Day Fifty Six

Monday 2 May – Garve to Loch Droma

The main A835 road roars up Strath Garve, leaves the Kyle of Lochalsh road on its left, and swings North to follow the River Blackwater into Strath Dirrie, then West towards Ullapool. But in parallel to all this rush, a much quieter communications system exists; I had sampled it yesterday and intended to make full use of it today.

I walked back across the valley from Garve, turning West on a traffic-free road leading to a bridge over the Blackwater, built by Major Caulfield. I had previously used old roads built by General Wade in the 1720s and 30s to facilitate the rapid deployment of George I’s troops, in order to suppress the Jacobites. When Wade moved on to fry bigger fish, Caulfield kept up the good work, supervising the construction of some massive bridges, many of which survive, including this one at Little Garve.

Beyond the bridge, I walked North along what clearly used to be the main road, now superseded, before crossing the present main road to find a forestry track. A notice declared that a bridge had come down on the way to Inchbae, and wasn’t expected to be replaced until next year. I hastily consulted my map to find Inchbae – was I supposed to be going there? I wasn’t – phew! In fact, my route turned left, initially heading South West, gradually gaining height and turning to head North and then North West.

Early mist had now burned off, and it was already warm. This unseasonal bout of good weather had already lasted several days here in the North of Scotland and, luckily for me, it still had a while to run. Leaving the forestry road, I took a narrow track across boggy ground, rising sharply towards a craggy hill, turning to pass beneath the peak. This was an old drove road, apparently used to carry fish from Ullapool.

Reaching a high point of about 1,000 feet, the track gradually descended, passing through another forestry plantation, albeit that this one was rather sparsely planted with mixed species. As I dropped towards the main road at Aultguish, I walked diagonally across a very wet hillside, every step a splash.

Emerging at the Aultguish Inn, I had to walk the next few miles by the roadside, up Strath Dirrie and by Loch Glascarnoch. This loch is dammed at its Eastern end for the production of hydro-electric power, but the water level was well down, presumably because of the recent lack of rain.

At the Western end of the loch, I could gratefully leave the traffic, taking a track which ran parallel to the road but far enough away to be peaceful. Across the road, Loch Droma, also dammed, was also half-empty. When I drew level with the dam, I walked back down to the road to finish the day’s walk.