Day 243 – Inverie to Inverie 14.6 miles 1700′ of ascent.

Saturday 8th October 2022

Today we are embarking on the next wild Scottish peninsula; that of Knoydart. This peninsula is functionally an island though geographically a peninsula. It has no road access and only a single village, that of Inverie. It is serviced entirely by sea. The nearest road access is at Kinloch Hourn which is at the end of a 25 mile single track road; it is then a fifteen mile walk to Inverie.

We are taking a circular route today. There is a track shown on the OS map from Inverie around the west of the Knoydart Peninsula and ending at the settlement of Airor. From there a path follows the coast as far as Inverguseran where a river needs to be forded. There is no practical way to progress further along the coast to Barrisdale and so we will then cut back across the peninsula to Inverie. Many coast walkers don’t bother with this section, I suppose because you begin and end art the same place but I am keen to see as much of Knoydart as possible and this walk will actually be a good deal closer to the coast than many we have done and provide views back to Mallaig and across to Skye.

Inverie has a regular passenger ferry service from Mallaig and it is a popular destination for walkers wanting to experience some truly remote Scotland, climbers bagging Monroes and Corbetts and people just trying to get away from it all.

We got the 8.30 ferry and were the only passengers. We were disembarking at 9.00 at which point it started raining so we used the shelter at the top of the jetty to put on our over trousers and rucksack covers. What is shown as an unfenced track on the OS map is actually a fully metalled road that roughly follows the coast to the west, ending at the tiny settlement of Airor. (A metalled road is one that has a stone surface [or concrete or asphalt]; coming from “metallum” latin for mine, quarry, and metal.) The Tarmac road is remarkably good, presumably the small number of vehicles on Knoydart means the road gets very little wear. We were a bit taken aback when the first vehicle to pass us did so at speed and without making any attempt to move over; he really came within a whisker of us. The three other vehicles that passed us today were more considerate. 

After following the coastline for a couple of miles, the road then turns inland a little and climbs steadily to pass over to the northern side of the peninsula.

To our surprise, having climbed a little, we could see across to Mallaig and emails and messages started coming in on our phones. The views were good and the walking easy.

Once over the high point of the road we could see over the Sound of Sleat to Skye and this time we were picking up a mobile signal from Skye. Knoydart is not quite so cut off as it seems at first.

On the way there are one or two tracks or paths leading to settlements right on the coast and some of these seem to offer accommodation. A couple seem to only have access by footpath and have a little parking bay where the path leaves the road.

We suddenly heard a tremendous noise as a loudly-grunting pig came rushing down the steep bank towards us. Possibly just curious or hoping for food but we were quite glad there was a wire fence to stop him getting any closer.

We descended to Airor where, according to one blog, there used to be a tiny café. There was certainly nothing like that today and there was a slightly rundown farmhouse and a variety of sheds or shacks.

At Airor the tarmac ended and we were on a good track, albeit with puddles. The track follows close to the sea and we passed a number recently-built, wooden-clad houses and other properties. How many are lived in regularly and how many are holiday lets is difficult to know. 

After Airor we came to Samaladan which again had three or four habitable buildings. Then the track ends but a definite sign directed us alongside a fence away from the last house. The path was quite boggy in places but often had a firm stone base beneath the water.

I noticed some highland cows in the field we entered and Jill spotted the bull. We approached, watching him carefully, and took a slight detour trying not to stray too far from the path because of the boggy ground. Fortunately the bull was not interested in us and apparently not that interested in the cows either and turned away to graze.

We came to a gate with quite a welcoming sign which we thoroughly approve of.

The path continued, sometimes on the stony foreshore and sometimes on the grassy bank.

Then we came to the River Guseran. I had been in touch with the Knoydart Ranger over the ease or otherwise of fording the river. If we couldn’t cross it, we would have to return by the same route making it a 16 mile walk and committing us to the 6.30pm ferry back to Mallaig as we couldn’t possibly get there for the ferry at 3pm. It is just possible to get along the nearside river bank for a couple of miles to reach a footbridge but it is tough-going over rough terrain with no proper path and probably slower than going back along the road.

The advice from the Ranger was that it was generally pretty easy but beware of very high tides and after heavy rain when it may be unsafe to cross. We have certainly seen a lot of rain in the last week but fortunately we were arriving at the river at low tide. Knowing the water would be too deep for my boots, Jill had suggested she could cross first in her Feetz wellies and use a plastic bag attached to a length of synthetic rope to let me pull them back across so I could also cross in them – I had tried them on before we left home and found I could get them over my boots. We took one look at the river and knew that idea wouldn’t work as the river was much too wide. It was also running quite fast.

We worked our way up the side of the river to where there was evidence of a ford. It was even wider hereabout; that is a good thing because usually the wider a river is, the shallower it is. I took off boots and socks and wound up my trousers. I had with me a pair of neoprene type beach shoes which I put on. Jill put on her wellies and said she would cross first.

She set off quite well but about a third of the way across slowed almost to a halt – the water was really quite deep in places and she was having difficulty finding a route that kept the water below the top of her wellies – she said it got within half and inch at times. I decided to start crossing so I was nearer to her if she slipped.

We both made it across safely. I got wet legs (obviously); Jill did not – some water had sloshed over the top of her right welly but had run down the outside of her gaiters and she stayed dry. On the far bank I dried off and rebooted and Jill put her wellies back in her pack.

When we set off again. It was 12.45 we had 5 ½ miles to go and we realised that it we hurried we could make the 3pm ferry otherwise we would have to wait until 6.30pm. The weather was due to deteriorate later and there is not much (or probably nothing) to do in Inverie for 3 ½ hours and so we decided to make a push for it.  The track was good and solid but the surface was very rough and irregular and so not the easiest of surfaces on which to try and keep up 3mph.

We walked steadily uphill for the first three and and a half miles and Jill was flagging – we had not had a break since we started from the ferry and she finds that 3-4 hours continuous walking is about her limit. We agreed to get to the top of the pass then have a very brief stop to get some energy on board. A single pick-up truck passed us. It must have come from Inerguseran because that is the only dwelling on the track.

Soon we reached the pass of Màm Uidhe and we took a very quick pause to have some coffee from our flasks and a piece of Jill’s highly restorative fruit cake. We then had not much more than a mile downhill to to Inverie. As we came into Inverie we saw a small removals van parked up. Yesterday this van was on the quay at Mallaig waiting to be loaded onto one of the small work boats which can take vehicles across to Inverie.

Western Cruises request passengers to be at the jetty 15 mins before departure and so we were aiming to be there for 14.45. As it was we arrived at about 14:35 and so we sat in the shelter until the ferry arrived and had our sandwiches and more coffee. As we waited several vehicles arrived, some were clearly bringing visitors back to the ferry at the end of their holiday. Some were probably waiting for visitors for the coming week. 

I was pleased to see that it was the old ferry “Western Isles”. It was built for the war department during WWII but never commissioned. It has been a ferry for years and is quite elegant even if it is a little slower than the newer ferry. As the ferry arrived there appeared to be a small number of passengers on the deck but once it had moored more and more passengers emerged from the the deck cabin and from the bar cabin down below and perhaps twenty or thirty passengers disembarked. Then the real fun began when a tarpaulin on the foredeck was lifted off to reveal a huge stack of luggage of various types and form.

A human chain of crew and passengers formed and suitcases, shopping bags full to overflowing, some rucksacks, a pair of walking boots, various cardboard boxes, a number of grocery delivery boxes (probably from Morrisons), two push scooters, a couple of folded dog pens and a variety of indeterminate items were eventually stacked on the jetty ready to be distributed to the various waiting people and vehicles. Talk about Paddy’s Market!

We boarded along with a dozen or so others including some young musicians brought by “The Gathering” Landrover and so I am guessing they have had some live music at that venue. “The Gathering” does promote itself as “The Premier Accommodation Venue in Knoydart”. Given the amount of competition I am not quite sure what that statement says about the place.

The sea had got up since this morning and we had quite an undulating ride back to Mallaig.

A quick note of explanation for any close observers of our walk. The next two days on our walking schedule, Days 244 and 245, we have already done. We did them at the end of our last walking session in September because of accommodation issues at Kinloch Hourn. However, it makes much more sense to read our progress in geographic rather than temporal sequence. So tomorrow, instead of going to Inverie and walking to Kinloch Hourn (Day 244), we are actually driving to Arnisdale for Day 246 of our walk. We were booked on the ferry from Mallaig over to Skye to drive up to use the Skye bridge to get back to the mainland. However, I got a text from Calmac Ferries to say that our ferry tomorrow has been cancelled so we will need a very early start to drive for three hours to Corran in heavy rain and winds gusting to over 50mph. Had we been booked on the ferry back to Inverie tomorrow for the walk across to Kinloch Hourn, we would have been completely stumped as that ferry was also cancelled; sometimes things work out for the best in the end.