| Altitude | 997 Feet |
| Trail Conditions | Well defined trail for first half, followed by a Quad Bike trail then off trail up hill. |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Experience | 9/10 |
| Est. Time | 2-3 hours |
| Distance | 4-5 Miles |
| Starting Location | Navigate towards Struan, then follow small road back up the valley to Totardor. Follow the southern road to Totardor until you come to a farm house with a stile beside a gate to your right. |
The Walk
This trail starts in the farmstead of Totardor, a short drive or walk to the North-East of Struan, following the river up the valley on the southern single track road eventually leads you to a gate with a large stile off to the right-hand side. Shortly before it there is a quarried area with space for a car or two.
Once you’re over the stile, there’s a very pleasant walk through the valley on an estate track for a little over a mile which brings you within view of Loch Duagrich, from here there are three potential routes, two of which we attempted on the day. The first is to continue following the path towards Loch Duagrich, where the path begins to fade the closer to the Loch you get. Once you reach another stile, instead of crossing over the fence, go south so that you’re skirting the bottom of Loch Duagrich, this will require crossing over a fence with no stile.
Once you’re directly above the Trig Point as shown on the map above, start to cut directly up the mountain through bushes and often marshy ground, once you’re just above the woodline to your right the ground starts to firm up. This final summit is not easy by any means and will require you to plan ahead to avoid steep escarpments.
The other route is via a rusted gate off to the right of the path, with a visible Quad Bike trail which leads you on a winding journey up Beinn Sheilg via the Duagrich Burn. The trail can be followed until you’re above the forrestry at which point you cut back across the burn, cross over a deer fence and then follow the Ben Duagrich ridgeline across to the Trig Point.
I would personally recommend the northern route via the Loch, however the final summit is difficult, whereas the quad trail is easier but also can be rather difficult due to boggy conditions.
It would also be possible to cut directly through the forrestry, which if I was to return to this walk I’d likely try. This does require scaling at least 2 deer fences and would lead to a similar slimb as the northern route.
The Trig Point is on a small raised grass mound on a plateu stretching quite a distance in most directions. From the Trig Point you have very clear views in every direction, including the Glenmore valley in the East, the Cuillins to the South, the island of Wiay and Idrigill around Loch Bracadale to the West and Borve to the North.
This is by far one of the more scenic locations I have come across during my travels on Skye and I would strongly suggest taking a short walk north from the Trig Point to view the entirety of Loch Duagrich.
The return journey to the starting gate is significantly easier, I would recommend going directly North down the face of the hill towards the Loch, being careful to plan your route ahead to avoid and large drops.
History of the Local Area
Bracadale (Norse for “Place where townships meet”) which is just before Totardor and which you pass through to access the Glen Bracadale valley when travelling towards the Loch, was established in the 1770s, due to its ‘unspeakably secure’ access via Loch Bracadale which forms one of the largest areas of semi-enclosed inshore waters around the entirety of the Skye coast.
The people of Bracadale were also once considered to be endowed with the faculty of “second sight”, or psychic powers which was mentioned in an extract from The National Gazetteer, 1868.
The Skye 56 
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