Cuillin

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Sgurr nan Gillean and the Pinnacle Ridge from Basteir gorge

This article is about the Cuillin of Skye. See Rùm for the Cuillin of Rùm.

The Cuillin are a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. These are divided, visually and geologically into two distinct groups, the Red Cuillin and the Black Cuillin. The Red Cuillin are lower and, being less rocky, have fewer scrambles or climbs. Generally they receive less attention than their higher neighbours, and consequently the word Cuillin without a colour prefixed is often taken to mean the Black Cuillin.

The highest point of the Cuillin, and indeed the Isle of Skye, is Sgurr Alasdair in the Black Cuillin.

1 Black Cuillin
2 Red Cuillin
3 Major peaks
4 External links

[edit] Black Cuillin

The Black Cuillin are mainly composed of basalt and gabbro, the latter being a very rough rock which makes for superb grip for mountaineers. It is from the dark colour of the gabbro that the Black Cuillin receive their name. The summits of the Black Cuillin are bare rock, jagged in outline and with many steep cliffs and deep cut corries and gullies. All twelve Munros on Skye are Black Cuillin peaks, though one of them, Blaven, is part of a group of outliers separated from the main ridge by Glen Sligachan.

The Black Cuillin are the most challenging hills in the British Isles, although the careful scrambler can access most of the individual peaks by their easiest routes. Only the Inaccessible Pinnacle is a graded rock climb by its simplest line but several of the other summits require rock climbing skills in order to ascend in safety.

In addition to climbing individual peaks and routes on the range, there is the challenge of a full traverse of the ridge. Although only 7 miles in length, the average traverse is likely to take 15-20 hours from sea level at Glenbrittle to the bar of the Sligachan Hotel owing to the difficulty of the terrain and route finding problems. The current record for the full traverse, held by fell-runner Andy Hyslop, stands at around 3 1/2 hours.

A further complication is the lack of any source of water on the ridge itself, meaning all water has to be carried in order to avoid any extra descent (and the consequent re-ascent).

In many ways, the ultimate mountaineering experience of the UK is the full traverse under winter conditions. Sadly the isle’s position in the warm Gulf Stream makes genuine winter conditions rare. The Cuillins are perhaps the only range in the United Kingdom to approach in sheer jagged rawness (though not of course in height) the mountain experience of such ranges as the Alps or Rockies.

[edit] Red Cuillin

Marsco in the Red Cuillin

The Red Cuillin are mainly composed of granitic rock which is paler than the gabbro (with a reddish tinge from some angles in some lights) and has weathered into more rounded hills with vegetation cover to summit level and many long screes slopes on their flanks. The highest point of the Red Cuillin is Glamaig, one of only two Corbetts on Skye (the other being Garbh-bheinn, part of the small group of gabbro outliers surrounding Blaven).

[edit] Major peaks

Here are listed the Munros, Corbetts and Grahams of the Cuillin.

	Peak	Absolute height (m)	Relative height (m)	Cuillin
1	Sgurr Alasdair	992	992	Black
2	Inaccessible Pinnacle - Sgurr Dearg	986	182	Black
3	Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh	973	c. 123	Black
4	Sgurr na Banachdich	965	c. 114	Black
5	Sgurr nan Gillean	964	c. 204	Black
6	Bruach na Frithe	958	c. 125	Black
7	Sgurr Mhic Choinnich	948	c.56	Black
8	Sgurr Dubh Mor	944	c. 89	Black
9	Am Basteir	934	c. 55	Black
10	Bla Bheinn - Blaven	928	301	Outlier
11	Sgurr nan Eag	924	c. 127	Black
12	Sgurr a' Mhadaidh	918	c. 71	Black
13	Garbh-bheinn	808	172	Outlier (Blaven group)
14	Glamaig	775	c. 480	Red
15	Marsco	736	413	Red
16	Beinn Dearg Mhor	731	152	Red
17	Belig	702	246	Outlier (Blaven group)