Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye, Scotland

The Isle of Skye on Scotland’s north-west coast offers a taste of everything Scotland has to offer – wilderness, castles, dramatic coastlines and jagged mountains. Oh, and a distillery or two as well, of course! One of the Island’s top-attractions for hikers and mountaineers is the 16-kilometer (9.9 mile) ridge traverse atop the Cuillin (pronunciation: ‘koo-lin’) Mountains on the island’s south-west tip. The traverse takes around 24 hours and requires over 13,000ft of ascent, so don’t set off without your sandwiches! In a long, narrow, glacial cirque carved between the dark spires of the Cuillin, the mysteriously moody Loch Coruisk is backed by the often moodier North Sea, and is sure to be one of the most dramatic bodies of water in the British Isles and possibly the world.

The ‘loch’ (the locals don’t take kindly to ‘lake’!) can be reached by a two-hour hike from Sligachan Bridge else by ferry from Ergol, and is best combined – for those not experienced with ridge excursion – with a hike up over the Bealach Coire na Banachdich pass and down to the world-famous Fairy Pools on the western side of Cuillin, which were just a little bit on the small side for inclusion as a ‘lake’!