Achmore and Balallan

Sunday 20th and Monday 21st August 2017

After visiting the Outer Hebrides in 2015 I immediately started to plan a return visit as I had been entranced by this delightful chain of islands off the west coast of Scotland and the tranquil way of life that exists there far from the maddening crowd. In 2015 I walked from the southern-most tip of the southern-most inhabited island of the Western Isles, Vatersay, all the way up to the northern-most tip of the northern-most inhabited island, at the Butt of Lewis. On the way I came across signs of the Hebridean Way being constructed and was even able to walk along sections of it. Retracing my steps along some of the Hebridean Way had always been a target for my return visit, but as I made my plans I realised that I really wanted to do the whole Hebridean Way from start to finish even though it would mean covering a lot of ground I’d already done two years previously. I impatiently waited for two years until this year, finally, the Hebridean Way was officially opened and I set off to do the trail in the opposite direction to that in 2015 and later in the year so I would have a different perspective.

The Hebridean Way ends (usually, but starts in my case) at Lews Castle in Stornoway (the last section to the Butt of Lewis is awaiting further funding), so once I reached Stornoway, mid-afternoon during the quiet Lewis Sabbath, I walked through the empty streets of Stornoway into the Castle grounds and up to Lews Castle. I had expected some sort of memorial or marker to signify the Hebridean Way, but finding none I turned around and headed through the delightful Castle grounds disappointed that there seemed to be no sign of the Hebridean Way. After passing the edge of Stornoway Golf Course, the path improved immensely as it passed through lovely wild-looking woodland scenery beside a pleasant stream. It is a pity that the rest of the Hebrides does not have the abundance of trees that are to be found in the Castle Grounds. After passing the Stornoway Water Mill I climbed out of the Castle Grounds fully expecting to find a signpost for the Hebridean Way directing walkers towards the Castle, but I was once again disappointed in the absence of any signage.

The trail now deteriorated as I followed a road out of Stornoway and at the start of the Pentland Road I finally came across a sign for the Hebridean Way directing me out onto the wild, bleak Lewis moor, but on a tarmac road. After turning left towards Achmore I camped at the bridge over the Abhainn Ghrioda waking to hazy sunshine and mist covering the moor. A horrendous, midge-infested breakfast in the still weather and a fraught pack-up of my dew-saturated tent ensured that when I finally set off on my first full day on the Hebridean Way I was cursing my wisdom in camping on the midge-infested Lewis moor. Once I’d set off the midges were left behind, so I was finally able to calm down and resume my walk along the road with some interest added to the surroundings by the sight of old shielings, abandoned summer dwellings, beside the road with some showing signs of repair. As I made my way along the road the early sunshine faded so that by the time I reached the township of Achmore the weather was overcast as it would continue for the rest of the day.

After passing through Achmore I turned down a lane past the local water treatment works to discover the rather novel method of construction used for the path of the Hebridean Way at this point: two parallel trenches are dug and the turf piled up in the middle. This provided me with a not-always dry path through the boggy moorland that was very tiring to walk upon as the path crossed the Allt nan Torcan burn before climbing over Oidreabhal, down to the Allt nan Each, up Stѐiseal, down to cross the burn between Loch na h-Airigh Uir and Dubh Loch Steishal, up Cnoc Mòr Shòbhail, across the burn between Dubh Loch Shòbhail and Loch na h-Airigh Uir, across the burn between Loch na Spereig and Loch Eastapair and finally up Beinn Ceadraiseal. By the time I came down the last hill I was exhausted and thankful to have come across a good gravel path after the tiring, and often boggy, turf path. Heather is in flower at this time of the year and what I saw of it on the moor was a welcome sight, but the ground was unfortunately too wet for an extensive blanket covering of heather as can be seen in places like the North York Moors.

On reaching the main road in Laxay I now had to follow the road south, but just before I reached Balallan I came across a sign showing the Hebridean Way coming off the moors. Flummoxed, I turned onto this track following it north until the trail turns off to climb to the top of Cnoc a’ Ghille Ruaidh Mhòir. This diversion is not mentioned on the Visit Outer Hebrides website, but is in the Cicerone guidebook and other sources. With views across the Laxay valley a good gravel path heads downhill to reach the main road at the Laxay Bridge where I had earlier failed to spot the signpost. Resolving to be more observant and not rely on the website's GPS waymarks, I retraced my steps along this path until I eventually returned to the main road just outside Balallan. After more road walking through the sprawling township of Balallan I came across a Hebridean Way signpost that seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction, coming off the moor and onto the road ahead of me. I think the signpost was wrong. Heading out onto the moor once again I found signs of peat cutting, but no sign of the path heading north.

This was where I’d camped two years ago and enjoyed a lovely evening in windy, sunny weather, whereas now I turned left at a junction just after passing Loch Craoibhe where a Hebridean Way sign directed me west onto a particularly boggy and rough section of turf path. To be fair the Visit Outer Hebrides website says this section is closed so I was not surprised to see that the path is in need of work at this point and that I had some difficulty determining the correct route around Loch Cuthaig. By the time I reached a track at the far end of this closed section I decided that it was time to stop, so just after turning right at a junction I made camp only to be immediately attacked by midges again. This was a really tough day with some difficult moorland walking on uneven, sometimes boggy ground while my rucksack throughout the day weighed heavily on my back. I had thought the Hebridean Way would be comprised of easy footpaths, but I had soon discovered that this is not an easy trail to walk and also that it is not reliably signposted. I had been really tired going into this holiday and was looking forward to an easy holiday, but instead I found plagues of killer midges and boggy turf paths. This was going to be a tough fortnight.

Glenfinnan and Fort William Views

Friday 9th June 2017

I felt rather cut off during my second week in Scotland as I was staying in valleys where there wasn’t a radio signal so except for brief moments at the tops of the hills I had no way of knowing what was happening in the wider world. I had thought it would be a good idea to get away from everything as I would be able to forget about the General Election, but in the event I found that I really missed the radio. I can cope with being cut off from other people (I even like it), but don’t cut me off from my radio. I enjoy listening to the radio when walking and I miss it when I don’t have a signal. On this last full day of my holiday I had a choice whether to catch the train from Glenfinnan at eleven o’clock or five o’clock (there are no choices in between), so I decided to catch the earlier train. I could have climbed another hill, maybe Braigh nan Uamhachan on the other side of the valley from Streap or venture further afield to the Munro Gulvain. However, when I got up it was raining which rather made up my mind for me so I packed up and left the lovely Gleann Dubh Lighe bothy where I had just spent two nights during which I never saw a single soul.

Descending the valley I retraced my steps of two days previously emerging onto the road and leaving the road again after passing underneath a railway bridge. On that previous occasion I had noticed signs directing short paths to viewpoints in the Callop Valley and now I had a good opportunity to explore them. In the event there was not really much to see as the clouds were still low in the sky even though it had stopped raining, but there was only one thing I wanted to look at. After taking a few pictures of the valley and the head of Loch Shiel with the village of Glenfinnan beyond I headed back to the main road and along the private road into Glen Finnan. Just before reaching the viaduct I took a path that climbs underneath and up the hillside affording me with great views over the viaduct and any trains that may be passing over the top. Unfortunately I couldn’t wait for the train to come as I wanted to catch the train myself so I had to content myself with getting views of the empty viaduct in its majestic position near the bottom of the valley with its spellbinding view down the length of Loch Shiel.

With still some time left until my train was due I slowly made my along the well-made path that hugs the hillside while taking loads of pictures every couple of steps. At first these were just of the viaduct, but as this passed out of sight my camera turned towards the views down Loch Shiel that are truly the great selling point of the Glenfinnan Viaduct and really the reason why it is world famous. Although there was still a lot of low cloud on the hills the sun was attempting to peak through as I walked along this fabulously well-made path while taking many photographs and admiring the views over Loch Shiel. Eventually I reached the railway station where I waited for the Jacobite steam train to come over the viaduct and into the station closely followed by my train coming in the other direction. There was a great sight when the modern train came into the station while the vintage steam train sat waiting for it in the other platform. The swarms of midges plaguing everyone on the station failed to diminish the sight.

When I got back to Fort William I found a newspaper and discovered the result of the General Election (though I wasn’t surprised unlike seemingly everyone else). Now that I could finally listen to the radio I listened to news commentators talking about the election while I wandered around the town. Eventually I decided that I should do another walk especially as the weather around Fort William was a lot brighter than it had been just a few short miles away in Glenfinnan, so I headed down the Glen Nevis road until I reached the Braveheart car park. The Munros of the Mamore Forest were looking fantastic at the bottom of the valley and made me wish that I had made better use of my time and been climbing those mountains instead. There had been several moments on this holiday when I had not used my time wisely to make the most of the good weather to climb mountains and I felt that this was one of them. Rather than trying any half-hearted attempt to go up a mountain at this late hour, I decided that I would continue the viewpoints theme started in Glenfinnan by talking a path from the Braveheart car park marked Cow Hill Circuit.

I followed yellow ringed posts around the side of the hill with extensive views opening out. At first the views were over the grassland to the east of Fort William and extending into the Great Glen, but as I passed round to the northern slopes of the hill the view shifted to look over the northern end of Loch Linnhe and Fort William began to open up in the foreground. By now it was becoming quite warm under the sunshine, but a short distance away on the hills to the north, where I had just spent the week, dark clouds remained. As I had found out: those hills like their rain and must be among the wettest places in Scotland. Meanwhile I was enjoying this relaxing walk along a good, well-made path with good views developing over the town of Fort William while slowly making my way along the path. Although I love wild country I do prefer to enjoy it from the ease of a well-made, and most importantly, dry path. Often the best, wildest looking places are man-made and have been deliberately designed to look wild and this path was just such an example as it passes through delightful landscape with great views of town and loch.

The Cow Hill Circuit path took me around the hill to the south-western corner where a wide track with extensive views south towards Blarmachfoldach took me up heather covered slopes to the col behind Cow Hill. The track swings round towards the top of Cow Hill so I decided to come off the circuit and follow the track all the way up to the transmitter that sits at the top of the hill and looks out over Fort William. The views from there were not as good as I had seen earlier so I headed back to the col and rejoined the circuit path as it enters the Glen Nevis Wood and descends steeply down into the valley heading back to the Braveheart car park. Before reaching the car park I turned right to follow forest roads that would take me to the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel. I rather enjoyed this short walk, and the earlier one around Glenfinnan, as they were on good, dry paths that were a welcome change from the boggy paths that I had endured earlier in the holiday. I’m not fond of walking through bogs and prefer a well-made path that keeps my boots dry. This holiday had a lot of ups and downs with the weather making a significant impact on my enjoyment, but I also didn’t feel that I had made the most of the weather I did get. I really do need to learn to make better use of the weather whenever I am in Scotland.