“It was into this cave that the first of the great MacCrimmon pipers, as a young man, found his way and in it that he met a beautiful woman, believed to have been the Fairy Queen."
Piper's Cave, at the southern end of Harlosh Point, requires a half mile walk across grazing land from the end of a loop road off the A863 that serves the scattered communities of Harlosh, Balmore and Ardmore. Where the land ends and the sea begins, a spindly 30-foot high basalt sea stack indicates you are in the right place. A steep path descends to the base of the stack and, with the tide low, it is possible to scramble along the rocky shoreline to the cave entrance. The mouth is impressively tall but the tunnel within tapers sharply into a dark, narrow passage. Beware the decent is very steep and loose rocks only go down at low tide or you will get stuck.
Please park at the quarry / turning circle at the end of the metaled road. Walk down the road past the four houses. A gate at the bottom of the track leads to a second cache (Harlosh Croft) that can be found in the ruins of an abandoned croft house. Straight ahead out to sea half a mile away is the sea stack that marks the entrance to the Pipers Cave. Alternatively a path leads directly to the head land from the parking space.