhabited, with evidence of dwelling from the Mesolithic period. The most remarkable findings date from around 1100 AD: the Vikings canalised the 100-yard stream from Loch na h-Airde to the sea and converted the loch into a dock-pool with constant water level.

Do

• Go walking and climbing in the Black Cuillin. Sgùrr Dearg is a 5-mile, 7-hour hike; no difficult climbing involved but the way is sometimes unclear. This brings you to 978 m, but it's topped by the In Pinn, the well-named "inaccessible pinnacle" reaching 986 m. This requires rock climbing skills and gear to scale, the only "Munro" to do so. Not until 1880 was it climbed, being described as "a knife-edged ridge, with an overhanging and infinite drop on one side, and a drop on the other side even steeper and longer".
• Relax on the shingle beach.

Buy

The Inaccessible Pinnacle

There's a small shop at the campsite.

Eat and drink

There's a cafe at the campsite.

Sleep

• 1 Glenbrittle Youth Hostel, Glenbrittle IV47 8TA, ☏ +44 1478 640278. Check-in: 5PM, check-out: 10AM. Open April-Sept, this is a basic hostel, but friendly and clean with good cooking facilities. Bunk £26 ppn. (updated Jun 2024)
• 2 Glenbrittle Campsite, ☏ +44 1478 640404. Open April-September, a basic camping and caravan site at the end of the road - it's run by Dunvegan Castle. No booking for unpowered grass pitches. Reception, shop and cafe open daily 8AM-8PM. Adult £13 ppn, hook-up £11. (updated Jun 2024)

Connect

As of June 2024, you keep the 4G signal from EE, O2 and Vodafone for a few miles along the lane south from Carbost, but it dies before you reach Glenbrittle. No signal from Three.

Go next

The lane loops back to Carbost. From there you either head northwest for Dunvegan, or east to Sligachan for the rest of Skye.