Isle of Skye: MacLeod's Maidens EarthCache
Isle of Skye: MacLeod's Maidens
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The sea stacks known as Macleod's Maidens are a wonderful and natural phenomenon of the Isle of Skye, distinctive and alluring, and all the better for being at the end of a lengthy, but hugely agreeable, access walk.
This cache is created with the consent of the Orbost Estate.
The stacks lie off Idrigill Point, at the entrance to Loch Bracadale. They derive their name from the tradition that after a 14th-century Chief of the Clan MacLeod had been mortally wounded in a battle in Harris, his wife and daughters were shipwrecked and drowned on this spot while returning to their ancestral home at Dunvegan.
Legendary Skye-writer Otta Swire, who used to live at Orbost House, close by the starting point for the walk, offers another description:
"The Maidens themselves are three great rocks rising up out of the sea, a mother and her two daughters. At their feet the mermaids sit and comb their hair: very few see them but many hear their soft, unforgettable singing. Once a man lay long on the cliff top, watching the kites circling overhead and listening to the hum of the bees. Slowly the hum changed to a mermaid's song and he looked down and saw a mermaid and three seals on the rocks below. Somehow he got down the cliff unseen and caught, not the mermaid but one seal, a half-grown calf; as he held it the water round him boiled as with fish and out of it rose the heads of many mermaids. The one whom he had seen on the rocks still had a comb in her hand. She called to him and bade him release the baby seal and she would reward him. He agreed and asked for her golden comb as a reward. This she refused, but offered him instead three wishes, which offer he accepted but got no good of the wishes. One never does.
The largest of the Maidens, in shape and general appearance, is not unlike the statues of Queen Victoria seated when seen from the sea. She is the Mother (Nic Cleosgeir Mhor) and is said to be perpetually weaving, while one daughter fulls or thickens and the other does nothing at all. Perhaps they are shadows of the old Norse Fates, the Nornir, two of whom spun the threads which are the lives of men, but the third did nothing except cut them when she chose, for she is blind."
Sir Walter Scott referred to these mighty rock formations as "The Choosers of the Slain" and "The Riders on the Storm", and suggests that he may have been aware of a tradition connecting this region of Skye with the Norse Valkyries, or Choosers of the Slain.
The formation of sea stacks
A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, isolated by erosion. Stacks are formed through processes of coastal geomorphology, which are entirely natural. They are formed when part of a headland is eroded by hydraulic action, which is the force of the sea or water crashing against the rock. The force of the water weakens cracks in the headland, causing them to later collapse, forming free-standing stacks and even a small island. Without the constant presence of water, stacks also form when a natural arch collapses under gravity, due to sub-aerial processes like wind erosion.
Stacks typically form in horizontally bedded sedimentary or volcanic rocks particularly on limestone cliffs. These rock types' medium hardness means medium resistance to erosion. A more resistant layer may form a capstone.
In some parts of Britain, stacks are created by the collapse of a natural arch, or bridge, such as can be found at the Carsaig Arches on the island of Mull (GC26GCX). Most natural arches of this type are erosion features that occur in massive, horizontally bedded sandstone or limestone. Some bridges are formed by the collapse of a cavern’s roof that may leave remnant portions as bridges. Others may be produced by entrenched rivers eroding through meander necks to form cutoffs. Still others are produced by exfoliation and may be enlarged by wind erosion. This particular form of process usually begins when the sea attacks small cracks in a headland and opens them. The cracks then gradually get larger and turn into a small cave. When the cave wears through the headland, an arch forms. Further erosion causes the arch to collapse, leaving the pillar of hard rock standing away from the coast - the stack. Eventually, erosion will cause the stack to collapse, leaving a stump. This stump is usually a small rock island, small enough to be submerged by high tide.
To claim this cache, please answer the following questions:
(a) Since sea stacks are formed either by erosion of coastal landform or from a collapsed natural bridge. What is your assessment of the way MacLeod's Maidens were formed?
(b) What is your estimate of the height of the principal stack?
(c) What do you identify as the principal rock form associated with MacLeod's Maidens and the adjacent cliffs?
(d) What three elements do you think were responsible for the formation of the stacks?
Getting to MacLeod's Maidens
The 16km/10-mile return walk to Macleod’s Maidens is a Skye classic, along a clear trail/path all the way until the final half mile. The terrain is fairly gentle throughout, although the path does rise and fall twice in each direction. By the end of the walk you will have climbed around 540m/1770 ft in total. Bear in mind that when you reach Idrigill Point you will be 5 miles from the nearest road; a long way in an emergency.
There is space to park at Orbost Farm (NG257431), but please do so considerately. The first section of the walk is on a rough surfaced road that runs to the edge of Loch Bharcasaig. The road moves onwards into the forests of the Orbost Estate before emerging from the trees into an area where the forest has been clear-felled. A short way on, it fords the Forse Burn and continues as a footpath up the slopes ahead.
The route is packed with interest throughout, and a number of recent new caches. Stunning views, beautiful burns, deserted villages at Brandarsaig and Idrigill, and the chance of spotting a sea eagle or deer en route.
Approaching the point, the most obvious path swings west (right) to head up the coast towards Lorgill. To reach the Maidens, go left along your choice of the many sheep tracks, aiming to reach the cliff edge at around the head of Geodha nan Daoine. Then you can follow the edge (very carefully!) until the Maidens come into sight. The best views of the stacks are from either before or beyond the point itself. From directly above you do not get a good sense of the scale, or, for that matter, a decent view.
There are plenty of rocky perches where you can sit and take in the view (or a picnic) before heading back the way you came, which loses nothing for being the same route in reverse.
Additional Hints
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