Inverie Woods and the Mallaig Circular Walk

Friday 8th June 2012

After four days in Knoydart it was sadly time for me to leave this fantastically wild and remote area. Before catching the ferry back to Mallaig I did a quick walk around the woods above Inverie where there is a good selection of paths above the small community and provided me with an entertaining walk while I waited. These paths took me up the steep hillside, climbing as high as I could get, until I reached a viewpoint near the top fence where I had views across the bay and out to sea, and then I dropped quickly down the hillside along a bike track having just as much fun running down as I would have done if I’d cycled down. On the pier I caught the ferry and nostalgically looked at the view of Knoydart behind me as the boat pulled away from Inverie. The Corbett and the three Munros that I had climbed during my time in Knoydart came into view as the boat pulled away from the shore: Ladhar Bheinn on the left, Sgurr Coire Choinnichean in the middle, standing guard over Inverie, and Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe to the right. They could all be clearly seen as a reminder of my time in the area.

In Mallaig, due to the sparsity of trains on the West Highland Line, I had a five hour wait for the next train. Fortunately while waiting for the ferry to Knoydart on Monday I had seen a notice board that mentioned circular walks around Mallaig. The Mallaig Circular Walk climbs from the East Bay car park up a clear, well surfaced path to a viewpoint that overlooks the port. The circular walk then continues along this pleasant path down to Malaig Bheag and returns to the start along the road. This is listed as a two mile walk, which wasn’t going to last the five hours that I needed to fill, so at the top of the hill I turned right following a marker that pointed towards “Loch an Nostarie and Loch Eireagoraidh”. However, I think I must have immediately gone the wrong way as the faint path that I was following lead to a tall deer fence with no way over it. Turning left beside the fence I dropped down into a grassy gully where I found the correct path and a gate through the fence, which led me to another fence from where views could be seen across the seemingly unspoilt Loch an Nostarie.

Since I had plenty of time until my train was due I decided to start following some of the paths that are marked on my map that I could just about make out on the ground and headed east. The path I was walking along was very faint and difficult to follow, which made me feel like I was walking in some really wild and isolated location, but the illusion of unspoilt terrain was ruined when I realised that I was following a pipeline that goes from Loch Eireagoraidh past Loch an Nostarie to the coast near Mallaig (supplying water for the village). Two paths go either side of the small hill of Beinn nan Caorach to a narrow gully between the rocky peaks of Carn a’ Ghobhair and Carn Mhic a Ghille-chairn before eventually reaching Loch Eireagoraidh. I took the northern path past Beinn nan Caorach but I turned back along the southern path before reaching the gully. I suppose it might have been fun if I had gone through the gap and seen the loch, and maybe even climbed the rocky peaks to their summits. With hindsight I wish I had, but at the time I was just thinking about getting back to Mallaig for something to eat.

The path I was following led me briefly beside the An Leth-allt stream before descending to the shore of Loch an Nostarie. A pleasant walk along the shore led me all the way to Glasnacardoch on the main road near the coast, and a walk along the old road past a swimming pool and the secondary school brought me back into Mallaig where I had my lunch. The rest of my day in Mallaig was whittled away doing little else. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to do a bigger walk on my last full day in Scotland as my schedule dictated that I needed to catch a train south along the West Highland Line to Crianlarich where a short overnight stop would interrupt my journey home. I quite enjoyed my walk around the hills overlooking Mallaig. The weather was as good as I had enjoyed throughout my holiday and afforded me with good views out to sea, towards the mountains of Rùm and south towards Loch Morar. I can’t believe how lucky I was with the weather during this holiday. This summer has been infamous for its bad weather and yet I found the only spot in Britain to have escaped. Not since 2006 have I known such consistently good weather during a holiday.

The negatives from this holiday are partly a result of the good weather: by the end of the holiday I was covered in insect bites from the midges that always plague the West Highlands during the summer. The hot weather had brought them out in their billions and they all seem to have made a beeline for me! Another problem I had on this holiday was my seeming inability to go uphill without quickly getting out of breath and exhausted. I put on a lot of weight over the winter and I think I was finally paying the price for it. Finally, I think a problem I had on this holiday, and indeed on other holidays in Scotland, is a lack of flexibility. I plan my holidays so rigidly that unless I have planned them perfectly, which rarely happens, I end up with things like a five hour wait for a train in Mallaig. My planning for holidays needs to be better or just a little less rigid in that plan. I had attempted with this holiday to stop my dissatisfaction with my Scottish holidays, and I can’t say this holiday was disappointing as I had a fabulous time throughout the fortnight. I climbed twelve Munros and two Corbetts while staying in some adorably isolated locations. The unspoilt isolation of places like Loch Ossian and Knoydart is the highlight of this holiday.

Meall Buidhe

Thursday 7th June 2012

Despite expecting bad weather to finally break my holiday, bright sunshine continued as I once again set off alongside the Inverie River through the wild Knoydart peninsula. There are three Munros (mountains above three thousand feet in Scotland) in the Knoydart area, and I’d walked up two of them over the previous couple of daysm which left the final Munro, Meall Buidhe, for my last day in Knoydart. This is not a big mountain (in terms of area), and in fact its name translates as ‘yellow hill’. Nearby is a mountain that translates as ‘yellow mountain’, that being Beinn Bhuidhe, which is a much more expansive mountain even though it’s only a Corbett (a mountain in Scotland between two and a half and three thousand feet). I considered including Beinn Bhuidhe in this walk, but eventually abandoned the idea, and harmed what could have been a great walk. When planning for this holiday I had thought of making Beinn Bhuidhe one of my targets for a walk and I think it would have been a great walk, but not if I’d tried to tag it onto its neighbour Meall Buidhe. Ultimately this walk was decided the day before when I didn’t walk along the ridge between Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe, and that was decided by not walking between Sgurr Coire Choinichean and Ladhar Bheinn. What a convoluted mess!

This walk started just like the previous two with a walk along Gleann an Dubh-Lochain, a stunning valley that I was beginning to appreciate in many ways. Before reaching Dubh-Lochain I branched off the main track onto a path that crosses the Inverie River before making its way over the Màm Meadail pass. I soon turned off the path and crossed the Allt Gleann Meadail stream making my way straight for the western tip of Meall Buidhe. My Harvey Map indicated a path up the steep ridge, but I had difficulty following it at first, and even needed to consult my GPS at one point. Eventually, I managed to find the slender path that climbs the steep ridge of Druim Righeanaich and finally reached the top of the crags, only to see what lay ahead of me: long grassy slopes that led all the way up to the summit. This is the sort of thing I love in descent but in ascent I find it just too tedious as they seem to drag, so I was soon thinking that I should have done this walk in the other direction. The views behind me along the lush-green valley to Inverie and out to sea were stunning, but I would have appreciated them more if I was looking at them all the time rather than only when I stopped and turned around.

The clear skies were a soft blue while the sea was a lovely deep blue across the Inner Sound all the way to the mountains of Rùm on the horizon. The views were enchanting in the good weather. Very slowly I made my way along the grassy ridge all the way up to the summit. This holiday started with me having a lot of problems with fatigue while going uphill, possibly due to lack of sleep or simply because of the heat. Despite getting plenty of sleep and with cooler temperatures I was still not climbing the hills as quickly as I once did. Rejecting the possibility that I’m getting old, I assume I’m just not as fit as I once was. My legs were lacking the strength to haul myself up the hills very quickly, which is probably due to a lack of exercise, particularly of the hill-walking variety, when I’m not on holiday. My walking companion around Loch Ossian did a lot of running and despite being a little older than me was easily able to climb the mountains. Maybe age does have something to do with it – if I want to continue going up mountains in the way that I’m used to, I can no longer get away with sporadic walks up hills. I may even have to take up running …

Very, very slowly I made my way up to the summit of Meall Buidhe where I had my lunch with the typical stunning Scottish mountain panorama all around me. I couldn’t help thinking that this was the last Munro of my Scottish holiday this year; I wouldn’t be seeing the sweep of Scottish mountains as far as the eye could see again until next year. Not far from where I was sitting, just across the Carnach valley, are the Munros of Sgurr na Ciche and Garbh Chioch Mhor where I went for a long tiring walk in 2008. These are difficult to reach mountains that required a long drive beside Loch Arkaig before a long walk along Glen Dessary. I managed to get as far as Garbh Chioch Mhor in poor weather but had been forced to to turn back before reaching Sgurr na Ciche because of time and the remoteness of the location. On that occasion I never saw the illusive Munro, but now I could clearly see the sharp-peaked mountain. I wonder if I will ever finally reach the top. There are people who would not be happy until they have bagged every Munro in the area, but I’ve never been that concerned about bagging Munros. All I’m interested in is a good walk over good terrain with good views.

On leaving the summit of Meall Buidhe I crossed over to the south-east top, a Munro Top, and had a quick look along the ridge to Luinne Bheinn. I’ve heard that the ridge between Meall Buidhe and Luinne Bheinn is a navigational challenge, even in good weather. I might have had a great walk along that ridge, which I should really have done the day before, but should I have corrected that by turning left at this moment onto the steep rugged ridge? We’ll never know. I turned right down the south-eastern ridge towards Sgurr Sgeithe. After the ground levelled off the path I was following disappeared and I was left with a steep, pathless, crag-filled slope all the way down to Màm Meadail, so gingerly I made my way down the ridiculously steep grassy slope. By the time I got down to the pass I didn’t feel like prolonging the walk over Beinn Bhuidhe, where there appeared to be no path, so I just followed the good path all the way back to Inverie. I was just too tired to want to attempt the broad ridge. Beinn Bhuidhe should be climbed as the sole target of the day and not tagged onto another. It’s just a shame that I didn’t plan this walk better as the walk that I did would have been much better done in the opposite direction. My walks in Knoydart could all have been better organised, but I still managed to climb all three Munros in the area, plus a Corbett, and all in brilliant weather. I shouldn’t complain.