Scotland 2026: The Far Northwest Coast!
For more information on the walks in the area, please see https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/assynt.shtml.
If interested, please contact goepfertkarenATyahooDOTcom.
Saturday, 16 May 2026
Scotland 2026: The Far Northwest Coast!
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12 comments:
hi can you tell us if any of those lodges have single rooms please?
Yes, there are singles — but currently all singles have been taken and there are just a couple of twin spaces available.
BBC Four recently rebroadcast a 2009 documentary "Munro: Mountain Man". If you've ever wanted to know the story behind 'Munro bagging' it's available on iPlayer until early November.
N=33 walkers here after a late cancellation (with one other taking his place from tomorrow). The plan is to offer 3 different walks every day.
15 walked out to the Falls of Kirkaig (11 km with 150m ascent).
10 walked up to Cul Mor (13.5 km with 800m ascent).
8 intrepid walkers took on Arkle, one of the standout mountains in Sutherland (17 or 22 km with 1100m ascent). On the drive to that walk, the rain was hard and relentless, but it had tired itself out by the time we got to the start. On along a good track, through a wood with a cuckoo calling for attention and at around the 200m height line, we turned off the track steeply up the grassy heathery hillside, which got more bouldery as we got higher up. Our lunch break was on the leeside of the top plateau where two of us independently thought we'd heard a ptarmigan bickering. That low up a hill, really?
On up the boulder field that is Arkle's plateau, by now under blue skies with passing clouds. Fantastic views to the Foinaven ridge and the coast. Down and up from the subsidiary summit to the true summit, which involved an exciting semi-scramble along a narrow ridge that was really a tilted earth plate's edge. Then back the way we came.
Apart from that, at the first bealach we split into a return the same way group (5) and let's do a longer version group (3). This led over another boulder field, past a large, tempting looking loch, then an upland peat bog and back onto the track we took out at the start of the walk. Along that track we heard another (or the same?) cuckoo, but weirdly up a stony heathery and definitely treeless hillside.
Both groups were back at the cars just after 6, within minutes of each other.
A very grand day out.
Monday, 18th May 2026
With one new arrival, there are now n=34 in Kylesku and surrounds, but 1 of those sat out today.
13 took a ferry to Handa Island, a NNR famed for its bird life (£25 per person), with a hotel bar on the mainland offering respite for early finishers waiting for the last of the group.
6 walked the medium walk, Glas Bheinn (14 or 16 km with 770 or 920m ascent).
13 walked the demanding walk, Conival and Ben More Assynt (BMA) from Inchnadamph 17 km with 1077m ascent. 3 of those spared themselves the out-and-back to BMA from Conival though. Back at the cars from 5 onwards.
1 walked Braebag from the Bone Caves car park, finishing down the valley path that the Conival group took up and down (21 km with 950m ascent). This was a very varied excursion, what with the valley floors and some of the uplands being limestone territory, meaning streams bubbling out of the ground or dripping into sinkholes, lots of caves (incl. those bone caves where prehistoric bones of humans and long extinct animals have been found), shake holes and even 'pavement', dykes and grykes, although that was on the top plateau and made from quartzite not limestone! A deer herd passed me in drips and drabs, pretty unfazed by my presence.
Braebag provided for grand views across Assynt and south to An Teallach and the Fisherfield Forest, the coast and of course Conival and BMA.
After a sunny start, more and more clouds filled the sky and from 4 pm it rained quite hard. The famous three-seasons-in-a-day...
Tuesday 19th May 2026
With the forecast being for high winds on the tops (plus lots of rain on them), we stuck to low(ish) level routes.
23 started on a Sandwood Bay route that we had cut out from a Ramblers Magazine. 18 km with 240m ascent it would have been had we stuck to it. 2 walkers turned back after 4 km or so to "do other things". Out along an engineered track in 7 km to one the UK'S most famous beaches where 4 (fool) hardy walkers stripped off, put their swimmies on and went for a full body immersion (often referred to as swimming). Most of the other sat in the lee of a dune to shelter from the wind. One guy walked the entire beach out and back until where a river joins it.
On up a steep path to the southerly cliff face for grand views north to the lighthouse at Cape Wrath, and west (in the haze) to the Outer Hebrides.
4 then went back the way they came while the remaining 17 followed the coastal cliffs for a handful of km. This was very interesting indeed, mesmerising in fact. Rock stacks, collapsed or still standing, hidden beaches, grand cliffs and vistas. So interesting that we stuck to the promontories for longer than the route suggested. Back inland along a shallow valley and through some mild bog to a lovely lochan and the outbound route. 20 km with 400m ascent maybe.
11 combined a few short walks along the A837 Ullapool road into a day with some adding a Stac Pollaidh Circular to it. Those short walks were: up the wide valley from Inchnadamph to some caves and a sinkhole and back; up the tight valley from the Bone Caves car park to the caves and back (as in yesterday's Braebag walk); the geological path in the Knockan Crag NNR.
Addendum: no rain whatsoever on the Sandwood Bay walk. And the northern giants visible from the route (Arkle, Foinaven) seemed cloudy free most of the time, influencing our choice for today's high walk
Wednesday 20th May 2026
15 walked up Cul Beag (10.5 km with 790m ascent). They got to the false summit in rain and poor visibility, most went on to the true summit. Done around 16.30
5 of us were joined by a local displaced Londoner and walked Sail Garbh, one of the Corbetts of the Quinag mountain, i.e. 6 on it (9 km with 550m).
4 were doing a repeat of yesterday's offer: a Stac Pollaidh Circular and the Geotrail at the Knockan Crag NNR.
7 took a chance on being able to finish the traverse of the mighty Foinaven ridge before the forecast 40mph winds hit it (21.5 km with 1300m ascent).
This involved a car drop at the finish then a shuttle back to the start before proceedings.
We started in sunshine at 9.30, took 2 hours to the saddle between Foinaven and Meall Horn at 510m height, by which time rain had started. On up grassy ledges between boulder fields (a ptarmigan was spotted just metres away) to the first top, An t-Sail Mhor, halfway in distance and at 780m, where we had to hide in the storm shelter and consider our options, as hard rain had started and didn't look like finishing all too soon, and the wind had reached difficult speeds.
We took food and drink - and then retreated. The wind was going to increase and that would have made the upcoming ridge walk too dangerous despite the forecast end of the rain around mid-afternoon.
Back at the cars (now again in blazing sunshine) at 15.30.
The others did non-walk related things.
N=35 SWC-ies in the areas now, if we include the displaced Londoner.
Thursday 21st May 2026
At least 20 (we think) did a short walk from Lochinver to the Old Man of Stoer (7 km with 350m ascent). It was wet and windy, a newt was spotted and most people tasted Lochinver's cafés or the pie shop or both afterwards.
8 walked to Suilven from Lochinver, out in very wet conditions, with the mountain not visible at all amongst the low cloud level. Lots of gorse in bloom on the initial kilometres as well as lots of bluebells,.still in good condition.
4 (all female) turned back before the turnoff to Suilven, to follow a signed path from Glencanisp Lodge to the River Inver and into town along it.
The Suilven 4 (all male) walked up to the saddle but not the tops as the wind was strong and the whole thing still in clouds.
Back in the car park at 16.30.
Clouds were lifting quickly now (that strong wind) and on the drive back home we could see Suilven and Canisp cloud-free. Too late...
Some unaccounted folk...
Friday 22nd May 2026
4 on the strenuous walk of the day, a regurgitated Foinaven Circular from Gualin House (18.3 km with 1,020m ascent). That found no takers a few days ago, but we strode out along the estate track for an hour and a quarter up the Strath Dionard. Following a Walk Highlands gpx, we then traipsed through water logged bog to meet a burn side path which we could have taken more easily by staying on the track for a bit longer. The burn is lovely, with exposed rockslabs, waterfalls and cascades. The gpx asked us to go up a steep and pathless grassy heathery hill instead though.
On then came the 400m height gain of steep pathless grassy overgrown boulder field hillside. The low clouds enwrapped us and I - in my mind - was trying to rewrite the lyrics of one of the best songs by The Stooges: No Fun.
Up on the top we had no views at all but no real rain either, just low clouds i.e. drizzle.
We did break out from the clouds at about 675m height on the very steep descent, with splendid views across the lochan and rockslab filled bog at the bottom of the mountain, the coast around Kinlochbervie and Sandwood Bay, the Far North around Cape Wrath etc.
Down further, steeply, and across the not-so-fearsome bog. Back at the car from 18.00.
5 went up Ben Stack (8 km with 707m ascent). Same weather as on Foinaven.
5 went a local walk along the Loch at Kylesku, out to waterfalls and back.
About 20 went up Quinag, the mountain we are looking at from our lodges. Some did one top, others two, most did all three. Unlike the more northern hills, there were some views to be had.
As a report for the whole week...
The swimmers were happy with loads of on walk and off walk opportunities.
We had no major injuries that I know of, apart from hurt pride for being engulfed by the bog.
The weather was no better than 4/10.
The walk programme tried to deal with the weather the best it could, and mostly succeeded.
Cuckoos were heard every day, rule of thumb: at least two in every glen.
Ptarmigan: plenty really - several seen today on the Foinaven walk, others on previous days.
Grouse: one seen today, others heard on previous walks.
Rewilding/rewetting: deer fences have sprung up in the glen from Lochinver to Suilven. That's prep for the planting of 250,000 native trees, most of those this year (manpower needed: an astonishingly low 6!).
In Strath Dionard, we could see works to stop back the bog and keep the water from rushing down the glen too soon.
The lodges were lovely and the evening meetings to decide the next day's programme were semi-efficient.
Couldn't have gone much better, in light of the weather.
The only real loosers are British Airways, who managed to leave 5 out of our 6 checked-in bags on the morning flight to Inverness behind in London and - absolutely astonishingly - failed to reunite any of those bags with their owners here at Kylesku and in Scourie up until this moment in time and with no recent updates available. Unbelievable really.
Photos of the walks I have been on have now been uploaded. See here under the Kylesku tab: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/photos/kylesku.html
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