The Bad Step Walk Isle of Skye

Somebody at the pier at Elgol asks about the Bad Step most weeks between April and October. Sometimes it is a walker in stiff boots looking for a route report from someone who has done it. More often it is a couple in trainers on a day trip who have read the phrase in a guidebook and want to know if they can add it to the afternoon.

The gap between those two conversations is the reason for this piece. The Bad Step is a real feature, a real obstacle, and a real thing that has put walkers in the sea. It is not the Cuillin ridge. It is also not a walk. It sits between the two.

Coruisk House is in Elgol, a mile from the pier and at the start of the coastal route that some walkers use to reach the Bad Step. Over fifteen years of guests coming through the door, we have heard the account of the crossing hundreds of times, from many different walkers, in many different weathers. This is that picture. Everything below is the honest answer to the questions that come up before people commit.

What the Bad Step actually is

The Bad Step is a short section of the coastal path between Camasunary Bay and Loch Coruisk on the south-west coast of the Isle of Skye. The path along that stretch of coast runs on a shelf above the sea, with Loch Scavaig below on the left and steep broken ground on the right. About two kilometres before the path reaches Loch Coruisk, the shelf ends. The way forward is a sloping slab of gabbro rock that drops directly into the sea.

The slab is roughly ten to fifteen metres long. It leans at about thirty to forty-five degrees from horizontal, with the low edge in the water. There is a natural crack running diagonally up across the lower third of the slab, and an overhanging lip along the top edge that runs the length of the section. You cross it by placing your feet along the crack, gripping the lip with both hands, and side-stepping across.

In mountaineering language, the crossing is rated as a Grade 1 to low Grade 2 scramble. That is the lowest formal grade of scrambling: a level below what most people would call rock climbing, but a level above pure walking. The physical moves involved are simple. On a flat pavement, a fit adult would step across them without a thought.

The sea is what makes this a slightly more memorable, for some nerve wracking endeavour.

At high tide, the foot crack sits about four and a half metres (fifteen feet) above the water. At low tide there is more air below you. There are no trees, no ledges, no scree to break a fall. A slip drops directly into cold, deep sea water in a bay. This is not the ridge. It is not knife-edge exposure. But it is exposure with nothing under you, and that can raise the stakes a little

Most walkers who have done any scrambling before find the Bad Step manageable. Most walkers who have not are shocked by how much the drop matters to them once they are standing at the edge of it. 

Where it is on a map

The Bad Step sits at OS grid reference NG 502 192 on OS Landranger 32 (South Skye) or OS Explorer 411 (Cuillin Hills). It is about ten kilometres north-west of Elgol harbour by the coast path. The whole coastal shelf from Camasunary west is exposed, and no road comes within four miles of it in any direction.

Once you are past Camasunary heading west, there is very little – if any – mobile signal. There is no shelter, no path signage, no rescue point, no phone box, and no way out other than the way you came in or the boat at Loch Coruisk if the sea is calm enough for it to run. Many guests plan to walk one way and take a boat the other, but you must reach out to the boat operators to arrange the sea leg.

The four ways to arrive at the Bad Step

There are only four sensible ways to put yourself in front of the Bad Step. Each has a different profile.

One. From Elgol along the coast. The rough coastal path north-west from Elgol harbour reaches Camasunary in about five kilometres, then the further walk out to the Bad Step in another four. It is a beautiful walk in dry weather and a soggy one in wet. The section between Camasunary and the Bad Step is where the drop-offs are, and it is not a route to attempt when the rock is wet or the wind is high. Total distance to the Bad Step is around nine to ten kilometres, so eighteen to twenty return.

Two. From Kirkibost car park over Am Màm to Camasunary. This is often the standard trade route. Park at the Kirkibost car park on the B8083, four miles up the road from Elgol village. Walk over the low Am Màm pass on a broad 4×4 track, drop into Camasunary, and continue west along the coast to the Bad Step. Total distance to the Bad Step from the car is around eight to nine kilometres one way. This is the route most walkers take, because the Am Màm section is stable and quick and the exposed coastal ground is confined to the last stretch. Return is the same way.

Three. Boat out, walk back. Take Bella Jane or the Misty Isle from Elgol pier in the morning as a one-way walker fare, land at the jetty on Loch Coruisk, then walk south-east back to the Bad Step, across it, along the coast to Camasunary, and out over Am Màm to Kirkibost. Around ten kilometres of walking from the jetty to Kirkibost car park, with the Bad Step crossed once, in the easier direction. Both operators sell one-way walker fares and are used to walkers doing exactly this. Book ahead in season.

Four. Sligachan through to Kirkibost. The end-to-end walk over Druim Hain and past Loch Coruisk from the Sligachan Hotel, out via the Bad Step to Camasunary and over Am Màm to Kirkibost. This is a twenty-four kilometre day on rough boggy ground, longer than the distance suggests, and needs a car shuttle or a taxi at the end. Serious walkers only. You can also choose to go there or back the Sligachan route if you have a driver or friend waiting to collect you. 

Any of these routes that starts and ends at the same place requires crossing the Bad Step twice. Only the one-way boat-and-walk configuration crosses it once.

Is one direction easier than the other?

Yes. Walking east to west across the slab, which is the direction you cross if you have come by boat and are walking back to Elgol via Camasunary, is noticeably more straightforward than the other way. The foot crack slopes gently downward ahead of you, so you can see your foot placements as you commit to them. Going the other way, west to east, you are side-stepping slightly upward with your leading foot feeling for the crack behind you.

If you are nervous, and you are doing an out-and-back rather than a one-way, this is one reason to build the boat option into the plan. The boat-and-walk gives you the crossing once, which for some may be more than enough. 

What it feels like at the rock

There is a flat grassy platform on the Camasunary side of the slab, about fifteen metres before the crossing. You can stand there and look at it. This is the point of decision. You can see the whole obstacle, the foot crack, the hand lip, the water below. This is where a walker who is going to turn back should turn back.

If you step forward and put a hand on the top lip, three things happen. Your body weight moves slightly outward from the rock, which feels wrong until you understand it. Your visible foot placement disappears from view under your body. And the sound of the sea below you gets louder, because the slab reflects it.

The crossing itself takes a focused walker under two minutes. You keep three points of contact, weight over your feet not your hands, chest close to the rock, and side-step across. Do not look down between your feet. Do not stand up straight in the middle of the slab, because that shifts your weight outward and takes friction off your boot edges. If you freeze halfway, lower yourself to sit on the foot crack, hold the top lip with both hands, and reverse a step at a time. Do not try to stand and turn on the slab.

Walkers who have done Grade 1 scrambles on the mainland generally cross the Bad Step without much trouble and describe it afterwards as short and manageable. Walkers who have not done any scrambling before, or who are frightened of heights, describe the same crossing as terrifying.

The bypass myth

Search “Bad Step bypass” and you will find forum threads speculating about a way round the top. There isn’t one. The ground above the slab is steep, loose basalt with unstable scree and small cliffs, and any attempt to scramble up and round exposes you to worse falling risk than the slab itself. At the bottom, at very low tide with a calm sea, some walkers have waded round the base of the slab in knee-deep water, but none of this is signed or safe on any given day, and none of it is a planning bypass. Do not build a walk around the idea of finding one.

There are two real ways to avoid the Bad Step on the Elgol coast. Take the boat from Elgol pier round-trip. Or walk the long inland route from Sligachan into Loch Coruisk over Druim Hain, which has no scrambling but takes 8-10 hours of boggy ground for the same view.

Weather at the Bad Step

Five conditions materially change the difficulty of the Bad Step. It is worth knowing what they do.

Rain. Wet gabbro keeps most of its friction, which is unusual for rock, and this is what makes the mountain range as a whole so exceptional for climbing. But the specific foot crack on the Bad Step has been polished by decades of boots, and it becomes slick when it is wet. In rain, factor an extra step down in confidence.

Wind. A strong cross-wind from either direction pushes your body sideways at the point in the crossing when you can least afford it. Above about thirty miles an hour, do not commit.

Sea state. High tide with a swell coming in from the Atlantic means the lower part of the slab is being washed continuously by spray, which slicks the rock and drops the crossing to a lower confidence level. It also raises the stakes should you fall in. 

Frost or ice. Verglas (black ice) on gabbro has almost no grip, it is a slide. Do not attempt the Bad Step in freezing conditions without full winter gear and the experience to use it. 

Fading light. The path to and from the Bad Step is not one to hurry in the last hour of daylight. The rest of the coastal shelf has narrow sections and bog, and route-finding in dusk is harder than the map suggests.

If any two of these are stacked on top of each other, the answer for the day is the boat.

The bigger hazards nobody talks about

The Bad Step is the famous obstacle, so it gets the attention. It is not always the most dangerous thing on the route. Two others deserve equal weight.

The first is the Abhainn nan Leac, the river that runs into the sea at Camasunary. In dry summer weather it is an ankle-deep step across smooth stones. After heavy rain, or during snow-melt in spring, it becomes a fast, waist-deep torrent that cannot be safely forded. Walkers arrive at it, look at the water, and turn back, sometimes with the return crossing they have to make in a few hours also unmanageable. Do not treat this river as a formality. Check the forecast for the twenty-four hours before your walk, not just the morning of.

The second is fatigue. The coastal ground between Elgol and Camasunary, and between Camasunary and the Bad Step, is not a path in the walking sense. It is a broken shelf of grass, bog, boulders and rock steps, with continuous small ups and downs. A walker who is used to ten-mile days on well-graded upland paths will still find this route physically heavier than they expected. Late in the day, tired legs make simple foot placement worse. Most avoidable slips on this coast happen on the descent side of the walk, not on the Bad Step itself.

Backpacks, poles, and load

A heavy pack changes the crossing. Overnight or multi-day loads of fifteen to twenty-two kilograms move your centre of gravity away from the rock and make the outward pull on the slab noticeable in a way that a day pack does not. Everything strapped to the outside of the pack must come inside before you cross, hip belt and sternum strap tight, poles collapsed and lashed flat against the pack. Big packs also snag on the top lip and push your upper body away from the rock. If you are on a Skye Trail through-walk with a full pack, plan to arrive at the Bad Step early in the day, not at the end of it, when you are weary from the beautiful sites of Skye.

Trekking poles are a nuisance and a hazard on the slab. Collapse them, strap them down, and cross with both hands free. 

Dogs

Unassisted, most dogs cannot cross the Bad Step. The slope is smooth to a paw, the ledge is narrow, and the drop below is unfamiliar. A small dog can be carried in a purpose-made pack, though the wriggle-risk on the slab makes this something we do not recommend at all. A medium or large dog realistically cannot go across. The honest answer for walkers with dogs who want to see Loch Coruisk is the boat: dogs are welcome aboard the Misty Isle and Bella Jane, with a call to the operator in advance. An Nead at Coruisk House is our dog-friendly cottage, and this is one of the routines we suggest to guests who bring a dog.

Children

There is no formal minimum age on the Bad Step, and the physical moves are within a child’s ability from about ten or twelve. What is not within a child’s ability is the self-control needed to move slowly and calmly on a narrow ledge above the sea when a parent cannot physically hold them across it. In practice, we would say fourteen and above with real hill experience, and even then only in dry weather with an adult who has crossed the slab before and is comfortable talking a nervous walker through it.

What to wear and carry

Boots stiffer than you think you need, with deep rubber lugs. A Gore-Tex outer with taped seams. Waterproof trousers. A fleece or softshell mid-layer. Hat and gloves except in the warmest weeks. Two litres of water. Food for the day plus one extra meal. First-aid kit. Head torch. Whistle. Paper map (OS Explorer 411, Cuillin Hills) and compass, downloaded offline maps as backup, and a power bank for the phone because cold drains a battery fast. A dry bag for anything valuable. No dogs unless you have read the section above and are still confident. 

The last honest decision point

Fifteen metres before the slab, on the Camasunary side, there is a flat grassy platform. This is the retreat point. Stop there. Read the rock. If any of the following applies, turn round and walk back to Camasunary, then out over Am Màm to Kirkibost. There is no shame in it: the mountain is not going anywhere.

The rock is wet or the sea is throwing spray onto the lower slab. The wind is strong enough that you are being pushed. Someone in the group is showing distress. You do not have three hours of daylight left. Your boots are worn or smooth. You are alone and something feels off. The river at Camasunary was already high when you crossed it earlier and you have to cross it again on the way home.

None of these is a failure. All of them are the honest read a competent walker makes.

Where Coruisk House sits in all this

Coruisk House is in Elgol, the third building on the right as you come down the road into the village, a mile from the pier and four miles from the Kirkibost car park where most Bad Step walks start. Four rooms in the main house, two thatched cottages next door, a four-course dinner at seven, £105 a head, one sitting, six tables, closed Mondays, dinner season 1 March to 30 October. An Nead is our dog-friendly cottage

A common stay for walkers doing the Bad Step: two nights, walk day in the middle. Late dinner reservation (twenty-four hours’ notice) so a slower-than-expected day back does not cost you the meal, and a bath in the room first. The langoustines on the menu most nights are creel-caught in the water you walked above.

Visit us at Courisk House 

Dinner at Coruisk House is 7pm, four courses, £105 a head, by reservation with twenty-four hours’ notice. 

For boat bookings and one-way walker fares, contact the Misty Isle or Bella Jane operators directly. Both are family-run, both are used to walkers, and both will tell you honestly on the morning whether the sea is right for the crossing.

Book rooms, read about An Nead thatched cottage(dogs welcome), stay at in Tigh Mairi or phone +44 (0)1471 866 330 if you want a second opinion on a Bad Step day you are planning. We can tell you what the ground is doing, whether the boat is running, and whether the day looks right for the walk.