“It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Day 01 | Corran Ferry to Conaglen | 22.5km | 580m Ascent
On Saturday, May 14th 2022, Cam and I jumped off the train at Fort William. Well, OK, jumped may be a bit too exuberant. We excitedly alighted the train. The reason why we were excited? We would be walking the Cape Wrath Trail over the next two weeks. This was a long distance trail stretching from Fort William in the highlands alllll the way to the most north-westerly point of Scotland, Cape Wrath. The trail itself was meant to be a challenge. Unlike the previous trails Cam and I had walked, it was completely unmarked. There would be no little wooden posts, pointing the way. We had to rely only upon our common sense and our navigational and map skills. Which, as it turns out, is not always as easy as it seems!
And so we made our way into Fort William. First stop? Lunch, a Tesco meal deal. And then whilst we munched the vinegar soaked cheese ploughman’s that Tesco serve, we got some cash out. You know, just in case.
Next, we needed to get across Loch Linnhe to the start. The official guide book (The Bible, by Iain Harper) suggests catching the Camusnagaul ferry to the other side. But this small, red, fragile piece of flotsam was being moored away and the ferryman was off on his lunch break when we arrived. So, as to not waste four hours until he came back (because apparently he ate lunch slowly), we instead went to the Corran Ferry. Free passage for foot traffic meant it was an easy crossing. But it’s not like they can charge you for a crossing that takes less than three minutes! And when we stepped foot on the other side, we were off!

The first part of this day was dull. It was road walking from Corran all the way to the entrance of Conaglen, twisting and winding along a single track road along the side of Loch Linnhe. Stepping aside occasionally for the rushing red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry… It wasn’t particularly interesting. And so to entertain ourselves, we chatted. Primarily about the Bridgerton books that Cam had just read. The author, Julia Quinn, rewrote the alphabet by writing these apparently (D, A, B, C, E…). And Netflix are doing the new TV series in the wrong order too (D, A, C …). But the books were good and Cam recommended them, so I will have to add them to my ever growing book list!
We finally turned left off the road and started walking up Conaglen. The first taste of the Highlands on this trip. And it was magnificent! It was wonderful weather, the sun poking itself out from behind the blanket of clouds and a cool, fresh breeze sweeping across the glen, refreshing us. There was a cuckoo, it’s low call reminiscent of My good Neighbour Totorro. You know, that sorta vibe. There were cute, isolated houses we passed by and the trail was easy to follow, just a yellow crunch underneath our shoes to follow, although not bricked and certainly not leading us to a wizard.
We stopped for snacks when we came across a curious feature, a wire bridge! Cam reminded me that on the trail, you need to have fun and enjoy ourselves and not just plod away for days on end. And to this end, we ate some cliff bars and crossed the wire bridge for a bit of fun. Cam trotted across and made it look all very easy. Me? My feet shook like an earthquake and it was all a bit scary! But I remained dry, so I guess that was a success just about.


Replacing our packs and reenergised by our snack, we started off again. Cam had stated right at the beginning that he hated walking uphill, and so our aim was to finish the day at the top of the bealach at the end of Conaglen, so that we didn’t start the next day with a hill! Therefore, coming to the bottom of the hill, we started up it. Before long we had climbed to the top, covered in our first real film of sweat, and immediately set about looking for a dry place to wild camp for the evening. The time was approaching 19:30 and we were anxious to get into our sleeping bags and fall into our dreams. We found a dry place eventually and after eating some delightful rehydrated food, we were ready to pack it in. Day one was complete. Bring on day two!
Day 02 | Conaglen to A’chuil Bothy | 27.0km | 740m Ascent
I woke after having a dream that I had a 70kg backpack. I had slept like a baby until then (but, like, in a good way, because babies don’t always sleep well… That saying really makes no sense). But after eating our overnight oats and packing away, I was relieved to find that my backpack was still it’s nice 14kg self and had not quintupled in mass overnight!
We set off walking down off the bealach and towards Glenfinnan. As we made our way down we came across two Great Outdoors challengers who were walking west to east across Scotland. We stopped and had a very pleasant chat about trail shoes (which all four of us had), and why they are better than Gortex boots. They also said several times that they were already behind on their challenge, having started on the last day and having not met the checkpoints yet. So we called them the “late GO people” from then on, whenever we referenced them in the future.
We also met a 60 year old man who was off to climb a nearby Corbett which he had lived under for the past 30 years but had never climbed once. I remember him since he had these amazing blue trousers, told us that his knee was held together by an innumerable number of pins and that he did not actually look 60. He was cool though. We called him “That old guy who didn’t look old and had the bad knee” from then on. You can see why.
Anyhow, we made it down the glen (I couldn’t find it’s name) and started towards Glenfinnan visitor centre. But to get there, we had to walk across these boardwalks which had been closed. So, us being confident young youths, we decided to cross these boardwalks anyway, despite all the warnings. We climbed round the fence and walked across these boardwalks, treading on the nails at the edge, where it was strongest. All was good, we made it to the other side and to the Glenfinnan visitor centre! We rewarded ourselves with a cup of tea and some rocky road. Delicious. Cam phoned Tati whilst I caught up with the weekend of rugby I was missing. Come on the Blues! We even saw the burgundy Jacobite Express cross the viaduct!

Glenfinnan was swamped by tourists though when we got going again. But the crowds disappeared beyond the viaduct and we started motoring. The sun was out for the second day and the call of the cuckoo echoed around this glen too. We walked up Glenfinnan, enjoying the easy path and sunshine. At one point, we saw a young stag emerge from a forest to our left and watch us from a distance of about 20m as we walked by. It was quite unexpected to see such a creature so close and so soon! But before long, we passed the rich old folk staying at Glenfinnan lodge and settled down for lunch at Corriehullie Bothy. At this point a man passed us dressed in all black. His way of introduction was just a “I can spot the Harvey maps a mile off!” Turns out that he was also walking the CWT, but in 18 days instead of our desired 13 days. He kept going though and did not stop for lunch like we had.


After lunch, we started up the end of Glenfinnan towards the bealach leading towards Gleann a’ Chaoruinn. And as we climbed, guess what? The weather turned. It went from a wonderful sunny early afternoon to spitting with rain to finally a light downpour. But at the top of the bealach, it stopped, so we were grateful that it was only a small spring shower. Walking down this next glen though turned into a tiring exercise. It was a wet, wet glen, certainly wetter than a bathtub. With each step, we sank into bog and swamp and mud and our feet were soaked through before long. There was no discernible path to follow but instead we were told to simply follow the river to the bottom of the glen. And to do this, we had to cross the river where there was no bridge, meaning we had to wade through! My first true river crossing! Cam’s advice for river crossings was to “pretend you’re John Wayne”. We emerged onto the other side of the river back into a swamp though. Walking through swamp is exhausting. Each step, you sink in, your foot at a funny angle (“Oh no, my ankle angles!”) with the mud clinging. Sometimes it is firm, sometimes we sank up past our ankle in mud. This was the first true test. And first real introduction to the terrain in the west of Scotland. But after a gruelling couple of hours, we made it down safely with only wet feet and a dread of whether the rest of the trail was going to be like this. My white shoes were not white anymore – I wouldn’t be winning any Dundies for the whitest sneakers anytime soon, that was for sure. To up the moral, we broke out the energy bars once more, and I fell in love. I had one of those Chia Charge flapjack ones and boy oh boy, it tasted sooo good.
But we weren’t getting anywhere by sitting there, and so we got up and made our way into the forest where we found a good logging track which would take us round the mountain Monadh Gorm towards A’Chuil Bothy, where we staying that evening. We met this couple who were section hiking the CWT, working their way north to south. They had two dogs with them, one affectionate quiet dog and another barky, shouty dog. But the coolest thing was that these dogs had their own saddlebags strapped to them, so that the couple didn’t have to carry the dogfood! I had never seen that before! And as such, we knew them from then on as “The couple with the dogs with bags from the forest”. Again, pretty self-explanatory as to why.
We arrived at A’Chuil Bothy finally, our feet hurting and damp from a long day of walking. The bothy was empty when we entered and so we laid out our shoes and socks outside in the evening sun to try and get them to dry at least a little bit before we went to bed. We also set the tent up in the second room to dry it out a little. We climbed into our sleeping bags after another delicious rehydrated meal. However, right before we committed to sleep, a Scandinavian couple entered the bothy. Thus, we had to dress again and remove our tent from the second room. Whoops! But we finally managed to settle into bed. Day two was done!
Day 03 | A’chuil Bothy to Inverie | 25.5km | 1,010m Ascent
We awoke before the Scandinavian couple and attempted to pack up as quietly as possible. I think we still accidentally awoke them. But we got going quite quickly – we didn’t have to pack the tent away after all! Stepping out of the bothy was a bit disappointing, the weather was definitely not looking promising and I had put my waterproofs on before we had even walked five minutes!

But we did get going eventually. We started the day by walking through an ancient forest in Glen Dessarry, the glen that A’Chuil Bothy was situated at the end of. There were roots from all sorts of old looking trees poking themselves out of the ground, making the route perilous and the going slow. But after climbing a steep bank out of the forest, we joined onto a path that was leading to the end of the glen and to the bealach. But the disadvantage of stepping out of the forest was that we now felt the full force of the weather which had gotten worse. The wind had whipped itself up into a Celtic fury and the rain was threatening with the dark clouds looming overhead like a disapproving parent/teacher/God (I’ll let you choose which is the most ominous sounding!).
The force of this wind hit it’s crescendo when we got to the bealach at the top of the glen. There were steep rocky cliffs between the mountains on either side, channelling the wind between them making us nearly lose our hats! But I must confess, the view was stunning. The brooding landscape stretched itself out below us and perfectly fitted the weather. Twisted trees grew on the side of the glen and jagged rocks poked up, interrupting the heather and gorse, making them uncomfortably carpet the glen.
As we carefully made our way down this glen, the view opened itself up further until we could see the tidal inlet and more importantly, Sourlies Bothy where we could (metaphorically) see a game icon for lunch floating overhead, tempting us on. As we approached the Bothy, the weather still threatening and the wind howling in our ears, we saw a small tent pitched out front of the Bothy. I would have been happy to place a bet that it would not have survived another hour with the wind as it was.


However, we entered the Bothy and found some refuge from the elements. This was the first bothy that I was not so keen on. There were deer skulls, antlers attached, all around the Bothy and lying outside. It was also incredibly small, with narrow shelves acting as bed spaces fixed to the wall. However, we met a couple of climbers inside who we chatted to as we ate our lunch. They were even kind enough to give us some coconut cakes! The guy had a ponytail and looked like he belonged on a ranch in the American Midwest, whilst the lady had curly hair and was solidly built, clearly she had more muscles than either Cam or me. Also in the bothy were two young Dutch ladies who were also walking the CWT. They both looked exhausted and completely done for the day, despite it only being lunchtime!
We left our refuge about twenty minutes after the two Dutch ladies left and we could see their bright backpacks ahead of us. At this point we had a choice to make. After crossing the tidal inlet, we could either follow the River Carnach up to the bealach which we would then climb up, between the Munros Sgurr a’Choire-bheithe and Luinne Bheinn, and into Gleann Unndalain and make our way towards Barisdale Bothy… Or we could immediately bear left away from the River Carnach and climb up to the bealach mam Meadail before walking down Gleann Meadail and towards the town of Inverie where there was a bunkhouse with a drying room and actual beds. We chose the Inverie option – we wanted to remember what dry feet felt like!

Therefore, having crossed the tidal inlet, we took the left split in the path and started up the steep climb to the bealach mam Meadail. I am not going to lie, this was slow going and incredibly draining. Half way up we did have to stop and break out the emergency energy gels. The views over the tidal inlet and back towards Sourlies Bothy were incredible though. The weather had not improved at this point, but it also hadn’t worsened. When we finally got to the top, Cam let out a good old Gilbert Gottfried-esque “Thank God”. Having stopped for a breather, we grabbed some photos and ate some energy bars before starting down Gleann Meandail. We tumbled down this well-trodden path at an incredible speed, it almost felt like we were speed running this section. Before we knew it, we joined onto the road leading to Inverie. I find that the last several kilometres are usually the worst. You are so close to your goal but you are also at the point where your feet and body are most tired and you are only getting slower, so it seems like we are Sisyphus, trudging along but never seemingly getting closer!
But closer we did get and we finally arrived at the bunkhouse where we were greeted by Ben, the caretaker and custodian for the season. George Watson’s College had booked out the majority of the rooms but Ben managed to find us a small corner to hole ourselves up in and sit down on some camp beds. Ben was an incredibly interesting character. I would describe him as the sort of person who would be perfectly at home on a mountain bike with shoes and no laces. We had some interesting chats with him about travelling (he had been just about everywhere in India and Europe) and Joe Rogan. He seemed very well informed on conspiracy theories as well… An incredibly interesting and friendly character for sure!
Leaving our packs in the bunkhouse, we made our way into Inverie to find some hot food. Inverie left a bitter taste in our mouths though. It felt, to me, like a cult town. All the people who lived there didn’t seem to like travellers or welcome them. We were turned away from a sit down meal but offered a take away instead. But that was OK, we just ate the overpriced food on the pier with the weak sun trying to provide us with some light. I am not saying that Inverie is horrible, we just didn’t feel particularly welcomed and all the locals seemed to be in on a secret, whispering together in small groups at the restaurant and pub and bar and avoiding the travellers… Call me mad, it was just an impression I had!
Having arrived back at the bunkhouse, we removed our shoes and socks and placed them in the dry room. I was definitely looking forward to putting on dry socks and shoes in the morning! Settling in on the camp beds, we were asleep before long.

But for now, that is the end of the first part of this story! Please drop a comment if you wish and let me know what you think! Part 2 will be along before long!
Riley Kelehan
K
Flora Nicholls