Skye's classic short walks

The pinnacle on every Skye postcard, an hour's climb from the road. The path is steep but well built and the view from among the rocks, down to Raasay and across to the mainland, is the one you came for. It's the busiest walk on the island. Dawn is the answer: the car park is empty, the light is on the rocks, and you'll be back at the car before the first coach.

A string of waterfalls and blue pools under the Black Cuillin, on an easy path from the car park. People swim; the water has just left the snow, so most of them don't swim for long. It's the second busiest walk on Skye and the car park is the worst for queues. Go after four in the afternoon, when the tour buses have gone and the sun is still on the peaks.

Not coral and not quite sand, but a beach of bleached white algae that makes the water turquoise on a grey day. A flat track across the fields from the road end north of Dunvegan, and a tidal island to walk out to if the tide is right. A good one for children and for the afternoon after a morning on the Storr.

The northern tip of the island and the walk on this list that nobody does. A boggy path crosses the moor to an old coastguard lookout on the cliff edge, now a bothy where people sit and watch for whales, and a steep path drops through the cliffs to the headland below. The descent needs a head for heights. The reward is a whole peninsula to yourself with the Hebrides across the Minch.