The Cape Wrath Trail

[Paul S]

Has anyone ever been to Cape Wrath?

At the end of next week I'm taking the sleeper train up to Fort William and then I'm walking from there to Cape Wrath. The Cape Wrath Trail isn't an official footpath but the route I've got planned will see me do 210 miles in 12 days, although I have a couple of days I can do more on if I get bad weather. I'm camping, using bothies, a hostel and hope to spend a night or two in a hotel en-route. But more to the point, will I be the first OTF'er ever to make it to Cape Wrath? It's that top left bit of Scotland the furthest point on the weather map.

Anyone been?

[Guy Profumo]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Closest I've been is Durness.

[Benjm]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Closest I've been is Dundee.

Good luck with the walk and the weather, Paul.

[Sits]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Haven't even been further than Edinburgh.

Good on you Paul. Hope you enjoy it.

[ad hoc]

The Cape Wrath Trail

I spent a week in Forres (and changed trains in Inverness) in early April. Am I winning? No, I guess Guy is winning. But I bet mine was more recent than his

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Bill Bryson went to Cape Wrath for his recent UK travelogue "The Road to Little Dribling", and describes his visit in the final chapter of that book. It sounded a bit underwhelming.

[Reality Checkpoint]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Yep, ... went there back in the 1980s and I'd love to get back there some day. At that time there was an old military base that had been taken over as an artists' commune. The camp site was on the cliffs and luckily we had taken a small two-man tent as well as the frame tent - if we'd tried to put up the big tent it would have probably ended up in Norway.

[Various Artist]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Now that I didn't know, and I love all things Shipping Forecast. (In the Xpert Eleven game – see monster thread passim – I manage a team of virtual footballers called Tiree Automatic FC, all of them named after places in the Forecast. I also have another club called Viking North Utsire and a parallel women's side called Viking South Utsira...)

Somehow the location of the Greenwich Light Vessel had escaped me though. My Tiree side will one day have a player named Gordon Greenwich in its honour, mind.

Meanwhile, I've never been further north than Melrose, so not quite as far as Cape Wrath yet. Would love to go, though, albeit from EEG's comment I suspect my enthusiasm may wane once I finish The Road To Little Dribbling. Therein it's the end of the 'Bryson Line', the longest straight-line distance overland in Great Britain – since Land's End to John O'Groats or similar requires crossing saltwater at the Bristol Channel. The other end is somewhere around Bognor Regis, an equally attractive destination I'm sure you'll agree.

[Third rate Leszno]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Never been north of the Black Isle but would love to go there one day. I like the idea of driving the North Coast 500.

Good luck anyway Paul, hope you're taking plenty of Smidge.

[Lang Spoon]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Third rate les bleus wrote: Never been north of the Black Isle but would love to go there one day. I like the idea of driving the North Coast 500.

Good luck anyway Paul, hope you're taking plenty of Smidge.

That North Coast 500 thingy really seems to have taken off, even outside the breathless "Rough Guide (like who gives a fuck anymore?) really rate our route!"puff-pieces from Visit Scotland. Which is good cos comparatively few people ever visit the northern/NW Highlands outside the usual Trip to Skye by the Kyle of Lochalsh. Mibees up to Ullapool where there's almost Proper shops and internet. The likes of Caithness and much of Sutherland, and remoter Wester Ross, amazingly (and unnaturally-fucking sheeps and deer, barring the Flow Country) empty of people, tourist or local. The last time I was up in the Far North (years ago) was mostly German and Italians visiting, very few of the usual Scots/English/North American tourist clumps you get further South.

And the almost Swiss hairpin crazy descent through a mountain pass into the Applecross peninsula is fucking amazing.

[Viktor Boskovic]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Closest for me was where the ferry goes from, by Durness, not been on the cape itself.

As has already been said, the emptiness of Caithness and Sutherland is great, and the scenery is fantastic. As to the road to Applecross, I have been up that once, and have no plans to do it again - my hands had to be prised off the steering wheel when we arrived at the pub in Applecross!

[Lang Spoon]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Aye the pass to Applecross was terrifying/astonishing as a passenger. Not for the first time, I was glad I don't drive.

[Third rate Leszno]

The Cape Wrath Trail

That sounds like my kind of road - ideally at night, in something a bit less weighty than my current Skoda Yeti.

[Lang Spoon]

The Cape Wrath Trail

At night? Madman. You are dropping over 2000 feet in only a few miles of switchbacks. Sometimes one side of the narrow as fuck road seems to have a drop to forever.

[Third rate Leszno]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Two things about doing it at night - you can see if anything's coming the other way, and you can't see the drops!

[Gangster Octopus]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Wendys! The Pass Of The Cattle is peasy and fun...

[Paul S]

The Cape Wrath Trail

I've packed my rucksack and it comes in at 18.9 kilograms which is to heavy, so everything has come out and I'm going to have to re-think things again. That weight includes a couple of days of food but no water. I've got a plan to cut the weight down which involves eating all the food on the first day. There are some pitfalls to applying that solution...

[delicatemoth]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Paul, this is some undertaking! You'll basically be walking through a varied succession of the most beautiful landscapes this island has to offer, but some of it will be hard going. Alex Roddie's account is an excellent read.

I've camped out at Sandwood Bay in stunning summer sunshine. It was magnificent. I used to have a bunch of photos at Outdoors Magic but they appear to have gone. Also been to Durness, the craft village nearby and what looks like the windiest golf course in the world, but not actually to the Cape.

[Paul S]

The Cape Wrath Trail

delicatemoth wrote: Paul, this is some undertaking! You'll basically be walking through a varied succession of the most beautiful landscapes this island has to offer, but some of it will be hard going. Alex Roddie's account is an excellent read.

I've camped out at Sandwood Bay in stunning summer sunshine. It was magnificent. I used to have a bunch of photos at Outdoors Magic but they appear to have gone. Also been to Durness, the craft village nearby and what looks like the windiest golf course in the world, but not actually to the Cape.

The Cape Wrath Trail will be my 17th long-distance path so I'm well versed in hill-walking and what to take. The people I've spoken to who have down the trek say it isn't technically difficult, you just require great determination to get through the boggy bits. I've been through boggy bits before, such as that at Brownrigg Head on the Pennine way (on the penultimate day between Bellingham and Bynress) and also on the western part of the Southern Upland Way, so I know what I'm letting myself in for.

I'm looking forward to Sandwood Bay but I have my eyes on staying at the bothy at Strathchailleach. If you can, try and read the book about James Rory-Smith who lived there for 30 years until the mid-nineties. He certainly seemed to be a character, although perhaps one you'd rather not meet.

[jdsx]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Best of luck, Paul S. I did the West Highland Way last October, but even then I cheated a bit because I live near the southern end, and could easily return home by train to have a rest day in between some of the walking days! The Cape Wrath Trail sounds like a different order of magnitude - but I'd love to hear how you get on! Are you heading up the great glen or going south (-west) first?

[Paul S]

The Cape Wrath Trail

I'm heading up the Great Glen Way from Fort William for ten miles or so Then at Achnacarry I branch off and head up a glen towards Glengarry Forest where I'll camp for the first night. The next day is to Claunie Inn on the A87 and then from there I'll head to Alltbeithe YH and onwards to a bothy for the night. The following day is then a 15 miles skip and jump down to Gerry's Hostel at Achnashellach.

The path from Claunie Inn to Alltbeithe has been described as a bog factor five!

[Guy Profumo]

The Cape Wrath Trail

To do this in 12 days is ambitious, best of luck with it and I hope you succeed.

Let us know when you're back in broadband range!

[Lang Spoon]

The Cape Wrath Trail

jdsx wrote: Best of luck, Paul S. I did the West Highland Way last October, but even then I cheated a bit because I live near the southern end, and could easily return home by train to have a rest day in between some of the walking days! The Cape Wrath Trail sounds like a different order of magnitude - but I'd love to hear how you get on! Are you heading up the great glen or going south (-west) first?

Heh that's my idea of a doing a big trail. Train back to Queen St in the evening, clean clothes and home comforts instead of a bothy, then back up to where you left off in the morning. Fuckin a.

[Paul S]

The Cape Wrath Trail

Well, I'm back home after just a weeks walking.

The first day went okay, even if the sleeper was over an hour late arriving in Fort William (on the plus side, I got a full refund). The start up the Caledonian Canal was excellent and eased me into it. Then I headed inland from the Great Glen to use a cross country route to reach Glengarry and my first campsite where I discovered I had forgotten any tent pegs. Not to worry though because there were plenty of boulders and stones to pitch my tent out.

The next day through Glengarry Forest was not enjoyable. In fact, I'm going to take the whole of the forest and dump it in an imaginary box marked "Do not walk" and then I'm going to stick it in permanent quarantine. Paths which may have been there 30-40 years ago are now non-existent and no maintenance has been carried out anywhere meaning it was a bit of a guessing game trying to work out where I was. The only other thing to point out is just how dry it is up there. There hasn't been any significant rain or snow for months and with no snow-melt the rivers are very low and I could only fill up in the valleys. My second night was camping at Claunie Inn where I had hoped to get a bed for the night, but they were full.

Day three started off fantastically with a good path from Claunie to Altbeithe YH where the warden gave us free homemade rolls. After that the going got very boggy and slow (less than one mile an hour). Add on to this the heat, lack of water and toothache and I wasn't feeling to good. What finished me off was an 850ft descent into a valley in little more than half a mile (starting at grid ref NH 034 272 and heading north if you want to look it up). In the valley I sat on my rucksack for 20 minutes or so and decided to walk down to Dornie for the night rather than continue east and north to a bothy. It turned out to be a wise move as an estate worker offered me a lift and later on in the B&B I suffered severe shivering which I know to be the the first signs of heat stroke. I drank pints and pints of water until my pee went from a bright orange to clear. A close call!

I spent the next 48 hours relaxing. The next night I had a superb camp outside Achnasheen railway station (free public toilets!) and the following night in Dingwall where I got a free ticket to watch Ross County v Hamilton Accies. The next two days I finished off the Strathespey Way walking from Craigallechie to Buckie, enjoying the river Spey and seal colonies. I came back on Thursday night on the sleeper in the seats or at least I would have done if the carriage I was in didn't have a broken door so they reallocated all seated passengers a berth for the night!

I'm now working out how to get to Cape Wrath. I'm going to do it, it's just a question of how.

[Benjm]

The Cape Wrath Trail

That sounds like quite a good trip in itself, Paul, heat issues apart. I don't doubt for a second that the Cape will be seeing you sometime soon.