Bridging the gap from river to sea

Shortly after leaving Acharacle we approached the first of two bridges on the River Shiel.  This is the "new" bridge, built in 1935 and formed of a fine triple arch.  This is one of two "Shiel Bridges" and not to be confused with the "Shiel Bridge" in Kintail.

The second bridge is a graceful single arch built by Thomas Telford in 1804 over a point where the river is force through a narrow gap.  The "old" bridge was too narrow to carry road vehicles and was replaced by the "new" bridge in the 1930's.  There's actually a channel to the left of the bridge in this image, but in today's low water level it was completely dry.  We've had a little excitement in much higher conditions here but today we drifted serenely through into a quiet zone of deep, slow moving pools.

After a quiet stretch the river changes again to a broad, shallow flow over banks of shingle which required a bit of careful route choice to avoid.

A steep bank on the right hand side is a good reference point to start looking for options to get off the river prior to the drop into the Sea Pool.  This part of Scotland is still rising after the weight of the ice sheet was released at the end of the last Ice Age and is up to 5 metres above sea level.  In simple terms, Loch Shiel and it's river used to be connected to the sea, but are now up to 5 metres above sea level....which means that the water has a bit of a drop into the sea right at the end of the river.

We chose a spot we've used previously to get off the water; at a river gauging station.  There was just enough space for our five kayaks next to the minor road.  The road may be tiny but it's quite busy as it leads down to the popular Castle Tioram.

We got our boats onto the trolleys and one by one set off down the road. 

After 150 metres or so we could leave the road and take an estate track beside the river, so we weren't holding up the traffic!

Each time we've been on this trip we've taken the time to  take a look at the river's final plunge into the sea.  There was a lot less water here than on previous trips - one autumn visit had particularly impressive volumes of water sluicing down.

A common thread on each visit is that we've not had the slightest inclination to run this rapid in fully laden sea kayaks!  Even in this lower flow there are hazards; there's a couple of big rocks submerged in the line of descent.  That said. if you arrive in low river flow and at high water springs, it's said that the descent is straightforward.  Being of the disposition which plans for envisaged conditions....we bring trolleys!

We'd come from freshwater loch to river, under two bridges and then a short portage which had bridged the gap from fresh water to salt water.  Ahead of us lay the charms of Loch Moidart and the open sea.