Day Fifty Seven

Tuesday 3 May – Loch Droma to Inverlael

Another sunny day, with no clouds, cool at first but rapidly warming. In the garden of a cottage opposite Loch droma, a man sat quietly. At my approach, three dogs destroyed the calm, although the man tried valiantly to settle them. He confirmed my thoughts about the path I was seeking.

It rose steeply from behind the cottage, quite clear on the ground as it crossed a burn. As it reached the top of a hill called Meallain Murchaich, it topped 2,000 feet, staying at that height for about two miles. Looking back, I could see the whole length of Loch Glascarnoch, an impressive sight despite its relative lack of water.

This track is not in the book called Scottish Hill Tracks, and I wondered why. It is clearly well-walked, being defined and largely easy to walk, with the usual boggy bits to keep me on my toes. The reason for the path's existence may be found on the map: grouse butts are marked, although I couldn't see them.

There were no trees here, and consequently no birdsong, just the sound of my feet going crunch, click, squelch. The track headed Northwest and then swung gradually round to head West then Southwest, falling gradually to about 1,000 feet, then much more rapidly as it headed for a bank of forestry by the main road to Ullapool.

Across Strath More, I could see a very large plume of smoke on the hillside. The local (and indeed national) news had been carrying stories about fires raging in the area, as the unseasonably dry weather allowed the heather, bracken and grass to dry out. Some locals I talked to later were scathing about the fact that the national coverage had included brief mentions of northern Scotland, but had featured pictures of a blaze in Berkshire!

Zigzagging through the trees, I emerged at Braemore Junction, where the road for Aultbea and Gairloch leaves the Ullapool road. Here there is a car park, a telephone box and a bus shelter, although not many buses call here any more. I took the side road, as part of my cunning plan to end up on the other side of the valley from the road, as I headed North towards Ullapool.

The young River Broom, which flows in Loch Brrom (Ullapool's home loch) is fed by two burns, one of which I crossed on the road bridge. I passed the car park for the Corrieshalloch Gorge and Falls, a National Trust for Scotland site. I reckoned that the water shortage might have made the falls a bit weedy, so I pressed on along the road for about half a mile, reaching a car park with panoramic views down the strath towards Loch Broom.

A further two miles on, a footbridge crosses the second burn, but I reckoned I might get across without this diversion, so I left the road and descended steeply across a wet hillside to reach the burn near a small hydro-electric station, disguised to look like an agricultural building (sometimes they pretend to be houses). I idly wondered whether there might be a bridge or dam to help me across the burn, but there wasn't. But the burn was liberally dotted with nice flattish roocks, and I soon identified a group of them which would serve as stepping-stones.

I sat by the water to eat my lunch, before picking up a farm track which ambles peacefully down the West side of the valley, while the traffic thunders down the East side. The only distubance came from a few militant sheep, protesting about my proximity to their new-born lambs (the lambs only seemed to mind when their mothers told them they should).

I joined a public road at a small collection of houses called Croftown, turning right to cross the valley, cross the River Broom on a road bridge, and trotted along the main road for a short while to reach Inverlael, where tomorrow's jaunt would begin.

I was staying a second night at Aultguish, so I need to thumb a lift back. This took about 10 seconds, and I enjoyed a good chat with a very nice delivery van-driver, on his homeward run to Inverness.