Glenfinnan to Broadford

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This section of the trail is 109 km and 3315 meters of ascent. From Glenfinnan take the Cape Wrath Trail through the spectacular and remote Knoydart region before heading west to Gelelg and the Kylerhea ferry to Skye. Then take the old Kylerhae to Kinloch path before crossing the moor to Broadford, 5 days.

Glenfinnan to Glenn a’ Chaorain

I mentioned before getting to Fort William from Glenfinnan is not problem and staying for an evening, in a hostel, maybe having a couple of drinks and resupplying in the morning makes sense on this trail. The step between Tobermory and  Broadford is about 200km and nine days so having a resupply in the middle makes sense. I arrive at the bothy to find a few walkers leaving to do some Munro’s and a guy who was hanging out for the day, doing some bothy maintenance. He had tea and gave me a few bags. I had a few food items from my resupply and left them in the bothy. We got to talking and I decided quite quickly this was going to be a half day. My first time off since I started and I very much enjoyed our conversation over more cups of tea. I made lunch and it was time to part. So 470m of elevation over the bealach to Glenn a’ Chaorainn where there are many places to camp. I pitch up and enjoy the rest of an easy day, eating and dosing. 8 km today.

I am now on part of the Cape Wrath Trail and a part I have done before, albeit in the other direction. I am very excited about the next couple of days, I will be walking through one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, through the Knoydart region. The path winds high into the mountains and low by sea lochs. I am using this part of the Cape Wrath Trail for the Iona Cape Wrath Trail I am proposing, there really is no alternative that does not involve miles of pathless yomping or miles of boring road walking. I had considered accessing Skye via Mallaig but it would end up one long road walk and to miss the Knoydart region would be crime. If I make it to do the return journey to Oban I will take the Cape Wrath variation which heads towards the Great Glen above Shiel Bridge and approaches Fort William from the north. This will enable a full circuit without doubling over any paths. I feel that is important for the integrity of the trail. A Trail should flow through the land and I think this planned one does. It also make it possible that people can start the Cape Wrath Trail in Fort William and decide to do this alternate Island trail by turning west towards Glenelg instead of north to Shiel Bridge.

 A grey day but not unpleasant. It is the first day I discovered my perfect camping breakfast, which I named ’10 kilometre Breakfast’. It is very easy to prepare, so no faffing, and has just the right balance for me. Boil about 5-600ml water. Add about half of the boiled water to Muesli and leave for 5-10 mins in insulated screw top plastic pot. Put a tea bag in the remaining boiled water in the sausepan and put the lid back on. Now add a couple of spoons of chocolate flavoured muscle gain powder to the muesli. Stir in and eat with well brewed tea. No packets of coffee to deal with or measurements of powder. Make sure the teabags don’t contain plastic and you can dispose of them easily. 

I believe Muscle Weight Gain Powder is what works best for camping. Something like ‘USN Hyperbolic Mass Gainer’. You don’t need lean protein powder.  As this product contains both protein and carbohydrate in a lightweight form, your body can burn the carbohydrate while using the protein to repair your muscles. Taking protein only may lead to the protein being repurposed by the body as energy and not used for your muscles repair. That is the theory, but that aside, I could not find a more efficient food stuff to take with me per grams weight. It is very light and can be drunk between meals as a shake or made with hot water for a warming evening drink. It is easy to make a shake at anytime to revive your spirits and legs. You hardly need to stop, which is a tremendous advantage as you don’t loose rhythm and get cold. First fill your screw topped pot with water. Add some powder, just pour it out of a bag, no need to measure, close the lid and shake for half a minute as you walk on. Then enjoy carbohydrates and proteins all designed to help your muscles work and repair after work. It’s like supper-charged chocolate milk. 

I also saw the benefit of super green powder for backpacking. The diet of a long distance trekker is often a compromise. Because you need as many calories as you can get many people fall into bad habits of eating whatever they fancy, (meaning chocolate and chips) without regard to food content. Secondly the only foods which are available on the trail are whatever a local shop might offer and which is not to heavy to carry. That ends up to be mostly carbohydrate heavy, ultra-processed food. What is rarely available is fresh green vegetables. (However this trip I was able to pick up some bags of Spinach leaves and broccoli stems both of which can be added to food without having to be cooked.)  But mostly I used Super Greens by Protein works to make up for the lack of fresh vegetables. This again is a powder that is drunk as a shake. My packet had a subtle lemonade flavour which made a refreshing to drink. I don’t use these in normal life as I like to eat non processed foods but camping is a little different. 

An interesting walk today. Down the valley and into the forest where the rough road does a large loop and the path starts to head west. You will pass A’ Chùil Bothy and then at a mountain stream you can take one of two paths, both are fine. Once on the hillside the path goes up to the most impressive pass between high tops called Màm na Cloich’ Airde. You wind passed two small lochs. On this route there are so many good places to camp. You have three Bothies, open glens, passes with views, low shoreline open spaces and small grass platforms next to streams. I press on down to the shore passed the famous Sourlies Bothy and luckily the tide is out so its an easy stroll to Carnoch. If the tide is in there is a small path which from memory is a little harder. 

I love this country, except it has started to cloud over my feet are continually wet, and there are a couple of times my leg disappears into a bog. I am careful to extract my foot without leaving my shoe behind. My shoes are of the barefoot variety but this is no country to go bare barefoot. Also it is a reminder to me how happy I am my pack is not heavy and the bog falls do not cause any strains on my knees or back.

The path goes up the west side of the river Carnach, and you enter a beautiful section where small trees hog the banks and the path becomes more interesting until you turn a corner and find  a flat grassy area next to a small pool where I chose to camp. It is a beautiful area but by now late in the day it is grey and wet and there is not a breath of wind. So the midges are horrendous. A sad end to an amazing day. I would have loved a wash in the pool maybe to make a fire and watch the stars but not today. 

The paths of Scotland seem to follow a pattern where the further up the hillside the less distinct they are and this is the case as I climb over the Bealach Aoidhdailean then regain the path the other side and it turns into a nice stroll down a beautiful valley. I reach a small forest called Srath a’ Chomair where you have a choice, to go straight ahead over the hillside to the left of the forest or continue on the path right of the forest, which is a flatter route. Take this flatter and longer route. I took the shorter way and found the bridge over the roaring stream to be in bad repair. I took the fools approach of deep breadths and treading carefully rather than doubling back and was fine. After I had passed over the bridge I saw the sign, “DO NOT CROSS’. shame they did not post a sign on the other side as well. Now I was back on a proper road and passed a few farm buildings. 

Then to my joy two amazing Brochs. Dun Troddan and Dun Telve which were probably built between 2,000 and  2,500 years ago and are in amazing condition. Worth a little explore around. There is hardly a car and the road onwards clears the glen and curves round the shoreline to Glenelg which has a nice small shop and a pub. Passed the Bernera Barracks on a lovely path which leads round the coast to a glorious beach. 

There were nice places to camp between the road and the beach and I decided to shorten my day and enjoy the sands. The weather was fine.

I have a swim, wash my clothes and sit outside the tent with a drink and watch the light change across the bay, lovely. No midges here. I had no energy to walk the kilometre to the pub in Glenelg so I missed that pleasure.   

The night before I had debated whether to continue across the Kylerhea Ferry to Skye. It would have made it more likely that I could reach Broadford today, where there was a campsite and a few bigger shops to stock up in. However a beach and a very nice pitch without midges swung it for me. I was finding my rhythm and had done two weeks with only one half day off, so no need to stretch.  I was also getting tired, and this made todays walk seem intimidating. It was a path I wanted on this route, but what I had gathered from the internet, just one description and local info told me the path was very poor. I looked at the alternative of taking the road over Bealach Udal and all the way down to Broadford, and seriously considered it.  It was a grey overcast day with a cold wind. The forecast was to get worse before getting better. The ferry started at 10 am and the two kilometres round the coast was standard road walking, but joy there was a cafe at the ferry terminal. The ferry, ‘The Original Skye Ferry’, is run by the community and is very special. It is a manually operated turntable ferry and the only one still in operation in the UK (summer service only).

A hot cheese pastry and a coffee protected me from some of the chill and the ferry took no time to reach the other side. I set foot on the third island of this trip, the Isle of Skye. Waiting to cross was a tractor rally of vintage vehicles which looked perfectly matched to the vintage ferry. I chatted to the local RSPB officer as we walked up the road but my turning was soon and the start of the path sign posted.

The Kylerhea to Kinloch Path

Ten meters down it I was swamped in wet undergrowth and my shoes full of water. This was going to be a tough few hours. The rain started and it was too windy for my umbrella. I missed the path several times before I identified a wee lump on the hillside close to where it might be and just had to head that way. Again I was reminded that at this time of year the undergrowth at its most lush made finding the paths much harder. But this is a traditional route, and I was hoping for something more distinct. 

The advantage I had was that it followed a contour between 100 and 200 meters above the coast so I was not going to get lost. Once I found it there was evidence that it was an old trail. It had been bitten into the hillside, often with a small mound on the downward side. Possibly at one time it would have taken a small cart pulled by a pony or maybe it was used by people on horse back. On the moorland it survives well but as soon as I meet a bit of forest it is gone. Trees grow quickly and when they grow on the path the path is no longer there. I thought maybe I or someone with an axe should come and clear just the forested bits and join it all up again, but at present expect slow progress. Wee Scottish Forests are a nightmare to walk through.

Ferns grow 6 foot high and today everything is covered in water so it all transfers onto you. With a bit of hindsight it might be preferable to climb above the first wooded parts, before the the new forestry plantation and avoid them completely. Still I was kind of enjoying the madness of it. Struggling through catching little bits of path then loosing it again was all part of the whole trail. The new forestry destroyed a fair bit of this path. 

There was no visibility and I had been at this for hours. Parts of me that were becoming aquatic and developing gills and fins. Then there was a gap in the low cloud and I could see, about a kilometre away a forestry road. Comfort and the end was somewhere within the next hour of walking. The clouds closed in again leaving me with the briefest glimpse of how beautiful this walk would be on a fine day, with coastal views framed by grand mountains and distant horizons. But perseverance led to catching the trail again until a section of dense wood and I was stuck. No way forward I knew now the forestry commission road was somewhere below me. 

The way down was through short trees, and I found this strange circle, made by an animal, but which animal and wh I have no idea. This is not a place where any person has walked in a long time.

After this there are large boulders covered with earth and the finally 50 meters of impenetrable brambles over boggy ground. After this the road was reachable. I found a boulder to stand on to divine a route over this last obstacle. In seemingly impenetrable or really rough ground it is not that you cannot make progress it is just that you have to figure out the route which will be; least unpleasant, the quickest and will take the least energy. 

Experience and guess work, consider all options, around, back up, straight through, no this time I spotted a weakness in this last defence, a small stream about a foot wide and two foot deep provided a clearer way through. No bramble can grow in a stream but I can walk it, ducking and weaving and emerged triumphant onto the road. The road took me to a tourist path were I was able to rejoin part of the path I was originally on but I had to climb back up 100 meters to do so. Oh well it all averages out and I was glad I finished this mini epic on the line of the historic path. 

Now the road to Broadford is wide, fast and passes over a bleak moor, I did not fancy walking it. However the old road was substantially left in tack when the new one was built and is just 50 meters from where I was. Joy, it is flattish, smooth and quiet. As the rain had stopped, I started to dry out a bit, I sat down and ate a late lunch. The walk in to Broadford was almost within my grasp but the campsite was at the other side of the town and I was getting very tired. So let’s finds a place to park the tent. An hour of walking and looking and I found a small path running to the side of Lochain Dubha. 

Great, the old the-only-flat-place-is-the-path trick and since I have not met anyone all day, not likely to be in anyones way, check. 

OK, so I did not make Broadford, and food is a little short, but I try not to get too tired as it ruins the next day. I would have arrived late and would have been too tired to do all the campsite chores of washing clothes and charging batteries so I’d have to stay there another day anyway. Better rest up here tonight. After a full day in Broadford I would be starting the legendary ’The Skye Trail’, fresh. It is supposed to be a stunning route and I might meet some fellow backpackers. So far I have not walked next to anyone, all my conversations have been in passing.  Some company and swapping of trail stories, appeals after two weeks walking on my own.