Day 238 – Kilchoan to Fascadale 17 miles 1345′ of ascent

Monday 3rd October 2022

We set the alarm for 6am so we could make an early start. We were still hoping there would be a hire car available in Fort William which we might just have time to collect after the end of the walk – this would mean we could continue on our original schedule; collecting it first thing tomorrow morning might be possible but far from easy and if there wasn’t a car available we were probably going to be heading home instead. Fort William is just over two hours away and the car hire closes at 17.00 and so the latest we dare leave it to depart from Fascadale is 15.00. Our route on paper is 15.8 miles (and will turn out be about 10% more) and so we needed to start walking by 7.30 latest.

We managed to leave at 7.15 as dawn was breaking. Fortunately the weather was holding for the time being so we walked as fast as we could. We had a six mile road walk to Ardnamurchan light house. It is the most westerly point of the British mainland being 23 miles further west than Land’s End and so has to be visited by any coast walker. The walk was quite easy going.

As we walked, we came across the Kilchoan Community Garden which is opposite the, now defunct, Sonachan Hotel. They had some polytunnels as well as some nicely cultivated beds. Despite the sign, the shop was not open.

At Achosnich we passed a cottage which had evidently discarded their oil heating and were using the old oil tank as a log store.

And we were delighted to see some Herwick sheep, albeit a long way from home they seemed to be thriving.

Just before we reached the lighthouse, Jill’s phone picked up enough of a signal to receive a message from Emily. She had spoken to the car hire firm who confirmed they had a car available and we could pick it up this afternoon as long as we got there before they shut at 5pm. That was a huge relief and, having messaged our thanks to Emily, we strode on with renewed impetus; we could rescue the walk after all.

The lighthouse is a popular tourist destination and so it even has traffic lights along a short narrow section of the approach road to control traffic entering the lighthouse grounds. There is also a tearoom and gift shop but that didn’t open until 10.00 and being only 9.15, we continued on our way. The lighthouse was built in 1849 by Alan Stevenson, it is 35metre high and is built of granite from Mull and remains its natural granite colour. We did have a mobile phone signal near the lighthouse so I arranged for the Volvo to be “recovered” to Carlisle Volvo while Jill put on her waterproof over trousers and rucksack covers as the weather was now deteriorating. I decided to give it a bit longer as I dislike walking in overtrousers.

The OS map shows a track close to the shore but this has been closed off with a high gate topped with barbed wire which we took to mean they don’t want any “right to roamers” here. A little further back up the road is a signposted path which crosses behind the caravan site to reach the shoreline track a little further on.

A good track follows up a passed an old shielling up a little pass to Portuairk. 

Portuairk has a sandy beach and a few houses and little else, not even a bench. So we found some large rocks near the foreshore and sat for a very quick break to have a hot drink and some shortbread before pressing on. A path goes from the village along the coast to Sanna. Leaving the village there is a river to cross which was simple enough because the tide was out it was easy to stepping stone it. On the other side there was a short stiff climb before dropping down to Sanna Bay.

Sanna has lovely, white sandy beach and even on a damp, windy Monday in October there were several cars in the carpark. In summer it must be packed.
From Sanna there are two possible routes; one is via the deserted village of Plocaig and then cutting across to join a track that crosses from Achnaha. The alternative is to walk to the track from Achnaha. The first option is shorter by a mile and a half and is closer to the coast but doesn’t actually have any views of the sea and there is no recognised path and it is liable be damp. Because we wanted to sure of finishing early we decided to walk the longer route for the security of being on a recognised path and because of its interesting course. The end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula is a long-extinct volcano.

Our walk from Sanna took us through the rim of the volcano to Achnaha and then we turned off the road onto a good track which follows the east side of the crater to the deserted village of Glendrian. Glendrian was never more than a very small collection of houses farming the immediate area around it. It was not cleared as part of the clearances but the residents gradually left until the last family departed in 1941.

It was a good, interesting walk on a very walkable track.

From Glendrian the path continues optimistically well but soon deteriorates as it crosses bog.

The path then  turns north west to pass through Bealach Mor in the northern rim of the crater. We struggled to find the path which should be on the west bank of the stream and so we followed the east side and rejoined the proper path at the ford. By now, the rain had arrived and  the wind had got up as well. This was not quite the walking I had promised Jill. At least we were crossing this area now before the worst of the deluge – it would have been a lot more difficult in the later storm conditions and failing light.

Once through the bealach, the path turns north-east but the path was far from well defined. There were various streams to cross and unfortunately Jill went into a water-filled peat channel up to her knee and I had to help pull her out. Jill had been wearing walking shoes since she first joined me on this walk and had only very recently found a pair of walking boots that were comfortable. She was wearing them on days when we knew the terrain would be difficult underfoot and had opted to wear walking shoes today as I had suggested the route was mostly along a track even if it might not be much more than a path in places. Sadly it was not even a path in quite a lot of places but she was philosophical about it and pointed out she would rather it was her shoes that filled with wet mud as she definitely needed her boots for tomorrow’s walk and they would not have dried out in time.

We continued along the rather variable path guided by my GPS

The rain got harder and the wind strengthened and we just plodded on as quickly as we could. At last we came over a ridge and Fascadale lay in the valley below us. We had to descend steeply to cross the river. The map shows a footbridge but there is no longer even the vestige of a foot bridge. The river was wide but very shallow and, as Jill already had shoes full of mud and water, we splashed across and came the car.
We were at the car by 14.05 which was pretty remarkable given the weather and the state of the walking for the last couple of miles.

For the benefit of other coast walkers I think another time I would take the shorter cross country route via Plocaig since the route from Glendrian through Bealach Mor is not at all easy or quick if the conditions are poor.

After changing footwear, we set off for the two hour drive to Fort William. We made it for 16.30 and having collected the car we started the drive back to Acharacle where we would leave the hire car ready at the end of tomorrow’s walk. The weather was abysmal with high winds and torrential rain.

We got back to the studio flat by 19:30  It seemed like a very long day but we were now back on track..