We had two days to round off Jake’s week-long whistle-stop tour of the finest climbing in Scotland. After visits to the Cairngorms (Creag An Dubh Loch) and The Ben, an island experience seemed the ideal complement, so we set off “over the sea (or rather bridge) to Skye”.

First stop was an idyllic carb-replenishment in the car park of the Broadford CoOp (highly recommended! Every Thursday apparently)

Stunning views over the Cuillin looked to guarantee the weather for the following day…

… so we settled into the newly refurbished John Muir Trust car park at the foot of Bla Bheinn (Text SKYE to 70085 to give £5) with the plan to climb The Prow in the morning. The weather had other plans, and we awoke a bit dismayed to find the summit shrouded in thick cloud, and the van engulfed in an even thicker cloud of midges.

Time for a rethink and a reminder from the previous week that there’s a whole guidebook to Skye covering just the Seacliffs and Outcrops

Skye Seacliffs

Whilst Neist Point and Kilt Rock (each dangling the temptation of more Extreme Rock ticks) would both have been options, Suidhe Biorach at Elgol was just 20 minutes away and promised its own trove of 4* fare.

Suidhe Biorach – Climbing OVER the Sea ON Skye

A flat, 15mins walk, with an impressive backdrop of the Cuillin, gets you to this set of small but stunning seacliffs.

The best rap point is down the obvious corner of the classic Jamie Jampot, VS at 57.134551° N 06.108176° W

The stunning square-cut arete on the skyline is the line of the 3* E2 5b, Veritas Splendour via the Pure Splendour Start. This tiptoes up through the lichen (actually not a problem even though it looks like a green carpet) up the curving lip onto the arete, and then climbs this in outrageously exposed positions.

This was a gentle warm up for Jake’s effort on Mother’s Pride, a 4* E4 5c, which takes a staggeringly steep line up a leaning prow, with equally staggering jugs. It must overhang more than 5m in its 30m length, leaving you way out in space by the end. Utterly awesome!

Having cruised this, Jake’s appetite for ridiculously steep seaside sandstone was whetted, and we rapped in again for “a look” at Rapid Learning Curve, E6 6b, another 4* extravaganza. “A Look” turned into “A Try” and Jake headed upwards and outwards over the first of three increasingly difficult rooves…

… and there’s even a no-hands rest after the second, which is just as well because the 3rd is a monster.

Much heal-hookery and some cut-loose heroics at the lip saw Jake triumphantly established on a very green and fury headwall. Here’s Jake’s UKC logbook account:

“Moving through that final roof is wild! Perfect onsight candidate with good gear and fairly obvious climbing, glad I felt brave enough to try it because it looks so intimidating from below. Forced to move out right into the crack higher up by the unclimbable carpet of lichen on the headwall.” with Dad.

A pretty cool-headed E6 onsight!

The “with Dad” was a bit charitable – I made it over the first two rooves, and to the lip of the third, but 6b is usually beyond me, and especially if my feet are dangling in space. Soon after, it wasn’t just my feet that were dangling. I’d had the foresight to rig a prussik loop and my auto-locking belay device onto one of the ropes before setting out, but looking down I judged that lowering off would just about land me on dry land provided I got a bit of a swing going. The comical intervention of a well-meaning but ignorant German tourist from the opposite clifftop: “There’s a crack to the right” (about 10 ft to the right – great if you’re a fan of Arnie in Cliffhanger but not much help if Issac Newton is more your type) made my mind up. I got Jake to lower me slowly towards the briny (having taken my shoes off and rolled up my trousers as a precaution). Inch perfect and no drama, I soloed out up the ab line.

Back at the van we’d intended to spend the night under Bla Bheinn but the view of the Cuillin from the harbor parking was simply jaw-dropping so we settled in for the evening.

No problem with clag the next day so we were back on for The Great Prow.

You get a decent view from the car park

It really is a Great Prow, jutting out proudly towards Clach Glas, this 100m tall monolith is worthy of the “G” word.

Top tip, as per the guidebook, is to take the regular tourist path which takes a big zigzag into Fionna-Choire, then zags back to arrive at the top of the descent gully (Scupper Gully) rather than directly up from below which looks like a scree nightmare. More like 2hrs than the 1:15 suggested in the guide, but a gorgeous walk in its own right. Here’s what you are looking for at the top of the descent gully (gear up and leave your bags here). 57.219419° N 06.085798° W

The descent is easier than it looks and you really get a good idea of the scale of the Prow from below:

The initial P1 chimney is very traditional (try to avoid getting sucked into its depths!) as is the continuation P2 crack. Both made much more enjoyable by the excellent Gabbro friction and (for us at least) the dry rock. The official P2 stance is an imposing plinth, overlooking the gully, which is a great spot to sunbathe but actually takes you quite a way off route as you end up dropping back down to traverse twin diagonal cracks. It makes for a good photo vantage point though.

With a bit of careful ropework you can run P3&4 together, and we were back basking on the sunny summit about 90mins after setting off, gazing over at a procession of people on the Clach Glas – Bla Bheinn Traverse (I never even knew it was a thing!) We both thought the 2* in the guidebook was a bit curmudgeonly – worthy of 3*.

Much to my surprise, Jake suggested that we press on to the top of Bla Bheinn for the full Munro tick, which turned out to be a great plan – the views over the Black Cuillin were absolutely stunning.

We looped back over the subsidiary summit for the circuit and a very satisfying day. Jake couldn’t resist a spot of bouldering to top it off:

A great end to a pretty busy week, and you couldn’t ask for two more contrasting days! Our three Hard Rock ticks leave me with just four and a quarter to go and we also picked up 3 Extreme Rock ticks, about 36 E-points, around 1,200m of climbing, another 3,000m of ascent and approaching 30 miles walking. Time for a rest day!