Cape Wrath Trail - Strathcarron

After Shiel Bridge the route goes through Morvich and then passes the Falls of Glomach, one of the highest waterfalls in Britain, at 113 m.

Then on to the Iron Lodge, which is on the Srath Duilleach Coffin Road and sounds a bit like a location from Game of Thrones.

On the road to the Iron Lodge.

Then I descended to the Bothy at Maol Bhuidhe. It is in an incredibly isolated location

Arriving at the Bothy

Sunrise at the Bothy.

On the Mountain Bothies Web Site there is a story about the last family at Maol Bhuidhe by Ian MacKay:

As a boy, I lived at Pait Lodge. Maol Bhuidhe was empty then, but years later I was fortunate in being able to meet the two boys of the last family who lived at Maol Bhuidhe. They were Burnet to name, two men in their eighties who had left Maol Bhuidhe in 1916 aged 8 & 12 years. There were also two sisters who had died before I met the boys. Their father was a deer stalker for the Killilan Estate.

At Maol Bhuidhe, they had what was known as a side teacher who came for one week, then had a week teaching children at Pait and another week at Lunard at the head of Glen Cannich, so they had a week at school and then two weeks off.

When I lived at Pait, we had a side school but we had a teacher full time. Our school inspector came up from Muir of Ord or Dingwall once a year, and the Burnets told me that once a year they had walked to Pait and joined the Campbell family there to have their exams.
Their grandfather had come up from the Borders with flocks of sheep – their father, as a boy, could not speak Gaelic, the main language in the area. He had a job as a 14 – 15 year old as a ghillie on Attadale Estate.

One September far out on the hill with a stalking party, the gentleman who was hoping to shoot a stag with the stalking party instead collapsed and died miles out on the hill. The head stalker said to young Burnet ‘You are the fittest and fastest man here, we’ll have to get the body home today.’ He gave the boy instructions to make for Strathcarron to get as many helpers as possible. Young Burnet made good time only to find when he arrived that not a soul spoke any English, although they knew by his agitated state that something was amiss.

They found someone who had some English and eventually a large party followed young Burnet back to the hill to help bring back the body of the unfortunate gentleman.
The family before the Burnets were the Renwicks who brought up 10 children in Maol Bhuidhe. One became Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland. The Renwick dad was a shepherd, he may also later been a gamekeeper.

I have been meeting quite a few other CWTers. I've already mentioned Alan on the first day. Then there was Wild at Sourlies, Chris the Aussy at Sourlies going North to South, Phil and Glenys from Sourlies to Strathcarron (same schedule as me so far), the fast guy who was doing it in a week, Alex from Romania and Andrew at Mail Bhuidhe. So about one person doing it every day it seems.

From Maol Bhuidhe I went anti-clockwise around Beinn Dronaig, past loch Calavie, then past Bendronaig Lodge. It was another lovely day without a cloud in the sky.

Loch Calavie

Sadly the whole area around Bendronaig Lodge has been recently ruined by 4m wide hill tracks created to service and build a hydroelectric scheme. There has to be a better way than this!

Strathcarron is near Loch Kishorn where there is deep water, a port and dry dockand. There is a song based on working at Kishorn Yard called Kishorn Commandos (perfomed here by TheMakadin)

I'm staying at the Strathcarron Hotel. Very luxurious to have en-suite facilities! CWT going well so far and I am really enjoying the amazing scenery. Looking forward to Dorothy joining me on Friday and also to walking in Torridon.