Four seasons in a forenoon

I slept well in my tent, pitched behind Glendhu bothy.  We woke to frozen ground and a dusting of snow which was coming and going in light showers - quite a difference to the warmth of the previous afternoon!

It's often said that in Scotland you can experience four seasons in a day - and we were about to have just such a day. 

Snow was falling steadily on the hills above Glendhu.  Our bothy companions took a look outside and voted unanimously for a late start to see if it would clear.

After breakfast we got packed up, said goodbye to the lads and got on the water in improving conditions.  The wind died completely and the cloud began to break and lift up the crags surounding the head of the loch.  An easy paced paddle took us down to Kylesku in a little over an hour.

Our plan had now evolved a little due to forecast strong winds the following day.  We'd thought of shuttling a car ahead to Scourie and paddling from Kylesku north, using the camp site at Scourie, but the forecast northerlies would have made this a hard slog.  Instead, we decided to drop our camping gear and excess kit at the vehicles in Kylesku, then to explore Loch a' Chairn Bhain, returning to Kylesku to finish.

On the shore opposite the fishing jetty lie the remains of the two-car ferry "Maid of Kylesku".  She served the Kylesku crossing from the 1950's until 1967 when she was replaced by the "Queen of Kylesku" in 1967, which in turn was replaced by the "Maid of Glencoul".  When the Kylesku bridge replaced the ferry service in 1984, the "Maid of Glencoul" was redeployed as a relief vessel at the Corran ferry in Lochaber.

"Maid of Kylesku" was simply beached when she reached the end of her service life in 1967 and it's testament to the strength of her construction that she's essentially still in one piece over fifty years later - although she has certainly seen better days.

Having unloaded most of our kit back into the vehicles at Kylesku, wetook advantage of the strong ebb stream too pass under the Kylesku Bridge at quite a lick.  Rain began to fall steadily as we set out, and soon after we went under the bridge there was a dramatic change in conditions as a squall barrelled in from the north bringing a vicious mix of rain and hail on a suddenly strong wind.

As quickly as it had come in the squall passed through and disappeared over the summit ridges of Quinag, trailing veils of rain as it did so.  The wind dropped, out came the sun and it suddenly felt warm - another of Scotland's weather tricks.

By the time we reached the seaward end of Loch a' Chairn Bhain (loch of the white cairn) we were paddling under blue skies and bright sunshine once more.  I remembered a small pebble beach at the back of a tiny bay where we stopped for luncheon; there are surprisingly few landing places on the north shore of this wide loch.

The colours here were really fine, that alluring mix of white sand under turquoise water, a real treat.  Allan and Lorna were both suffering from heavy colds and decided to go just a little further before turning back.......

.....but first we explored the tiny Loch Shark, a lovely shallow loch enclosed by pine and spruce woods - most unusual for this part of the coast.  As Allan and Lorna began the return leg towards Kylesku, headed north to paddle around the island of Calbha Beag (little calf).

Almost as soon as I turned north the wind began to increase; in the channel between Calbha Mor and Calbha Beag it became a real effort to make progress and I reached the top of the island with some relief.

The north coast of this small island is rugged and steep; the wind had quickly built a swell in the wide open Eddrachilis Bay which was acting against the ebb tide to produce quite sporting conditions - lots of spray, noise and movement.  I was then treated to a fast, surfing run down the west coast of the island taking advantage of the wind-over-tide wave trains....there aren't any photos of this section!

From the still frost of the early morning, to snow, dead calm, hail and rain, bright sunshine and now a barrelling wind; we'd had four seasons in a forenoon never mind a day!  Truly, in Scotland we don't have a climate, we just have weather.......

I spoke to Allan on the VHF radio to let him and Lorna know I was back inside Loch a' Chairn Bhain.  A pleasant paddle took me back towards Kylesku, where the bridge is suddenly revealed when a point which seems to block the loch off is rounded.  This is still one of my favourite bridges, there's a simple grace to it and seen from the ridges of Quinag the curve of the deck seems to fit the landscape really well for a modern structure.

We packed up at Kylesku and consdiered options.  The forecast for the following day was poor and Allan and Lorna decided to head to Scourie to camp before taking a leisurely trip home.  I decided to head home to take the opportunity of seeing visiting family, and started on the journey back across country.

Before I did though, I stopped on the road at a layby with a view up the length of Loch Glencoul - a view familiar to many geology students and one that has few equals from a main road.

Heading over the watershed to the eastern side of Scotland, the higher hills were still plastered white - this is Ben Wyvis, a sprawling giant of a hill visible from a wide area.

A short trip, but a good one in a favourite part of the country; hopefully I'll be back there soon.

From cool to Glencoul

The next few posts are a catch-up of a sea kayak trip to the northwest of Scotland around Easter. A slim window of lighter winds was forecast to follow a period of strong northerlies which we hoped to exploit. We expected cold conditions and planed to use bothies though we were equipped to camp. Our plans were very flexible with no defined goals other than enjoying our first overnight sea kayak trip of the year.

Leaving home at dawn, it was clear that we would probably get the cold conditions we expected!  The temperature was minus 5 Celsius and the road from home a little slippy.  I'd arranged to meet Allan and Lorna at Inverness at 0900, so that we could get into position and be on the water further north by lunchtime.

We arrived at Kylesku after a drive which (visibility permitting) is one of the most scenic anywhere; north of Ullapool the road heads into Assynt, a truly ancient landscape.  You can put in at the former ferry slip adjacent to the hotel, but parking can be difficult there.  We wheeled our boats on trolleys down a rough track near the fishing jetty to launch off a stony beach and parked the vehicles in a layby on the road.

The weather was, if anything, better than forecast and there was even some warmth in the sunshine. Our plan was to head east into the twin lochs of Glencoul and Glendhu, each of which has a bothy in their upper reaches.  This being Easter, we expected others to have the same idea, hence we were fully equipped and prepared to camp elsewhere.

Rounding the dividing headland of Aird da Loch (appropriately "height of the two lochs") an impressive view opens up along Loch Glencoul to the rugged hills surrounding the head of the loch.  The most prominent of these is the Stack of Glencoul, a 494m/1621ft boss of steep rock.

At our right shoulder was a superb view to Quinag, one of my favourite hills - it's been way too long since I climbed it.

Paddling up Loch Glencoul is like moving along a geological text book writ large.  The pinkish rock outcropping in a tilted plane above Allan in this image is Cambrian Quartzite; at the top right of the image you can see the start of another type of rock overlying the quartzite.

The astonishing thing is that the overlying rock is much older than the Cambrian rock below.  This is the Glencoul Thrust zone, a part of the complex Moine Thrust zone.  A good explanation with photographs to illustrate the stacked-up nature of the rock is provided by Oxford University as notes for its students fieldwork (thanks to Allan for pointing me to this resource).

The head of Loch Glencoul is a wild and majestic place, surrounded by rugged hills.  There's no easy access on foot to this spot, the natural way to arrive is by water.

We headed for the broad beach on the north side of the loch, just below the house of Glencoul. The building on the shore is a boathouse and storage shed, the house and adjacent bothy is just above the beach to the right.  We were arriving near low water one day before Springs - the water goes back for some 100 metres as the beach is fairly flat.

Nobody was about when we landed, but three open canoes drawn up near the bothy indicated that folk were in residence.  We thought we'd be able to camp and share the bothy during the evening, but......

...on opening the bothy door it was clear that it was absolutely rammed with kit and gear.  A single party of eight had taken every available inch of space.  Even if we'd camped there wouldn't have been space for us to cook or share the evening in the bothy.

This was a little disappointing, the bothy code is pretty straightforward concerning group size and duration of stay - and this group intended to stay a while.  They were a "Song of the Paddle" members group and left the bothy book right below a notice asking groups of six or more to neither use the bothy or to camp nearby......  It was undoubtedly a fabulous adventure for the kids, just too many folk at one time for a wee bothy.

Above the head of the bay, a prominent white marble cross commemorates the Eliot brothers, two lads enlisted in highland regiments and both killed in the slaughter of the western front in 1917 and 1918.

Their bodies aren't here, but the spot chosen for their memorial has a view which has few rivals.

The afternoon sunshine was warm and there was almost no breeze, quite a difference in temperature from the "cool" early morning back in Aberdeenshire! We ate a late luncheon with our backs to a warm drystone wall the bothy and discussed plans.  Adding our three to the eight folk here would detract from the wild feel of this spot; and we decided to spend the night elsewhere.  But before heading back down Loch Glencoul there was somewhere else we wanted to explore...

The most beautiful bridge?

After paddling from the bothy back down Loch Glendhu and past the hotel, the Kylesku Bridge comes suddenly into view as a corner is turned.  The ebb tidal stream had just started in my favour and I had a gentle push into the narrows (Kylesku is Caolas Cumhann or Cumhang - the narrow strait).

Can a thing of concrete be beautiful when placed into a landscape like that of Sutherland?  I would say that in this case, it most certainly can; and that actually for me this is the most beautiful bridge anywhere......

Seen from drectly up the narrows it certainly looks slender and perhaps graceful, but from this angle the bridge hides its true nature until the last moment.

Passing underneath shows the graceful arc of the deck which forms a single sweep across the Kyle, but even here the best view is denied.  For that, and to understand the designers (Ove Arup Partners) vision, you have to see it from above.  The graceful arc compements the setting perfectly; any straight-line industrial style bridge like the one at Ballachulish would have spoilt this spot.  Both the designers and Highland Council, for whom it was built, deserve huge credit for their vision increating something truly beautiful.

Work began on the bridge in 1978 and it was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth in 1984.  It is 275 metres long and carries a continuous box girder section deck 24 metres above the water of the kyle.  The bridge replaced a ferry service here, one of the two final vessels on the service, the Maid of Kylesku. was simply beached at the north side of the kyle, the other vessel, Maid of Glencoul, remains in service as a relief vessel on the Corran ferry on Loch Linnhe.

My own favourite view of the bridge is from high up on Sail Garbh of Quinag, where the fit into the landscape is even more striking - I've no good images of this view; surely a reason to climb the hill again?!

Heading out of the narrows and into Loch a' Chairn Bhain (loch of the white cairn) another stunningly beautiful view opens up, this time the natural beauty of Quinag.  Really a mini range of hills with three Corbett summits (those hills between 2500 and 3000ft with a 500ft drop all round).  The most striking and obvious is Sail Garbh (rough heel) which gives the whole hill its name of Quinag - the milk stoup- as it's said to resemble a milking pail.

With this view for company and a gentle wind and tide behind me, the paddle towards the mouth of the loch and the sea beyond seemed effortless.....

Ardvreck Castle

In the north west of Scotland, another dramatic ruined castle stands guard




Ardvreck Castle is on a rocky point in Loch Assynt near Inchnadamph and guards the strategic ford now occupied by Skiag Bridge. The castle is on the route from the south to Lochinver, and, via a pass on the shoulder of Quinag, to the far north. It was built around 1490 and was a MacLeod stronghold.

It's a very dramatic and atmopheric ruin, a stark tooth of stone rising from a wild loch. It always seems to me to have an air of cold indifference. Certainly it gave cold comfort to the Marquis of Montrose, who was betrayed and captured whilst sheltering here in 1650 after the defeat of the Royalists; a remarkable breach of traditional values by the wife of the MacLeod chief.




In this view of the castle, a sense of the strategic position is shown. The steep slopes of Glas Bheinn (776m) sweep up from the loch shore, routing travellers and armies right to the castle. A little to the north west is the superlative mountain Quinag (the stoup, or milk bucket). One of my favourite hills, I've climbed it, kayaked along part of it's base and stayed in a cottage at it's foot - I really recommend it!