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.