On the Sgurr nan Gillean side of Knight's Peak a subsidiary gully runs upward for a considerable distance, containing moderately easy climbing over slabby water-worn rock, and then sends off a fork to the left. Beyond the lower end of the fork the gully vanishes on easy ground, but higher has a continuation in a series of steep chimneys, the lowest of which is difficult. These give out on the ordinary route used when traversing the Pinnacle Ridge.

At the bottom of this subsidiary gully is a rounded boulder jammed between the walls. A few feet below it a shallow groove starts up the wall of Knight's Peak, and this affords the pleasantest introduction to the ascent from the corrie. The rocks are steep, but are of firm gabbro, and give excellent sport for 80 feet or so until a grass ledge is reached.

In trying to get across to the left to the nose of the ridge, we found the ledge trended downward and ceased below some overhanging rocks. Retracing our steps, the groove was followed upward for about 60 feet to another well-marked ledge. This continued right round and brought us out on a rock-platform immediately above the vertical sweep of the lowest rampart, where a small cairn. was erected.

Two stretches of steep face climbing then took us upward to a spacious plateau, where an endless choice of routes presented themselves. This place can be reached from the gully between the Third Pinnacle and Knight's Peak by way of a long slab, but the route described is the better of the two. We selected a chimney in the middle of the but

tress, which contained such a profusion of holds as quite to embarrass one, and soon attained the narrow upper ridge. Here the rock fell away somewhat from the strictest paths of rectitude, but afforded excellent sport, until the top of the Peak was gained.

Messrs. Stocker and Parker recorded their ascent of this west face of Knight's Peak as long since as 1886, but it is probable that the first ascent was made prior to that date.

The Gully between the Third Pinnacle and Knight's Peak.-Messrs. Lamb, Tattersall, Bowron, and Heap climbed this gully in June 1905. Probably no climb in the Coolin has so persistently turned back strong parties.

Being so near Sligachan and so seductive-looking withal, it is not surprising that nearly every visitor with pretensions to rock-craft should have wandered into its shades. A record of the names of those who tried it and were wise enough to turn back would serve no useful purpose, and might, by the uninitiated, be construed into a reflection. upon the ability of those climbers. As a matter of fact, the chief difficulty is a vertical dyke of very rotten rock, overhanging a pitch about 100 feet in height. "A robust faith in shaky-looking holds seems to be one of the main qualifications for a successful ascent. Everything considered, it is not the sort of climb one would care to repeat.' Thus one of the successful party summarises his impressions of the place.

After reading his account,' I felt that a descent on a rope from above would be, to say the least of 1 Rucksack Club Report, November 1905.

it, desirable, before seriously attempting a repetition of their ascent. In accordance with this idea, I prevailed one day upon a lusty friend to accompany me over the Third Pinnacle and down to the top of the difficult pitch. Little was to be gained by climbing down the rotten dyke, so I swung down hand over hand on the rope until I reached a narrow ledge on the face of the vertical cliff. The ledge continued along for a few feet, and led into a cave under the top jammed boulder. This is not particularly difficult of attainment from below, and it is at this place that most of the unsuccessful parties have turned back. I then returned along the ledge to the foot of the dyke and attempted to climb upward. All one's energies could be concentrated on the actual ascent; the rope held from above neutralised the usual disturbing elements, such as the exposed nature of the place, the penalty of using unstable holds, and so on. But even so, that stretch of 15 feet was most disagreeable, and more than once reliance had to be placed on blocks of rock which quivered appreciably.

Like the above writer, I have no desire to repeat the ascent, even with a rope held from above; and this is not the feeling usually engendered by a good climb. In short, it is the kind of place that even the very finest climber who ever shed skin on gabbro might climb one day and fall off the next. Too few "exceptionally severe courses have been recorded in Skye, and it is with great reluctance that I omit one of them from the list; but the gully under consideration must be placed sui generis, a decision in which the leader of the successful party

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(and all credit to them for an unusually daring bit of climbing!) entirely concurs.

The Eagle's Nest Crag.-The ultra-gymnast who goes to Sligachan "trained to the last ounce and haps upon bad weather will ofttimes be hard put to it to keep himself in condition, for the dearth of good boulders upon which to expend his energy is little short of astonishing.

In the exuberance of his spirits he has pulled most of the lime off the pillars that uphold the bridge, and, when he has not prematurely dropped off into the stream, has climbed their steep sides. He has even descended to feats of strength on a rope slung from the rafters in the smoke-room; and then, tiring of this, a tentative reference to the climbers' book has almost tempted him, in his desperation, to try to outvie the feat of a certain Gurkha who once ran to the top of Glamaig and back in fifty-five minutes-a performance which is duly recorded therein.

Did he but know it, a better way of spending his time would be to pay a visit to the Eagle's Nest Crag. This is situated on the lowest spur of the famous Pinnacle Ridge, a short half-hour's walk from the inn. Almost in the centre of the crag is a black, deeply-cut gully, which contains, near its top, a 60-foot chock-stone pitch. Seen from the moor this looks very stiff, but a scramble up the mossy bed of the gully into the cave below it discloses a "through-route," which renders the pitch fairly easy. After the climber has emerged from this, a stiff climb of 30 feet or so up the right

1 See outline drawing facing p. 5.

wall will prove more interesting even than destroying other people's bridges.

To the left of this gully a wide tongue of steep grass runs upward into a rocky corner, in which are two or three really good chimneys.

Further eastward still is a long shallow gully, which contains, besides much heather and long grass, a decent amount of entertaining climbing.