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!