North to the Cape - Day 4: Barrisdale to a Potting Shed

This was going to be an easy day.  A stroll along the side of Loch Hourn to Kinloch Hourn, then a bit of a climb to camp below Sgurr na Sgine.  It would be 8 miles and leave us in a good place for the following day's crossing into Glen Shiel, with a possible detour onto the Saddle.  Well, without wishing to give away too much, it wasn't going to pan out quite like that.

We had a slow start and didn't get away from the bothy until 10am.  It was still windy and showery but on brief occasions we got to see our shadows.  The track out of Barrisdale was good.  So good in fact that we missed the right turn to KLH and ended up on the small promontory where the loch narrows.  Backtracking, we found a smaller path and set off on the first of a series of climbs, totalling 800 or 900 ft, which define the character of this stretch of the route.  Brook and Hinchcliffe descibe the path down the side of Loch Hourn as 'laborious' and this seems to have informed every other commentator on this stretch of the walk.

Looking west along Loch Hourn

The way the book splits the route puts this stretch at the end of a day and the expectation of a flat walk by the loch side might put a downer on the day when this isn't realised.  We were fresh, more of less, and I rather liked this section. We were also spurred on by the promise of a tea room in KLH, which we had learnt about from someone staying in the bothy.

The tea room didn't disappoint and after an hour (oh alright, an hour and a half), an extremely large and tasty corned beef sandwich and a huge pot of tea, we reluctantly set about the rest of the day's walk.  Now whether it was lightheadedness due to a real cup of tea or the crossing of the previous three bealachs or some other factor, I can't say but a degree of numptiness set in and it lasted for the next 24 hours.

The tea room at Kinloch Hourn















The first episode was in trying to find the way out of KLH.  A large sign clearly indicating the direction to Glen Elg was followed up by a number of closed gates into what looked like front gardens, a path along the beach to nowhere and a path higher up and parallel to the beach.  We could see where we needed to be - up by some pylons - but there was no obvious way to reach it.  So we set off up the side of a stream coming down the hillside, straight up the fall line, spurred on by the occassional evidence of others having passed this way, probably also lost!

It was steep and seemingly endless but eventually we reached the path and after a brief spell of immoderate language aimed towards people with locked gates, a sense of normality was restored.  It even started raining again and the wind got up a bit and we felt much better.

The track to Sgurr na Sgine

The intention had been to camp by Allt a Choire Reidh, between Buidhe Bheinn and Sgurr na Sgine, somewhere near where the ford is marked on the map.  On the one hand this was madness.  It's a horrible place to camp.  It's boggy and lumpy and windswept.  I guess in better weather it might look more inviting but it would still be a bad place to put a tent.  On the other hand, there is a useful garden shed there, which the Book describes as a shelter.  I must have read about this back in Sheffield but I wasn't carrying the Book.  I was carrying a book (which I never opened in the entire 7 days).  I just wasn't carrying the Book.  Anyway because I wasn't carrying the Book, I couldn't read that it wasn't intended as a place to sleep.  So armed with this ignorance, and after evicting a large number of spiders, we spent the night there listening to the increasingly heavier rain and wind.

The potting shed

For future reference, camp at KLH.  Whilst it is possible for two people to spend a moderately comfortable night in the potting shed, it is not intended for that and camping up there would be hopeless.

9.5 miles and 2,900 ft for the day.  37 miles from Glenfinnan.

Dodd Fell

A brief break in the telling of the North to The Cape caper - there's more on the way.



Christine and I drove up to Hawes on Friday night in the campervan - we'd had enough discomfort in small tents and bothies of late. The River Ure was flowing well. Christine asked me, "Do fancy having a go at that one?", alluding to our recent stream crossing activities. "No I haven't got my gaiters with me". "You surely don't think they'd make any difference?". "Well, yes, a psychological one". "In that case you be better wrapping them round your head as a blindfold."


It rained all night, of course, and we set out quite late on Saturday morning to walk over Dodd Fell and Drumaldrace, both Mintoes or Norberts or something like that. Whenever I see Dodd Fell mentioned I think of the old joke about Ken Dodd:

Ken Dodd's just died
Did he?
No ,Doddy


Anyway, after getting lost in Gayle - yes I know, it's not big enough to lose anything in - we picked up some Pennine Way signs which seemed to be going in the right direction. It started to rain but we are used to that. It got windy - really quite windy. We are used to that too. We reached the summit despite these setbacks. 

 Another fine summer's day














I think I'm going to write to the Ordnance Survey. Someone has planted the trig pillar in the middle of swamp. What's all that about? Surely that can't be the top?  If it was the top, all the water would be draining away from it - wouldn't it? 

Anyway, there were fine views of P-Y-G, Wherneside and Ingleborough. They'd have been finer with less cloud but it was nevertheless impressive to see them from a different angle.

Two out of three:  Whernside and Ingleborough







 Bit of a navigational nightmare and lots of splodging to get down to the Cam Houses road. I managed to open up a cut on my thumb, which I'd created on Thursday evening slicing a pepper (ok, I admit it was an alcohol related accident), with the result that I had blood pouring down my hand whilst trying to find the first aid kit and peel open a plaster with my teeth. I'm writing to Boots as well to have words about the way they pack their product. 


We walked within spitting distance of Drumaldrace but given the ominous black cloud approaching, didn't feel inspired to go to the top. I'm not a ticker and Christine had ticked it already, albeit almost entirely from the comfort of a Vauxhall Astra (no hang on, that's an oxymoron).

Semer Water, Addlebrough and an ominous black cloud from below Drumaldrace












So on down to Burtersett, passing within spitting distance of the top of Yorburgh,  and along the wrong footpath back to the campsite.

10.6 miles, 1750ft

North to the Cape - Day 3: Sourlies to Barrisdale

This was going to be a sea level to sea level day with a whopping great climb in the way but my main worry was crossing the River Carnach.  I'd read a few reports of desperate times fording this in flood - and it had rained most of the previous day.  The map appeared to show a bridge near Carnoch but the Book didn't mention one and neither had anything else I'd read.

We were packed up by 9:30 and strolled over to the bothy to have a look inside.  It's much smaller than the other two we'd visited so far - really quite intimate.

Sourlies Bothy

The tide was in and we scrambled over some rocks along the water's edge before taking an indistinct track over the headland.  On the far side was a large flat expanse of grassy meadow with the River Carnach defining its northern edge.  We aimed for the west end of what looked like a large sheep fold and crossed at a point where the river was slightly braided.  The previous day's rain had had no effect on water levels and it was only about 6" deep.  Phew!  However, a few hundred yards upstream, just before Carnoch, we found the bridge.  It's an exciting construction in need of some repair and a health and safety fan had planted a sign to warn of the danger in using it.  Getting on and off the southern end looked like it could be a problem in flood but it would probably still be a safer option than wading.  I'd use it.  In fact I did and I didn't die!

The wobbly bridge over the River Carnach.  It doesn't quite reach the far bank and you would want to cross one person at a time.

The valley which the Carnach flows down really is beautiful and varied.  We strolled along the river bank for a while, quite a long while actually, with Knoydart's Munroes either side of us - rugged, majestic, steep sided mountains rising up from sea level. 

The ruins of Carnoch from the bridge, Ben Aden in the background

Further upstream the track climbs through some trees and over rocks.  There are some deep plunge pools, which on a warmer day would have been hard to resist swimming in.  We stopped about 1pm for lunch on some sand banks, at the point on the map where a ruin is marked and one of the suggested camping sites in the Book.  On the OS map the path runs out around about here but on the ground there is a reasonably distinct  track which finally peters out a little before the river makes a sharp right turn into a gorge round the north side of Ben Aden.  This left us facing a headwall and our route was up and through this.  We took a line between the small waterfall on the left and the gorge on the right, which involved a bit of easy scrambling.  There was some evidence of others having passed this way.  At one point we thought the world was about to end when a Tornado jet fighter came screaming up the valley, 3 missiles on either wing and pulling a lot of Gs round the slopes of the mountain.  It would spoil the challenge to describe our route in detail and in any case I can't remember it now - it snaked about quite a lot to follow natural lines of weakness.  We were looking for the track from Loch Quoich which would take us down Gleann Unndalain to Barrisdale. In fact I had somehow managed to climb about 50' above it and it was only when I turned round to check Christine was ok that I noticed it below me.  It's a good path with fine views and it took us about an hour to climb the 800' up to the bealach, a southerly wind strengthening the higher we went.  Unlike the previous two bealachs we had crossed, which had long plateau sections, this was more like a narrow doorway between two worlds.  The one we were leaving was of a wide, open, glaciated valley with sweeping curves and a slow meandering river.  The world we were propelled into by the wind was narrow and claustrophobic, a deeply incised V shaped valley of straight lines and sharp angles.  We started the descent, initially keeping the stream on our right but crossing over after a short while.  It's pretty obvious when you're there. 

Looking down Gleann Unndalain

The track down Gleann Unndalain seems to go on a bit after a long day and the rain, which had held off all day, came back with a renewed fury.  

Barrisdale Bay from Gleann Unndalain

Eventually Barrisdale Bay came into view and it took us about two hours from the col to reach the settlement .  There is a bothy and a camping field - details at http://www.barrisdale.com/.  For reasons of conservation, camping elsewhere in the bay isn't allowed, which is fair enough. 

The bothy at Barrisdale

We decided to stay in the bothy.  There were some other walkers staying there who were using it as a base to tick off the local Munros.  I think we were in bed by 8pm or shortly after.  All this navigational stuff makes a chap sleepy.

We'd covered 9.5 miles and 2,200ft ascent that day and 28 miles from Glenfinnan.