My priority is to enjoy the most beautiful scenery in the most remote places. I do not want to walk in areas where the land is divided by roads or fields. I invest effort in gathering myself, my equipment take time away from my family and working life so walking where there is a sense of space and adventure gives me the most back. The north west coast of Scotland is a spectacularly beautiful environment and is mostly wilderness.
The area that is the most interesting for walking is maybe 60 km across and 400 km up. The possibility for finding trails that make sense is limited by mountains and lochs and peninsulas and the sea. There is only a small number of routes that can be made that flow through the landscape. Trails should allow uninterrupted, challenging, walking that smoothly transitions from one location to the next. They should be free from; diversions, road walking, paths that have to be repeated, dead ends or large sections of traverses across rough country that go against geological formations.
Trails should have the possibility to complete them without support teams, ie. have points for restocking, local shops every 50 or 100km, places for alternative accommodation, such as campsites, bothies or hostels to allow washing clothes, showers and the recharging of batteries. My personal opinion is they should be accessible to everyone, meaning not exclusive or expensive to complete. They should have a low environmental impact and easy to access by public transport.
If you are going to complete a long trail, the combination of sound technique, good (not perfect) physical condition, well chosen equipment and determination are all key. One weakness in any one of these can halt your efforts. But the most important characteristic is the will to do it. If the trail goes through amazing landscapes, if it fires the imagination, provides a challenge on the limit of your abilities, is exciting as both concept and in participation, then your chances of succeeding are good.
It started with a questions. Why aren’t there more trails like the Cape Wrath Trail? The West Highland Way is beautiful but busy and not very remote. Other famous trails such as the Skye trail are amazing but shorter. People around the world are doing longer and longer walks, in America trails are thousands of miles long so could there be one like that in Scotland. The Scottish National Trail is 890 km long but its designed as is a “National Trail” one that shows off the whole of the country including the capital city and rural areas. I wanted a trail that was longer and more challenging and as wild as the CWT. But I could not find one.
So I searched for small sections of trail that made sense, then I tried to find pieces of paths that connected them. I eventually found a route that worked, but there were still questions about its viability, until I had walked it.
By finding alternatives to the CW trail I came across another question, what if I could go up one trail and down the other? I could then fulfil my dream of a sustained trail of over 1000 km.
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