A Round of Bothies

A 5 Day Expedition from Strath Carron, March 2015

As fantastic as mountain bothies are, they are not necessarily placed a day’s walk from one another in any particular direction. Following on from our previous bothy expedition, ‘Escape from Knoydart’, where we used 3 bothies, all nicely spaced; to walk from Inverie to Glenfinnan; we decided we wanted to do another bothy trip. After much research, (as seems to be the case for any of our holidays); I decided on the area close to Strath Carron. Here I found 4 bothies, 2 on each side of the main road that could be linked with an interesting & varied walk. Andy always likes the additional fun of not completing a round-trip but starting and finishing in different places so we started with a train journey from Strath Carron to Achneshellach where we began the walk.

 

And so it began, I heaved my pack onto my shoulder, using every muscle in my body to do so, sounding like a Wimbledon finalist. I think perhaps the large tub of sugar and huge bottle of golden syrup were luxuries that should have been left behind. I pushed up, my legs groaning with every step and climbed aboard the train. The journey to Achneshallach was just long enough to use a flushing toilet, buy a ticket, request that the train stop at Achneshallach and sit down for 2 minutes. Nine minutes later we had our bags on our backs again, we left the train and we were on our way up a forestry track from the station; rising steadily but gently through the plantation towards the Coulin Pass at the great height of 287 metres above sea level.

 

We were both soon in t-shirts; the weather was beautiful – sunny and calm and the packs were heavy. Using our walking poles to help spread the weight over all four limbs we savoured the afternoon and were thankful for such a small incline on the ascent. As we crested the top of the pass a long valley opened up in front of us; we could see as far as the hills of Torridon, surprisingly close when you think about the road journey to get there. With the climbing finished layers were piled back on and we descended gently towards the River Coulin and our first bothy.

 

We had been following a rough track since the station and would continue to do so until we reached the first bothy 8km from Achneshallach. The track split as we crossed the bridge over the River Coulin and the scenery became ever more beautiful. We were now following the Easan Dorcha upstream. As ever I am always surprised at the lack of wildlife we see in the hills, be it in Scotland, England or Wales. I forever expect to see golden eagles, pine martens, foxes, mountain hares and all sorts of other wonderful creatures when walking in the wild areas Scotland. Every time I am disappointed and wonder if all the animals are hiding just out of sight, or teasing us with all sorts of party tricks behind our backs.

 

Just as we had had enough of walking, ready for a rest, a roof appeared, soon followed by the rest of a tiny wooden shed. This was where we would spend the first night. As bothies go it was well maintained, tidy and warm; it was also tiny. With our packs off we wandered about effortlessly, exploring our surroundings for the night. I dug my loo hole in preparation for the morning’s visit. There is nothing worse than trying to dig a hole when all you want to do is go there and then. We collected some water from the river and started preparations for dinner. We eat pasta and rice meals in the evenings and treat ourselves to a sausage and onion in each meal. This is followed by custard and dried apple. Looking back now I think maybe we should also forsake the sausage and onion to save weight and perhaps the dried apple too. Andy’s luxury item is a radio and we still reminisce about the Manx Radio Station and their night of cattle themed songs, including 'The Blue-Grey Cow'. Years on we still laugh when singing one of the lines: "You can pull all her tits and she never says ow'."  (Mandatory silly accent required).

 

We had a warm & comfortable night in 'The Teahouse', the morning dawned clear and bright; we were looking forward to the day’s walk, although it would be a long one. We have porridge with syrup and pre-mixed powdered milk for breakfast, washed down with a hot drink. It usually takes us a couple of hours from waking up to leaving the bothy. On this occasion we left at about 09:00 and set off towards the head of the valley. Unusually at the head of the valley there was no bealach, saddle or downhill but instead we entered the larger valley of the River Lair and continued uphill towards Coire Lair and the bealach that would allow us an easy passage into Coire Grannda and eventually back towards Strath Carron via Coire Fionnaraich. When walking through such amazing scenery I wish I could remember more of my physical geography and be able to explain all of the landforms we are walking on and around. We might as well be walking through a physical geography text book!

 

The valley of the River Lair is a typically u-shaped with a broad bottom and steep sides. As we climbed towards the bealach, the sides came closer, towering ever upwards and snow fields became more frequent. However, despite the encroaching snow, it was a beautiful, still, spring day and we had a really pleasant climb to the small lochan at the saddle. We had a well-deserved rest at the lochan; being forever young at heart I ditched my pack and climbed up the nearest snow slope purely to slide down it on my bum. Andy sensibly drank some tea and started his lunch.

 

After lunch we followed the circuitous path around Stac a Choire into Coire Fionnaraich. It was longer and more winding than it looked on the map but thankfully all downhill. Once back on the Strath Carron side of the hills, the path seemed to skirt forever around the corrie until it finally began to drop towards Loch Coire Fionnaraich. We were about 2km away from the loch when we really could have done with finishing our day’s walk. From the loch we still had a further 2km to the bothy. Once at the loch we had a tea break, had a rest from our packs and had a couple of wine gums; our treat when we are flagging.

 

Eventually we arrived at our second bothy, Coire Fionnaraich; much larger than the first with 2 rooms on the ground floor and 2 on the first floor. There was already sleeping stuff in one of the upstairs rooms so we laid our stuff out to air in the other room, wondering who our companions for the night might be. They arrived just before dark; they weren’t particularly sociable, disappearing into their room as soon as they arrived. Later on when we were all in bed another walker arrived; he opted to have his own room downstairs and left early in the morning. The other 2 didn’t rise until after we had left. This bothy was known as ‘The Busy Bothy’ thereafter.

 

We had only a short walk down to the road at Coulags. From Coulags we had to cross the river and find the track through the woods back to Strath Carron. We were thankful for the recent dry weather and the easy river crossing. It took us a while to locate the track through the woods, correctly thinking it would be easier to follow than the river bank. We chose to have lunch in the countryside, before we returned to Strath Carron to resupply at the car.

The second leg of our trip began soon after lunch and we crossed the railway and then the road at Achintee, heading into the Attadale Estate. The ground is gently undulating and again we had a steady, easy climb until we were high enough to traverse easily around the hills .

 

Although it is only 9km from Strath Carron to our third bothy the walk felt a lot longer. We followed a fence for 5km, which seemed to go on forever, (think Rabbit Proof Fence), before finally dropping down onto the plains below and the final stretch to Bendronaig Lodge & privately maintained bothy. Again we seemed to have chosen to walk just 2 or 3km further than we really wanted to but on arrival at the bothy all the pain and fatigue was forgotten. The bothy is large and comfortable, in a fantastic location and it has a toilet!  The toilet is indoors, sit-down, has a door; the only drawback is you have to fill a bucket from the nearby stream to fill the cistern and thereby flush it. This was also the first bothy of the trip where we managed to have a fire. There is a real shortage of trees in this whole area, fortunately there was a tree or two within the grounds of the bothy and some of the branches had fallen recently and were now dead wood. With our firelighters, (my luxury item), we managed to get a roaring fire going which meant we could spend the evening minus a layer or two. Bliss.

 

After another comfortable night we had a lie-in to enjoy the eclipse and we took it easy as we only had about 5km to walk to the next bothy at Bearneas. Unfortunately the hills were cloaked with mist and low cloud so there was no chance of seeing the sun during the eclipse. Having felt really remote we realised how easy it is to access civilisation when a pick-up truck arrived having ferried a mountain biker up to the bothy. He worked for the estate and had driven the 12km or so up the vehicular track from the main road.

 

We set off with the wind & drizzle on our backs and followed the track, then footpath towards Bealach Bhearnais. The conditions underfoot were damp and we didn’t want to leave the path too soon and end up crossing boggy ground to the bothy. However, although saturated, the ground was easy to walk on and we had no problems, always remaining on top. The Abhainn Bhearnais was also easy to cross and we arrived at the bothy in time for lunch and to dodge any further rain showers.

 

 

Bearneas bothy is in a wonderful setting, is well maintained and draft free. Between the rain showers we explored a little and managed to collect a little firewood. We spotted a small tree on the banks of the stream that drops down beside the bothy but further upstream. Unfortunately every person that has stayed at the bothy, who wanted a fire has probably followed the same route as me, in hope of collecting firewood. I balanced comically on the top of a steep bank / cliff, trying to reach the closest branches that looked dead. They were all just out of my reach. I chose not to carry on with this and instead collected a few fallen twigs and also found some dead heather shrubs, the latter make great kindling. I managed to get 2 handfuls; this combined with a couple of small slabs of peat from the bothy, warmed us up nicely in the evening.

 

 

We woke to a beautiful morning and reluctantly we headed away from the bothy. The last leg of the walk began with a gentle uphill, passing through a saddle at about 500m high. From there we followed a good path all the way back to Achintee and Strath Carron. I was reluctant to return to civilisation but felt a little better with the knowledge that a beautiful cottage awaited us for the following week, right on the shore of Loch Duich - The Cabin, Glen Shiel

The walk is ideal for a bothy expedition with a mix of long and short days. The climbs are all gradual, something we were really thankful of with our heavy packs. We climbed no mountains even though the walk is surrounded by Munros,  instead we used a lot of bealachs, the highest was about 700 metres. The river crossings may be problematic in wetter conditions and much of the terrain is very wet, again in different conditions this may be a problem. The bothies were all well maintained and feel very remote however none of them are further than 9km from a main road; Coire Fionnaraich was by far the easiest to reach. The area is barren but beautiful so there is very little firewood available.