Almost To The End: Back On The Cape Wrath Trail

Ben Stack from Lone

Back in June I decided to stop my Cape Wrath Trail walk at Inchnadamph, some 47 miles/75km from the finish, due to an unseasonally cold and windy storm (see here). I didn’t feel like battling into the weather just to reach the end especially as it’s not too far from home so I could easily return later when the weather was better.

Early October looked promising and so it was for a few days but then another big storm blew down from the north. With gusts forecast to reach 55mph/88kph at sea level finding sheltered camp sites would be difficult and walking into the wind arduous. After the first day of this storm I decided retreat was again a sensible choice even though I was only 7 miles/11km from Cape Wrath (plus twice that distance to then reach the nearest road). I will go back again!

The weather was benign when I set off with Tony Hobbs, who’d been with me for the last five days of the June walk, with a mix of sunshine, high clouds, and light breezes. We climbed steadily to the last high pass as you head north, 623 metre Bealach na h-Uidhe, then crossed boggy terrain dotted with little pools and streams. Here we met the only other CWT walkers, a couple heading south to Fort William. They assured us the terrain got wetter and boggier further north and wet feet were inevitable. They were in leather boots, we were in trail shoes. We didn’t expect dry feet. Perhaps they did.

Camp below the Eas a' Chual Aluinn

A steep descent took us down to the Abhainn an Loch Bhig and a camp opposite the highest waterfall in Britain, the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn, which has a 200-metre drop. As there hadn’t been much rain for a while this was a thin tracery of water over the cliffs rather than a tremendous torrent, though we could still here it’s roar and it still looked impressive. We could here other roaring too. This is the rutting season and red deer stags were in full deep-throated cry, a sound that accompanied us throughout the walk. Autumn colours, russet, gold, orange, made the landscape shine, another feature every day.

Loch Beag

The next section of the walk, from Eas a’Chual Aluinn to Loch Glendhu via Loch Glencoul, is one of the most glorious of the whole route in my opinion. It’s not long, around 8 miles/12km, but the going is tough in places and anyway this is not a place to rush through but to savour. This landscape is rugged, rocky, rough and complex, mixing sea and mountain in a wonderful array of forms and patterns. 

The Stack of Glencoul, Eas a'Chual Aluinn, & Loch Beag

Initially the big waterfall and the great rock buttress of the Stack of Glencoul stand out in the views as the route passes along Loch Beag and then climbs above Loch Glencoul to round a promontory. Here the views are of Loch Glendhu and a line of slanting coloured cliffs. 

Loch Glendhu

The boggy path, such as it was, angled muddily down steep slopes through thick vegetation, rocks, and patches of lovely birch woodland to eventually reach the loch shore. Here in places we were walking on seaweed below huge boulders that had come down long ago from the cliffs high above. At the highest tides the path must be underwater here.

Below the high tide mark!

Rain was starting and the wind picking up as we reached Glendhu Bothy so we decided to stay. No-one else was there and from the bothy book it seemed not many had stayed recently. The space and shelter was welcome.

Bothy kitchen

The weather had changed and wind and rain were now the norm for the rest of the walk. The walk alongside Loch Glendhu was pleasant but then the rain began.

Beside Loch Glendhu

I had intended to take the route over 510 metre Ben Dreavie and round the west end of Ben Stack but the summit was in cloud and I didn’t fancy a boggy plod in the mist so we opted to descend to the road at Achfary and pass Ben Stack to the east before wandering along the track by Loch Stack to the abandoned building at Lone where we found a reasonably sheltered site with a view of the fine mountain Arkle rising into the clouds. This was the only day when the walking was on good paths and tracks the whole way.

Camping at Lone

Day 4 of the trip was the opposite and mostly on rough boggy ground with only a poor intermittent path. The wind blew and it rained on and off. We were heading for the road at Rhiconich as we wanted to reach the shop called London Stores to resupply the next day. A long line of narrow lochs linked by streams and with a minor watershed at 77 metres runs almost straight from Lone to Rhiconich. No route finding problems here, just a case of plodding on through the bogs. 

Ben Stack

Above us Arkle and Ben Stack faded in and out of the clouds. Magnificent Foinaven, the biggest mountain in the area, showed itself occasionally too as the day progressed. Iain Harper’s Cape Wrath Trail guidebook says there is a potentially difficult ford of the Garbh Allt in this section but though knee deep it wasn’t a problem. The next day it would have been as heavy rain fell all night.

Fording the Garbh Allt

The boggy ground, as through most of the walk, was deer-trodden and bitten. There were very few trees. I wrote about this back in June re my earlier CWT walk. It applies just as much to this northern section. We had hoped to camp by the Rhiconich River somewhere in the last few kilometres before the road but could nowhere suitable amongst the sodden tussocks. In the end we walked up the road a little then turned off down a track to some sheep pastures that were bumpy but at least dry and somewhat sheltered from the increasing wind.

En route to Rhiconich

Having resupplied at the excellent London Stores the next day we set off for the cross-country route to Sandwood Bay, the alternative being to walk up the road for some 5 miles/8km and then take a track. I don’t like road walking so chose the off-road route. This was a mistake. The way over low moorland hills to Strath Shinary is wet, boggy and rough. The walk down the strath and alongside Sandwood Loch is wetter, boggier, and rougher- some of the toughest walking on the whole CWT. Maybe on a hot sunny day it would seem worth it. In wind and rain it wasn’t. The wind had shifted to the north-east and was strengthening and getting colder. From a weather forecast at London Stores we knew it was meant to gust to over 40mph overnight and then increase the next day. We’d be fighting it all the way to Cape Wrath if we went on.

Sandwood Bay comes into view.

We reached Sandwood Bay at dusk. Finding a sheltered site proved difficult. As we’d decided to head out to the road the next day we started along the path south and found some protection from the wind in a bog by Loch Clais nan Coinneal. It was wet and bumpy but we wouldn’t be blown away.

Rainbow in the rain

The next morning we walked out to the John Muir Trust car park in wind and rain, which were at least behind us. At one point a rainbow curved over the moors. We met two pairs of day walkers heading to Sandwood Bay. Both asked us the same question “is it worth it”?  Yes, I replied, it’s beautiful, even in a storm. And it is.