Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh

About Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh

Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh, the peak of torment, is the highest point on the northern half of the Black Cuillin ridge on Skye. Like the rest of the range it is gabbro, a rock that grips well underfoot. The mountain carries two summits divided by a knife-edged arete.

It ranks among the harder of the main Black Cuillin peaks. The most straightforward line goes by the col of An Dorus, the Door, usually reached from Glen Brittle, but the exit from the col is a Grade 3 scramble and the north ridge above keeps up sustained scrambling at a lower grade. The south ridge towards Sgurr Thormaid is also Grade 3, with few chances to get off it safely over a long stretch.

John MacKenzie was 14 at the time of the first ascent, having already repeated the ascent of Sgurr nan Gillean at the age of 10.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Sgùrr a' Ghreadaidh (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for Scotland — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Scotland · check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 57.227, -6.234. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is cairn. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Leica RX1250

Record revised

15-Mar-19

Drop measured from

NG443218 · 849 m

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Which hill this one belongs to

Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Sgurr Dearg - Inaccessible Pinnacle (986 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 849 m.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks