Walking in the United Kingdom the scrambling suddenly becomes much more serious. In Britain, the term "mountaineering" tends to be reserved for technical climbing on mountains, or for serious domestic hillwalking, especially in winter, with additional equipment such as ice axe and crampons, or for routes requiring rock-climbing skills and a rope, such as the traverse of the Cuillin ridge, on the Scottish island of Skye. The British Mountaineering Council provides more information on this topic. Navigation and map-reading are essential hillwalking skills on high ground and mountains, due to the variability of British and Irish weather and the risk of rain, low cloud, fog
Cuillin in 1611. In 2000 the Cuillin were put on sale for £10 million by the clan chief, John MacLeod of MacLeod, in a scheme of land in exchange for repairs to Dunvegan Castle, however there was a dispute over ownership, as opponents of the sale argued that the charter referred to the MacLeod’s Tables which stand across the loch from Dunvegan Castle and not to the Cuillin themselves. A deal was cut for the property to be gifted in return for repairs to the clan castle, although it later fell through, with opponents arguing that the cost was out of