Cannich to Struy

19 August 2012 - Cannich to Struy

Distance - 14.6 miles

Weather - Very sunny

We stayed at - Kinkell House Hotel, Easter Kinkell, Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, IV7 8HY

One of the limitations of walking using a car for transportation, rather than walking from hotel to hotel, is that you need to return to your starting place at the end of your walk. On the other three days of this holiday we were able to build public transport into our plans.

We have two sections where Struy is an endpoint in our walk, but over the four days that we're here, there is only one day where there's a bus running. As a result we had to build a circular walk into our itinerary. 

River Glass near Cannich

We parked the car at Cannich and ambled up the main road. There

St Ignatius spring

were a few cars and a couple of bicycles, but not much else. For a road walk it was quite pleasant, with views of the River Glass, fat and full, meandering up the glen. The sun was quite hot, but the trees gave us some shade. We passed a spring, unmarked on the map, dedicated to St. Ignatius, which was erected to celebrate the coronation of the Queen.

Countryside between Cannich & Struy

We arrived at Struy around one o'clock, hoping to have lunch at the renowned Struy Inn, but being a Sunday the pub didn't open till four. We mournfully continued, crossing the river using a single track road bridge. At the other side we passed a house to be greeted by the barking of dogs. What was unusual was the large number of them. Peering into the garden we could see a collection of cages, and we passed by, the barking turned into howling. ooOOOOOOOoooooo! They sounded like a pack of wolves and continued singing for ages. we were about half a mile down the road before they stopped. We decided they must have been a pack of huskies. It seems that kind of area where people are into husky racing.

River Glass

We walked back to Cannich along the southwest side of the river, along a single track road that services the farms and hamlets over there. It's less tree lined than the northeast side road, and rises above the flat bottomed glen, giving suberb views of the hills on the other side. This road was even less used that the other, and pretty much every car we saw was a landrover. It may have been the same landrover. And that was about it. We stopped in a passing place for our plan B lunch: mini cheddars, randoms, and liquorice allsorts, then continued on to Cannich.

By the end of the fourteen miles we were feeling it a bit, but had enjoyed another day of unexpectedly excellent weather. 

Dingwall to Muir of Ord

18 August 2012 - Dingwall to Muir of Ord

Distance - 8.4 miles

Weather - Sunny

We stayed at - The Priory Hotel, The Square, Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7BX

We set off from home in the car with the weather dull and promising rain, but by the

Glimpse of a dolphin

time we stopped at Inverness for a fuel top up, the sun was well and truly shining.

As we crossed the bridge on the other side of Inverness, Alistair commented that we were crossing the Beauly Firth. I remembered that the Beauly Firth was one of the best places in the world to see dolphins, so I asked Al to look out of the passenger window and report what he saw. "A boat. Another boat. A ripple in the water I could if I was being optimistic, say was from a dolphin. No, it is a dolphin! And a another one! Two, three, four, five, six, seven!" There was a bus stop just on the other side of the bridge, and we could see two cars stopped in it already. So we joined them and quickly made our way back to where we could see the Firth properly and I actually got to see in Scotland, what I never saw in New Zealand! Shortly, we went back to the car and set off again, passing the official dolphin centre about 50 further down the road! A bit further along the road we saw a Red Kite flying above the road. It seemed it was going to be a interesting holiday.

  

We got to Muir of Ord train station at 12:20. We were a bit early for the 13:55 that we'd planned to catch, but a quick look at the timetable showed us there was one at 12:36. We unhurriedly changed into walking boots and crossed to the other platform. Some helpful boys asked if we were going to Dingwall, and confirmed we were on the right platform. There was moment of drama when the train appeared and the station clock still said 12:35. "Let it be early," one of the boys said hopefully as the train came to a stop. The clock clicked to 12:36 just as the train stopped and the other 2 boys gave it a rousing cheer.

  

Muir of Ord Station & tearoom

The train pulled up at Dingwall some 10 minutes later, and our door opened fortuitously at the station tea room. Just in the nick of time. We sat outside enjoying our tea and bacon rolls, watching the waitress attempt to shoo away the seagull and chick that had been skulking around looking peckish. Alistair noticed, belatedly, there was actually a pub further along the platform. As we sat though, it filled with football fans. There were a lot of Celtic strips, which I thought was a bit odd. We didn't know who was playing who. At one point we heard the crowd on the TV or radio roar as, we assumed, a goal was scored. Looking over, there seemed to be one person regaling the celtic fans with a song unknown to us, while they looked at their beers. After finishing our nutritious lunch (and the cake) we set off walking south towards Conon Bridge. It wasn't very far along the road, but there seemed to be a lot of police cars around, more than we'd seen on the rest of the walk.

At Conon Bridge we stopped for a very nice pint of Trade Winds - it would be rude not to - at the pub. In the other bar they were evidently watching football, and we heard the chants of a few people, "Come on Ross County!". They were clearly relishing the game they were watching. Later we discovered that Ross County were indeed playing Celtic and had very nearly won, with Celtic only equalising in the 93rd minute. No wonder they were celebrating.

  

Road near Newton of Ferintosh

Duly replenished after our arduous two mile journey, knowing we

Scenery near Muir of Ord

wouldn't see civilisation for a good five miles hence. Tina had found a route that avoided main roads, first running parallel to the very busy A835, then crossing it at the B9169 and then heading south along some little windy roads. In fact this whole area from Conon Bridge to Muir of Ord is more like an extended housing estate for the well-off. The houses are generally large, in large plots of land, some were previously farmhouses. There are some placenames for the general areas - Balvaird, Ord Muir and Newmore, but outsiders like us can't tell where one starts and another ends. We reached Muir of Ord after a nice easy walk, with more colour about us than when we started. A great start to the holiday.

Remains of Beauly priory

Beauly is quite a big village, big enough to support a deli, Indian restaurant, clothes shop, art place and two small supermarkets. It has a ruined priory, which our hotel was named after. The chip shop next door is called "The Friary". I love it when a pun comes together.

Beauly sits on the side of the River Beauly, which was, when we were there, a large, spectacular river with a wilderness on the other side, but the council don't make anything of it at all. We only knew it was there because of our maps. It is hidden behind bushes and a rusting iron fence like some embarrassing industrial zone and we had to search for a spot to see it properly. Perhaps we saw it at its best, maybe its tidal and becomes a horrible mud hole when the tide is out...

Drumnadrochit to Tomich

17 May 2012 - Drumnadochit to Tomich

Distance - 16.9 miles

Weather - Wet - the Scots call it dreich

We stayed at - Tomich Hotel, Tomich, Near Cannich, By Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7LY
Cost £130.00

From having such a lovely day yesterday, our last day was back to rain
again.

The plan for the day was to toddle along Glen Urquart, down to the River Glass at Cannich and then follow the river south to Tomich. One of the aims of today is to reduce our next walk by as much as possible. The only reason we're going to Tomich is that we weren't able to find accommodation at Cannich.

Walking along A831

The first three and a half miles were on the road, which wasn't hugely enjoyable, but we made good progress. The morning school runs were out of the way by 10:00 and it was quieter after that.

We had a few options to consider about our route. One variation off the road took us through a forest for a few miles. Another took us off over the shoulder of some of the hills, avoiding the second half of the day's road walking. The downside of this second variation was that we'd not go past Cannich, meaning we'd have to begin our next walk at Tomich, adding an extra two and a half miles to our next journey. A third choice was, if we went past Cannich whether or not to detour into the village, or take the quicker road straight to Tomich.

Buffeted birches

Taking the forest track was not a difficult decision, the track seemed well marked and added little to our mileage. It was an enjoyable tramp, the forest not too enclosed. There were a lot of birch trees which were bent over and some broken, presumably the result of storms. We were slightly fortunate, we saw signs saying the track had previously been shut to pedestrians due to a car race taking place. But that was in February. Signs last a long time around here, it seems.

Towards the end of the track we passed by a farm with the evocative name of "Shewglie" (this means wobbly in Scotland), then through a hamlet called Shenval. As we approached the main road again, we had to decide whether to take the high track over the hills, or the low road via Cannich.

Spectacular, if misty, views

We decided to take the road; it's easier for us to do a bit of extra road walking now, with light packs and shortish days, than it will be next time we're here with big rucksacks and big days. The snow even on the low hills we would have gone over helped us make that choice.

So it was a bit of a trudge along the road again. The clouds were lifting, so we started to get some views of the hills around us, then Glen Cannich, across the other side of the River Glass.

Eventually we got down to the bridge at Cannich, and decided to cross it into the village. I'd had a look online when planning the trip and found that the only hotel had been shut for a while, so we didn't hold out much hope of finding much. It turned out to be quite large, if sparsely populated. We found a cafe and, on the outskirts of the far side if the village, a pub. We plumped for the latter, where we had a couple of drinks and a toastie each. It turns out that there was accommodation too - a B&B or two and the pub had chalets. Don't know if they would have been suitable for us just staying one night, but we'll know next time. By now the rain had cleared up, and we had some good views up Glen Affrick, and the surrounding hills.

Fasnakyle Power Station

We passed a Scottish Hydro power station, which Alistair decided

Views over to Glen Affrick

was the source of all electricity in our house.

The hotel at Tomich was really nice - a big, warm room, and good food. I feel we're likely to come back here, even apart from our last part of the LEJOG.

The next morning we had to get to Inverness for our train. There was supposed to be a bus service leaving from the hotel at 9:30, but with these local services, you never know whether they will get cancelled. As it turned out it was fine, it turned up on time and was relatively busy. The cheery driver knew everyone's name and probably life history. She pointed out the train station when we got to Inverness, without us asking, which was both kind & helpful. The train journey back was awful - very crowded - thank goodness we had reservations. The only upside was I had booked these ages ago and it only cost £21.00 for both of us to get back to Stirling! 

Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit

16 May 2012 - Invermoriston to Drumnadochit

Distance - 15.3 miles

Weather - Dry, occasionally sunny and warm!!

We stayed at - Greenlea B&B, The Village Green, Drumnadrochit, Inverness-shire, IV63 6TX
Cost £65.00

Quite a hilly one today, with an elevation profile rivaling the bigger days of the WHW. Straight out the hotel and you're steep up hundred metres or so, then gradually coming down to within 40m of Loch Ness. The first two thirds of the day was in forest, some hemmed in, some with open vistas, and some looking up at the hillside beside you.

We dawdled along, stopping to talk to a couple of guys we'd seen back at the Eagle barge/pub. They'd started at Fort William the same very rainy day as us, but were intending to camp along the way. When they got to Gairlochy all their gear, sleeping bags included, were soaked. They were unhappy and freezing and wet. They would have given up, except that they were able to hire a caravan at the campsite for the rest of the week - consequently they were taking the bus one way every day.

Views looking into the forest

Generally the walk was quite high up, and we found a nice bench to sit and sun

Views of Loch Ness

ourselves on for a while - the only time it happened that whole fortnight, as I remember.

The last third of the day was different. We came out of the mostly evergreen forest and climbed through an open, older looking woodland, almost entirely deciduous in nature. Then we followed an access road along the flat top of the hill. Although we were not far from Loch Ness, it was hidden by the hillside.

Then there was a steep descent to Drumnadrochit, where we found our B&B right in the heart of the village. 

Drumnadrochit is the self proclaimed capital of all things 'Nessie'. There are two competing tourist trap centres, one which looked long established, the other, more brighly coloured, appeared to cater for people with shorter attention spans. Apart from that, there are several restaurants and cafes, and - as far as we can tell - no pubs. 'The Fiddler's' which somehow specialises in whiskey turned out to be a restaurant, which was a disappointment.

It also started to rain after we got here. We've temporarily renamed the village 'Drumnadrookit,' but from the forecast it looks like it's US that'll be drookit tomorrow.

For people doing the GGW tomorrow is a long 20 miles to Inverness, but we take a left turn here, heading west to Tomich.

Invergarry to Invermoriston

15 May 2012 - Invergarry to Invermoriston

Distance - 15.8 miles

Weather - Generally sunny, but some heavy hail showers

We stayed at - Glenmoriston Arms Hotel, Invermoriston, Inverness-shire, IV63 7YA  Cost £80.00

Started off today with a tiny bit of road walk, then up into the forest. It

Bridge of Oich

was quite warmish and we had some good views of Loch Oich. After a bit we headed down to Bridge of Oich. There are at least three bridges in the vicinity, although the swing bridge is on the opposite bank and once you're across the river you're in Aberchalder.

While Loch Oich is the smallest of the Great Glen lochs, you wouldn't believe it, seeing the amount of water flooding out of it into the River Oich. For the first time on the GGW the river is heading north with us. We crossed over both the bridge and the canal before heading  northeast along the canal path.

We passed a nice looking teashop, which had a railway theme with railway signs and even a light gauge railway in the garden. We didn't stop, deciding to press on to Fort Augustus.

Approach to Kytra Lock

After a mile or so we crossed the canal to the north via Cullochy Lock, and continued to Loch Ness along the narrow strip of land between the canal and the river. I mentioned the river is already big flowing out of Loch Oich. Near Kytra Lock, the canal which is already wide gets even wider, almost becoming a loch in itself. It has islands, one with a pair of nesting swans.

We met a woman as we were walking along the path, and as we were chatting, recognised her as the one who had asked us for directions back in Gairlochy. It turns out she's been staying in one place, and taking the bus to the start of her walk, and back from the end. She didn't know which way we were heading from the path we took because she'd only just got off the bus, and had never been there before. It all made sense.

Fort Augustus

As we arrived in  Fort Augustus, it started to get cold. There is a set of locks and near the bottom is a jolly nice pub, where we sat near the fire, had a drink and ate some home made Victoria sponge. We sat and earwigged as the barman and an old customer talked about fishing, old times and people they knew back in the day.

Eventually we left the pub and headed toward the north shore of Loch Ness. As we did so a sudden hailstorm hit. It looked like it might, as usual, last five minutes before turning back to sunshine. Alistair suggested to me that it wasn't worth putting waterproof trousers on, as because by the time they were on the precipitation would be over. He said it would be better to make for the shelter of the forest path. Grudgingly I agreed. Unfortunately the hail/rain/sleet downpour lasted a bit longer, and the sheltering forest was further away than expected. Pretty quickly I was writing him out of my will if I died of hypothermia. Soon enough though the sun came out and the forest steamed as the rain evaporated. We dried off, and heated up eventually. Next time the hail came on, I put my waterproofs on immediately. Of course the hail stopped as soon as I did!

View just north of Fort Augustus

We'd heard the GGW is all closed in forest walk with no views. We were pleased to find it's not as bad as that. Trees can obscure the views, but there are clear spots every so often. The path is often a good height above the loch, which gives those views more impact. Also the forest is usually quite open, only hemming the path in on both sides occasionally. This is what the five miles to Invermoriston were like.

As we descended to our destination, we heard the sound of a waterfall - or was it road traffic? A glance at the map showed 'waterfall' on our path, but we didn't come across a stream big enough to produce the sound we heard. 'Must be traffic' we decided.

Waterfalls at Invermoriston

We got to the bottom of what I'm guessing is Glen Moriston, and found a huge set of waterfalls, which are a big tourist attraction. That would explain THAT. So a day of explanations it was...

Laggan Locks Revisited

22 September 2012 - Laggan Locks

Distance - 7.86 miles

Weather - Clear and Bright

True to our word, we came back to finish the half mile of the LEJOG that we couldn't walk earlier in the year because of logging. Although it was actually only half a mile that we missed, we felt we had to walk it, as otherwise we could never really claim to have walked all the way from Lands End to John O'Groats. Daft I know, but if a jobs worth doing...

It was a wonderful day when we set off from Stirling in my little Smart car. It was one of those bright, clear autumn days when the sky is just totally blue and the lochs act as perfect mirrors for the mountains at their edges. In short it was a glorious day.

We parked at Laggan Locks and had lunch at The Eagle barge - perhaps not as much as we would have liked to have eaten. We forgot that they only took cash and so had to pool our limited resources and choose wisely from the menu!

After that we walked out to the spot where the path closure occurred (where we had to get into the forestry Landrover), then did the return leg back to the car. We walked back further than we needed to, just to ensure all the lines would match up on out GPS track of our LEJOG journey. It was amazing to see how the hillsides had been stripped clean of any trees. There were huge culverts and still piles of logs stacked by the side of the track in places, but we walked there and back with no fuss. I then drove us back to Stirling.

Gairlochy to Invergarry

14 May 2012 - Gairlochy to Invergarry

Distance - 18.1 miles

Weather - Mostly dry, some heavy showers

We stayed at - Glengarry Castle Hotel, Invergarry, Inverness-shire, PH35 4HW  Cost £188.00 (DBB)

When we woke the weather had improved and we could see the mountains to the south from our bedroom window. It turned out to be an intriguing day. As we were leaving Gairlochy, we bumped into a woman looking about her, slightly bemused. She asked where we were going. 'The Great Glen Way' Alistair replied, pointing at the sign. 'Towards Inverness' I more usefully added. She asked where the path was. 'To Fort William?' Alistair verified, remembering what happened at Balmaha. 'Yes,' she confirmed, so Alistair pointed out where the track went south and off she went. We couldn't work out how she didn't know where we were going, as surely she must have come down the track we were heading for? If not that morning, then the night before? A mystery indeed.

The fairy forest

Bracket fungus on a birch

The majority of this part of the GGW is along the bank of the ingeniously named Loch Lochy, we choose to walk down by the shore, to get a good view of the loch, rather than follow the path through the woods. As we cut down through a well established track, we were met by an arch with a lantern swinging from it, there were large wooden toadstools and other interesting things left along the edge of the track. Finally we came to a clearing absolutely full of soft toys. Then a big sign made of individual wooden letters spelling out "The Fairy Forest".

Remains of Practice Landing Craft

Further on, we came across the concrete base of some strange looking structure, which turned out to be the remains of an original practice landing craft, used by the Army and Royal Marine commandos during WW2. Nearby Achnacarry House apparently served as the Commando Basic Training Centre during this time.

After a couple of miles we detoured off the official GGW track, as our

Eas Chia-aig

landlady at Gairlochy had recommended we head away from the loch, through Achnacarry, to the head of another loch called Loch Arkaig. There we crossed a long and dodgy-looking wooden bridge over the swollen river to reach 'Eas Chia-aig' on the other side, which is a great waterfall that comes crashing down the mountain. From there we followed the magical-feeling 'Mile Dorche' or Dark Mile, which runs down a narrow, steep sided glen with mossy, lichen covered trees on both sides. We arrived back at Loch Lochy near Clunes, having added an extra mile to our journey, but we felt it was well worth it.

Path closure!

The next seven or eight miles were along forestry road. We were happily looking at views and dodging sudden rain storms when disaster struck! We were stopped by some Forestry Commission people because the path ahead was closed. They were giving walkers and cyclists lifts through the affected area, but that was little use for us as we couldn't take lifts, so we stepped aside to consider our options.There was a path heading steeply uphill from us and we asked if we could use that instead. No, we were told, the machinery was up there too. As we couldn't walk by the loch itself at this point, our only alternative was to walk back to where we started, some ten miles back, and walk along the other side of the loch. Since we didn't feel we could walk a total of 28 miles that day, we took the offered lift, vowing to return in the autumn when the logging was over to properly finish this part of the Lands End to John O'Groats walk. As we were being driven through, we could see why it was necessary - there were giant, powerful machines swinging logs around, stripping off all their branches with a single motion or piling them up ready for the next phase. The operators would not have seen any of the pedestrians before they were crushed / decapitated / maimed. Sometimes Health & Safety is nonsensical, but in this case it wasn't!

At the end of Loch Lochy are the Laggan Locks, where we came across a barge, still on the canal, which had been converted into a pub called the Eagle. The interior is a real treat, as were the beers (it'd be rude not to try one), and their seafood has a good reputation.

The next bit was a mile or so alongside the canal to Loch Oich, then we

Ruins of Invergarry Castle

veered off the GGW proper to get to our accommodation at Invergarry. This involved a mile or two of potentially life threatening road walking along the A82. Invergarry Castle Hotel is our 'treat' hotel of the holiday. It's a lovely place with the ruins of Invergarry Castle in its grounds and private fishing available on Loch Oich. Our room was big, almost a suite, and the bathroom large enough to have been used as a double bedroom. Dinner was very enjoyable, though perhaps not quite as perfect as our last visit 10 years ago.