Thanks Ionna. Posted on May 18, 2017 November 13, 2019; by Roel; In this series, I look back on my three-week solo hike along the Cape Wrath Trail: Scotland’s most challenging long-distance trail. Many trail walks end in a fluster, a scuttle or even a bit of a struggle. Cape Wrath Trail Gear List. To add to the challenging distance, the only bridge across the notoriously treacherous River Carnach had been taken down for maintenance, imposing the need for a river crossing. The Cape Wrath Trail is a long distance walk from Fort William to the northwesternmost point of mainland Britain, Cape Wrath. I appreciate the solitude, and I think there are some experiences you simply cannot have unless you’re completely solitary: I remember, for example, wild-camping on Ickornshaw Moor on the Pennine Way, and spending a night listening to lapwings swooping above my tent, snipes diving and drumming, and the mournful call of a curlew. Looking forward to reading more of your travels. The Cape Wrath Trail The Cape Wrath Trail is not an official long-distance route. Our rain gear and tent worked, and we were never cold, so at any given time the weather was not an issue. Deep down, I know I should have rested overnight at Sourlies. „Trail“ in diesem Fall mit „Weg“ zu übersetzen mag aber bereits irreführend sein. This is a variation of the Cape Wrath Trail which normally starts at Fort William. There I was to camp for the night before tackling the serious challenge of a 19km hike to Shiel Bridge, crossing over the Cape Wrath Trail’s highest point just below the Forcan Ridge. The CWT is a tough trail in and of itself made more so if you dealt a bad hand by gales force winds and rain. The owner of this site is using Wordfence to manage access to their site. Beyond the river lay another 16km of almost entirely unmarked terrain. As I entered the Rough Bounds I realised my 15.4kg pack was too heavy (you can see my pack weight on LighterPack – a fantastic resource). Hope your knee has fully recovered. You can see my original Cape Wrath Trail route card here, including links to my OS Maps routes. The Cape Wrath Trail is considered the hardest hiking route in the United Kingdom. Having left Bob with some of my nonessential kit to post home, I strode out into the drizzle. My variant - taking in the Beinn Eighe alternative & the roadwalk to Ullapool - was roughly 360 km. The Cape Wrath Trail is an unofficial long distance trail and as such it is very remote and rarely walked. I paused to stab my trekking poles into the frozen lake at the high point, and slushy ice gushed out of the hole. So here, for the first time, is the full story behind my embarrassing misadventure – and how I’m already working to remedy it. All of that – my hopes, my enthusiasm and my self-confidence – lay rotting in a snow hole, high on a hostile mountain. Approximately 230 miles in length, most people take 2-3 weeks to backpack the trip. The path is not waymarked and has many variations. The short story I told in Trail’s September issue is simple: I hurt my left knee after falling on snow below the Forcan Ridge, having decided – madly – to try to complete two of my planned days in one. The skill of knowing when to quit, stop, or change plans is crucial, no matter the years of experience under our belt. Soon I reached the deep corrie between Mullach Gorm and Sgurr na Sgine, whose bare rocky tops glowered down at me as I pressed uphill. Do you always hike alone? I set foot on the Cape Wrath Trail. At 700m, Bealach Coire Mhàlagain is the highest point on the Cape Wrath Trail. The Cape Wrath Trail is a remote and challenging 200-mile hike through the Scottish Highlands. On the Cape Wrath Trail, our notes say we had 80-100% cloud cover on 12 of 17 days. The Cape Wrath Trail takes you to beaches, glens and mountaintops that see very few humans pass by in a year. Wordfence is a security plugin installed on over 3 million WordPress sites. The book. The Cape Wrath Trail takes you through the finest landscapes in the Western Highlands: Knoydart, Kintail, Torridon, Fisherfield, Assynt, NW Sutherland. Other resources online make it sound incredibly hard, but I think it is manageable for any prepared hiker. Right now I’m planning my next (mini) Lakeland adventure: a two-day hike across 14 eastern Wainwrights in November. Kinloch Hourn marks the penultimate stage of a really tough few days’ walking; I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s where most would-be trailblazers have to drop out. Still, my mood was buoyant and I felt strong. Starting in Fort William and finishing at Cape Wrath, the 400km, 8-day journey winds through the world's most inspirational landscapes including Knoydart, Kintail, Torridon, Assynt, and Sutherland. (EVERY day in Knoydart is tough.) Disappointment and failure are bitter, and it took some time for me to start seriously reviewing what had led me to my accident. There is a direct correlation between pack weight and giving up. Walking the Cape Wrath Trail by Iain Harper (published by Cicerone) is invaluable. Hi Peter – I hope you’ll forgive the delayed response. The clouds were usually low, seriously obscuring views of the mountains. My yell of pain reverberated around the corrie, sank into the snow and died, unheard. For the experienced backpacker it offers an irresistible challenge: over two hundred miles of continuously superb hiking through the most beautiful landscapes in Scotland. I lived and learned. I was in an odd position, not to mention an altered state of mind. If you think you have been blocked in error, contact the owner of this site for assistance. The Cape Wrath Ultra® is Scotland’s finest multi-stage ultra running event. Cape Wrath trail route. 2. The route is roughly 230 miles, and it took me 15 days to walk it north to south. It is also available as an eBook if you cannot justify the 240g that it weighs. Around midday it cleared up. Here are a few thoughts on the gear I’ve selected and why. Based on evidence from Kinlochewe Post Office approx. The ground was boggy and slick, and at Carn Mòr I had a shattering climb to join my original planned route. 50% of people that attempt the trail give up there i.e. As best as I can recall, my logic went like this: “Yesterday I managed to walk 33.5km, including a serious climb; if I press on to Shiel Bridge, I’ll be walking 3km short of yesterday’s distance; and if I manage to rest up for a day, I’ll be all the stronger for the next stage of the trail.”. I started to wonder if I could bank a rest day by pressing on to Shiel Bridge. Hi Andy I really enjoyed your account of the CWT. A 2nd opinion can sometimes stop us from making silly errors. It was 11am and I had covered a grand distance of a quarter of a mile. As I walked between the quiet houses scattered around the valley floor, the sense of isolation started to bear down on me. It came to prominence in the mid-1990s due to various publications, but there is no one recognised path, and it certainly isn’t waymarked like, for example, the Pennine Way. When I plotted my Cape Wrath Trail route I made ample allowance for the challenging terrain and my own likely exhaustion, following advice from my Cicero guide and the ever-helpful Alex Roddie (whose bothy book entries at Corryhully, A’ Chuil and Sourlies did a lot to boost my spirits). I still cringe to recall how sensible this seemed to me at the time. Only two days were “mostly sunny”. Whether I’m to be trusted after making such an embarrassing misjudgement, I leave to you to decide. I found myself high on the side of the corrie, on a precariously narrow ledge high above the valley floor. My re-route via A’Chuil added another 9km to my planned route: 33km in total, a hell of a stretch even on relatively easy terrain. The next day dawned dreich. The route leads you across most of the north west coast of Scotland via Morar, Knoydart, Torridon and Assynt, winding through its most beautiful glens and mountains. But if you put some effort forward, you'll see some pretty spectacular scenery and get a damn good taste of the Scottish highlands. I’m a cautious planner. The Cape Wrath Trail doesn’t exceed 750 metres of elevation at any point – but you’re not in for an easy ride. The Inreach can be used where there is no phone signal. It combines footpaths, Land Rover tracks, pathless sections and varies in length. The Cape Wrath Trail is regarded as the toughest long-distance route in Britain and offers unparalleled freedom and adventure to the experienced and self-sufficient backpacker prepared to walk for many days in remote wilderness. (HTTP response code 503). When planning my Cape Wrath Trail trip this year I expected to walk it ultrapacking ... and water is 7.5kg including a proper double skin tent. As night deepened, Bob and I stood in front of the cottage beneath a coal-black sky fretted with pinprick stars and the faint arc of the Milky Way. From Kinloch Hourn the path lofted high into the wild terrain of Kinlochourn Forest, leaving behind the mineral scent of the sea loch. It’s good that you got back safely. 320 km langer Weg durch die nord-westlichen schottischen Highlands von Fort William bis nach Cape Wrath ganz im Nordwesten. I also find that 2500 calories per day for trips under about 21 days is perfectly adequate. It’s been quite a while since I last wrote a blog post. Kinloch Hourn itself was silent and lonely. I reached Kinloch Hourn by lunchtime, in high spirits. 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