Day 50: Glenbeg to Camusnagaul, Highland

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

23rd February 2021: 108.50km walked today taking the total to 5218.85/8868km. 12% of 130 entries submitting 904.13km.

Today we explore more of Ardnamurchan before venturing into Moidart with a visit to Castle Tioram. We then head back to Fort William.

Route 15: Oban to Fort William

After about another 2 kilometres we reach Glenbeg where Ardnamurchan Adelphi Distillery was opened in 2014. It is an environmentally friendly distillery in that all the power and heat come from local renewables; hydro-electricity from the river, cooling water from that same river, and a biomass boiler using local wood chips. By-products from the whisky process don't go to waste either as they are used to produce animal feed. Although this is a new distillery, the Adelphi name is much older as the original Adelphi Distillery was built in the Gorbals district of Glasgow in 1826.

Just past the distillery is the Ardnamurchan Natural History Visitor Centre. Part of the centre is the Living Building, built with locally grown timber, with turf on the roof designed to attract a variety of wildlife to live in and on it. Long-eared bats, field voles, and swallows have made it their home and pine martens live in a mammal den. There is also the Lochview Tearoom where we can indulge in some home baking.

From here we soon leave the lochside and the oak woodlands to pass into open moorland. At Ardslignish, there are fantastic views east back along Loch Sunart and west over the Bay of Camas nan Geall and over to Ben Hiant which is the flank of a volcano. The bay, Camas nan Geall, has been occupied for at least 5000 years, as there is a chambered cairn of that age. There is also a standing stone which has been dated to 4000 years ago, although it was later engraved with a Christian cross, then there is Cladh Chiarain, the burial ground of the Campbells of Ardlignish which dates from the 18th century. Ben Hiant is the highest point in Ardnamurchan and has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological features and vegetation.

This is where we are going to turn back as Ardnamurchan Point is another 23 kilometres away and we would need to go there and back on the same road as there is no alternative. However, if you ever come back then there are a few places to see, such as Mingary Castle, Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and Sanna Bay.

Before we resume our walk, we will find out more about these places you can visit in Ardnamurchan. Just before the village of Kilchoan, there is Mingary Castle which dates from the 13th century and was the seat of Clan MacIain for over 300 years who became powerful within the MacDonald’s Lordship of the Isles. It was strategically placed to control the Sound of Mull and Loch Sunart and was surrounded by the sea on 3 sides and originally had a drawbridge on the landward side. It has a hexagonally shaped, thick curtain wall and inside were various buildings, which were changed and added to over the years. It was besieged a few times and changed from MacDonald to Campbell control before being abandoned in the mid-19th century. It was abandoned for 150 years before it was recently renovated and restored to its original state by the Mingary Castle Trust and is now a unique luxury boutique hotel.

Kilchoan is the main village in Ardnamurchan and is the most westerly village in mainland Britain. Until about 1900 it was only accessible by sea and there is still a ferry service from here to Tobermory on Mull. It was only at this time that the road was built and it is still single track for most of its length.

Not far after Kilchoan the road splits in 2, one going to Ardnamurchan Point and Lighthouse, and the other going to the stunning beaches at Sanna. If we take the road to Ardnamurchan Point, just before you reach the point, you come across a set of traffic lights that guard the single road. These are the most westerly traffic lights in Britain and are there as there is nowhere to pass oncoming vehicles, as the single-track road is bounded by walls. As you come round the final corner you get your first sight of the lighthouse, which was designed by Alan Stevenson and opened in 1849. It is built of pinkish granite which was quarried on the island of Erraid off the tip of Mull. It’s possible to visit the Lighthouse Trust’s Exhibition Centre and the lighthouse itself. Some people think that Ardnamurchan Point is the most westerly point in Britain, but it’s slightly further south in Ardnamurchan at a rocky outcrop called Corrachadh Mor.

If instead of taking the road to Ardnamurchan Point, you take the one to Sanna Bay, you will find yourself walking across a huge and ancient volcanic crater before reaching the magnificent beaches at Sanna Bay. From Sanna Bay looking south, you can see Portuairk, the most westerly settlement in Britain, and Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.

Back to our walk and we must retrace our steps to Glenborrodale before we head north on a track that takes us alongside a forest, before going across moorland, past Loch Laga, 12 kilometres to Acharacle. Just before we reach Acharacle, we cross over the Kentra Moss, one of 3 internationally important sites for blanket bog in Scotland, along with Claish Moss, which is nearby, and Rannoch Moor. The bog here merges into the saltmarsh at Kentra Bay.

The crofting village of Acharacle is on the southwestern shore of Loch Shiel, its name derived from the Gaelic, ‘Ath Tharrcail’ (Torquil’s Ford), and commemorates a battle in 1120 in which the Norse invader, Torquilli, was defeated by Somerled, King of the Isles, near a ford on the River Shiel. When we reach the village, we turn left past the Parish Church and then cross the Shiel Bridge over the River Shiel. This 3-arched bridge was built in 1899 to replace the bridge built in 1804 to a design by Thomas Telford, which we will pass when we turn left to make our way to Dorlin. The original bridge was built where the River Shiel narrows into a chasm as it flows from Loch Shiel to the sea at Loch Moidart. This bridge carried the road from Lochmoidart to Corran Ferry, until the owners of the neighbouring Ardnamurchan and Dorlin estates decided to privatise it and close it to the public. This meant that a new bridge had to be built, which is the one we crossed, which opened in 1899 and where we cross from Ardnamurchan into Moidart.

We follow the single-track road which winds past birch woods, occasionally encountering the River Shiel, before we descend to Loch Moidart with Castle Tioram sitting on the rocky, tidal island, Eilean Tioram. This castle was built in the 13th century, on a key trade route from the Hebridean Islands and was an impenetrable stronghold and home to the MacDonalds of Clanranald. Within the curtain wall, a 3-story tower house was added to it in the 14th century, possibly by Amy MacRuary, the estranged wife of John, First Lord of the Isles. The lands were formally granted to her son, Ranald, by King Robert II in 1373, and he was the first to call himself a MacDonald of Clanranald. Over the centuries, changes were made to the castle, but its end as a residence came in 1715, when it was burnt, not by enemy action, but by the owner of the castle at that time, Allan Mor of Clanranald. He burnt it so that it wouldn’t fall into enemy hands when he took part in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. Although it was ruined, it had a small part to play in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, as artillery supplied by the French was hidden in the ruins. Unfortunately, though, the Clanranalds were impoverished and didn’t have enough horses to take the cannons so they remained at Castle Tioram. In 1997, Anta Estates bought the castle with a view to restoring it and were given planning consent by the Highland Council. This was vetoed by Historic Scotland, who want it to remain as a ruin, and so the castle remains abandoned and has deteriorated to such an extent that no-one is allowed into the castle grounds, as it is deemed too dangerous.

We walk out to the castle across a sandy bar as the tide is out! On our way back over the sand bar we find the ‘silver walk’, a path which was built in the late 19th century and now called the silver walk because, during its construction, a hoard of Elizabethan coins was found. Following the path, we must climb up and down rocky steps and clamber over boulders before it descends to the level of the loch, only to climb up again and pass around a cut out of the rocky cliff. As we walk along the path, there are some fantastic views back to Castle Tioram, Loch Moidart with its small islands covered in Scots pines, and the deserted township of Port a’Bhata, ‘the bay of boats’. We walk through Atlantic oak woodland, pine woods, salt marsh and rocky shoreline and we may catch glimpses of red deer and otters, as well as golden and white-tailed eagles. Eventually, we reach the A861 near Armorlich, where we turn right. Nearby are the Seven Men of Moidart. These were 7 beech trees planted at Kinlochmoidart in the mid-19th century to commemorate the 7 companions of Bonnie Prince Charlie who landed at Loch nan Uamh with him at the start of the 1745 Rebellion. Unfortunately, not all 7 of the original trees remain and, at times, they have been replaced.

We follow the A861 south, passing Captain Robertson’s Cairns, 3 cairns set beside the road. Originally, there was only one cairn which was built in 1868 to Captain Robertson, but 3 cairns have now replaced this. Not long after this, we reach a viewpoint over Loch Shiel, over Claish Moss, towards Beinn Resipol, the highest point in Ardnamurchan, before we make our way back to Acharacle.

At Acharacle, we continue south and cross from Loch Shiel back to Salen, on Loch Sunart, passing Lochan Ruighe a’Bhainne with its waterlilies, before turning east to walk the 12 kilometres back to Strontian. Just before we reach Strontian, we turn left along a road signposted to the Ben View Hotel. This road soon turns into a track going uphill above Scotstown before it joins another minor road at Ariundle. If we look back from here, we get wonderful views of Loch Sunart and the Morvern Hills. As we travel north, we pass the old mine workings where lead, silver and zinc were originally mined in the 18th and 19th centuries, and where Strontianite was discovered, before barite was extracted for use in the North Sea oil fields in the 1980s. This stopped in the 1990s, but evidence of the mine remains.

The road climbs over open moorland to the pass, Bealach Feith Nan Laigh, which is at 343 metres, climbing 331 metres over only 4.6 kilometres, between Beinn Ruighe Raonuill and Druim Glas. It is listed as one of Scotland’s top hill climbs for cyclists! The road after this descends even more steeply to Kinlochan, at the head of Loch Doilet, where we drop 313 metres in only 2.6 kilometres. After crossing the River Hurich at Kinlochan, we turn eastwards to walk through the forest in Glen Hurich.

The forest in Glen Hurich is one of the most productive forests in the area and is now mainly coniferous, but there is also a small remaining part of the ancient Atlantic oakwood. In the past, there would have been charcoal produced here, as well as bark for leather tanning, and timber for building. However, these oak woodlands were replaced with non-native coniferous species which stopped the oak woods from expanding. Now though, the conifers are gradually being removed and the oakwood habitat restored and expanded. The area is renowned for the lichens, mosses and liverworts which grow here, as well as other wildlife such as eagles, red deer, and butterflies, such as the rare, chequered skipper butterfly.

The forest track follows the course of the River Hurich until we leave the forest and pass Lochan Dubh, before following Gleann an Lochain Duibh until we reach the River Scaddle, which we also follow down to Inverscaddle Bay on Loch Linnhe. We then take the road northwards up Loch Linnhe before catching the ferry from Camusnagaul back to Fort William.