Old Man of Storr

On the Trotternish Ridge above Loch Leathan stands a 55-metre pinnacle of black basalt, the Old Man of Storr, said in Skye tradition to be the petrified thumb of a giant. According to the story, when the giant died and was buried in the hillside, his thumb was left protruding above the ground — and there it has stood ever since, weathering into the jagged spire seen today.

A second version of the tale gives the giant a more dramatic end: he was said to have been chasing a fairy across the ridge when he made the fatal mistake of looking back over his shoulder, and was turned to stone on the spot, along with his pursued quarry nearby.

Geologists explain the Storr and its companions as the result of a vast landslip some 60 million years ago, when a slice of the Trotternish escarpment slid away from the main ridge, leaving isolated towers of rock standing free — but for generations of islanders, the simpler and more memorable explanation was a buried giant, his thumb still reaching for the sky.