The Cape Wrath Trail

Quinag as seen from the Cape Wrath Trail on the Unapool to Inchnadamph stage

Summary:

A challenging walk of 222 miles (357 kilometres) and at with nearly 10,000 metres of ascent, climbing more than the height of Mount Everest in 18 days.

The Cape Wrath Trail is generally regarded as the hardest walking challenge in Great Britain. There is no official route, nor any defined path but the overidding premise is to walk in the remote and wild north west of Scotland from Cape Wrath to Fort William. I planned the walk in the winter of 2010/2011 as part of a grander plan to walk the full length of Great Britain. It was the part of the long walk which I anticipated more than any other, the romantic thoughts of walking in wilderness and solitude thrilling me before I embarked on the journey.

One of the challenges of the walk is getting to Cape Wrath in the first place as if you walk the Cape Wrath Trail from north to south you will have to reach the cape by means of the Durness Ferry. Unfortunately for me the weather was bad on my arrival and so I had to make my start from Faraid Head on the northern tip of the Scottish coast near Durness. Despite the setback I enjoyed the first stage alternative with the annual Cape Wrath marathon runners!

There were many highlights on my version of the Cape Wrath Trail. Amonst them were the views to Foinaven and Arkle on the walk from Rhiconich to Loch Stack. Fringing the west side of Ben Stack was also great and afterwards the thrilling sight of bays, inlets and lochs near Kylesku. Then there was the majestic mountain that is Quinag, Eas a Chual Aluinn waterfall, Inchanadamph and the Bone Caves and then Knockan Crag. There was exciting views of Suilven from the foothills near Stac Pollaidh. Inverpolly was simply wondrous. After the interlude in Ullapool I enjoyed more mountain majesty beside An Teallach and then through the remote mountain pass to Loch an Nid before heading to Kinlochewe and more marvellous views to the white mountains of Beinn Eighe and Siloch. After Kinlochewe there was Strathcarron and Loch Carron and then the brilliant walk from Killian to Loch na Leitreach and the Falls of Glomach. After coming down to earth after the fantastic waterfall it was onto Invershiel and Shiel Bridge from where I should have tackled the Five Sisters of Kintail instead of taking the road pass to Loch Cluanie and more road followed to Invergarry before I followed the Great Glen Way on the final two days to Fort William. A breathtaking journey.

Stages of the walk:

Stage	From/ To	Date (2011)	Miles	Kilometres	Ascent (m)	Time taken

1	Faraid Head to Kyle of Durness	20 May	4.5	7.1	90	1.5 hours
2	Kyle of Durness to Rhiconich	21 May	13.0	21.0	353	5.0 hours
3	Rhiconich to Loch Stack	22 May	8.0	12.8	441	7.0 hours
4	Lock Stack to Unapool	23 May	11.0	17.8	668	6.0 hours
5	Unapool to Inchnadamph	24 May	13.2	21.3	1,085	11.0 hours
	REST DAY	25 May
6	Inchnadamph to Knockan	26 May	12.9	20.8	493	6.0 hours
7	Knockan to Drumrunie	27 May	11.8	19.0	660	6.0 hours
8	Drumrunie to Morefield	28 May	8.1	12.9	270	4.0 hours
9	Morefield to Ullapool	29 May	2.8	4.4	95	1.0 hour
10	Ullapool to Corrie Hallie	30 May	14.3	23.2	810	7.0 hours
11	Corrie Hallie to Kinlochewe	31 May	19.6	31.5	1,038	12.0 hours
	REST DAY	01 June
12	Kinlochewe to Strathcarron	02 June	17.1	27.5	684	11.0 hours
13	Strathcarron to Loch na Leitreach	03 June	15.9	25.6	768	9.0 hours
14	Loch na Leitreach to Invershiel	04 June	8.9	14.3	645	6.0 hours
15	Invershiel to Cluanie Inn	05 June	12.4	20.0	538	7.0 hours
16	Cluanie Inn to Invergarry	06 June	23.1	37.2	706	10.0 hours
17	Invergarry to Strone	07 June	19.1	30.7	312	10.0 hours
18	Strone to Fort William	08 June	6.6	10.6	78	4.0 hours

	TOTAL		222.3	357.7	9,734	123.5 hrs

This site conforms to W3C XHTML 1.0, HTML 4.0 and CSS standards.

This page is built using validated W3C XHTML 1.0 & CSS codes.