In a country dominated by monumental landscapes, the Trotternish peninsula on the Isle of Skye offers something extraordinary. This thumb of land north of Portree bears the remnants of a geological cataclysm. Millennia ago, a huge landslip created the Trotternish Ridge - a scene of shattered pinnacles, sea stacks and buttresses including the Gothic, freestanding basalt pillar called the Old Man of Storr.

In the summer months, climbers and walkers come to wander among the cathedral-like rock ruins, enjoy the wildlife, search for fossils and savour the sunset views over the Sound of Raasay towards the mighty Torridon Mountains on the mainland.

With 700-foot cliffs, Trotternish is not a place you would choose for a nocturnal walk. Yet this is what NVA, a Glasgow-based arts organisation, is inviting people to do next month.

Its project entitled 'The Storr - Unfolding Landscape' will take up to 200 participants each night on a torch-lit walk across the rugged terrain, through woods and beneath the steep corries of the Trotternish Ridge to the Old Man of Storr. Aspects of the landscape will be illuminated and soundscapes (including live music and the voice of Sorley Maclean, theGaelic language poet who was born nearby) will drift down from the cliff tops.

Angus Farquhar, creative director of NVA, says: 'Scotland is often projected as a wild place empty of people and that is not really the case. We have been working with local communities, writers, musicians and mountaineers, people who know Trotternish, with the aim of getting to the heart of the human history of the place. We are trying to articulate this for visitors using illuminations, sound and the weather, of course.'

Archaeological evidence suggests that Trotternish is one of the oldest inhabited parts of Scotland so there is plenty of material - but must we visit in the dark? Farquhar continues: 'Walk ing through this place at night, we aim to create an intense experience that people simply cannot get elsewhere. And we hope this will lead to a more profound understanding of the landscape. It will be a step into the unknown.'

Unknown for the visitors, perhaps, but NVA have been here before.

'The Path' became a night-time, illuminated walk with sound installations along an old drover's route through Glen Lyon in Perthshire in 2000. It received critical and popular praise for bringing participants closer to a powerful landscape.

'It ravishes the senses with a fantastic and beautiful night-time journey_ above all, it makes us think about and feel the relationship between humankind and nature,' the Scotsman commented.

Walkers wearing sturdy boots and waterproof coats will be collected from the towns of Staffin and Portree and shuttled to the Trotternish Ridge between 10pm and midnight. Headtorches (which pick out reflective wands showing the path up the mountain) will be supplied for the 3.5km route, and participants will be encouraged to set their own pace.

In logistical terms, the Storr project required a radical rethink of how to stage an outdoor event. The site is a conservation area with rare flora, so miles of cabling, serried banks of searchlights and diesel generators would have been inappropriate. 'We have been forced to think light and use a variety of new technologies,' said Farquhar.

'The solution is a show almost entirely powered using the sun, wind and water. We are very pleased with this and it is our goal at NVA to develop a completely mobile, self-powered system for outdoor events in the future.'

Minimum impact on the earth, maximum impact on the mind is the ambitious goal of Storr. As Doug Scott, the mountaineer, has said about the project: 'It could just be the best two hours you spend this year.'

The Storr - Unfolding Landscape, Trotternish, Isle of Skye runs Monday to Saturday from 1 August to 17 September. Tickets are £25 (concessions apply) from www.nva.org.uk, or call 0141 352 7912.