Thursday 6th October 2022
We drove back to Roshven to resume walking. Roshven is not so much a place as a vague collection of houses. The sky was heavy with cloud and rain not far away; we started off with full waterproofs on. Most of today’s walk is on main roads.
We continued up the the A861 along the side of Loch Ailort. The views were good but without sun it was bit grey. The sea was reasonably active considering how far we are from open sea.
There is a salmon fish farm of the shore managed by MOWI like most of the fish farms we have passed. Fortunately the road is pretty quiet and twin track so walking was pretty easy going. At the head of the loch there is a wide area of sand and mud which was rich in seaweed and it seems the local sheep thrive on it.
The A861 comes to a T junction with the A830. Turning right would lead to Fort William; we turned left for Mallaig (pronounced Mallig; I have been mispronouncing it for years). The A830 is only a little more busy than the A861. At Lochailort we were also joining the railway line from Fort William to Mallaig which passes over the famous Glenfinnan viaduct and has be much popularised by the Harry Potter films.
Much to our surprise as we walked along the road we heard the chuff chuff of a steam train. Frustratingly we were unable to see the railway and the only bit we saw was the plume of smoke where it entered a tunnel.
Walking along the shores of Loch nan Uamh we came to the Princes Cairn which marks the place from which Bonnie Prince Charlie departed for France following the failure of the Jacobite uprising. It really is not very impressive and so we didn’t walk down to it to take a photo but that was mainly because the heavens opened and, having removed waterproof trousers a couple hours before, we scrambled to get them on again.
For the next half an hour we were assaulted by lashing rain. As we approached Beasdale the rain finally stopped and as luck would have it there is an excellent waiting room/shelter on the the platform at Beasdale Station and we sat in it out of the breeze and had lunch. Needless to say no trains came past.
After lunch we continued on our merry way along the A830. It is potentially a very fast road and even has climbing lanes on some of the hills. I imagine that in the summer it might be busy but today it was mainly occasional tour buses and a few HGVs. One of the very few cars on the road was completely blocking the cycle track/footpath. At first glance it was very odd because there appeared to have been some sort of accident but we could only see one vehicle. When we got closer there was a young man possibly in his early thirties on his mobile phone but no one else and no casualties. His car was a mess, the front was stove-in but there were also dents around the back as well. I checked that he was OK which he was and I asked what happened. He said that the roads were slippery after all the rain and he “lost’ his rear wheels on the bend. He finished up head on into the crash barrier on the opposite side but had clearly hit the crash barrier a bit further back as well. I rather suspect he got a wheel off the edge of the road and then couldn’t control the car. What he had achieved was quite impressive – all on his own. That was enough excitement for one day.
After another mile or so we came to the turn off for Druimindarroch. Our host had suggested the old road through to Arisaig might be very overgrown and she wasn’t sure if we would be able to walk along it but it proved easy going, if a little muddy in places.
It was a relief to be off the A road. The old road was mainly a gravel road and it passes though some attractive woodland and alongside Brunery Burn before emerging just south of Arisaig.
Once again, having just dried out from the last rain storm, the heavens opened once more and so we arrived back at the car wet and dripping again. We looked in at the visitor centre and Jill bought a book about the history of Knoydart. We then went to the café but at 4.15 it had already stopped serving. So there nothing else to do but retrieve the other car and return to base.
Just Coasting 