Monday 17th September
Distance: 10km; Ascent:150m; Sunny and windy with occasional showers; with Lynsey & Isabel
Today we decided to spend the day in Knoydart. Lynsey had never been
there before and I had only been once previously, on the start of my
2010 TGO Challenge crossing, and I had been thinking of returning at
some point. I remembered that there were a few vehicle tracks around
Inverie so we decided to take the pushchair over for some exploratory
ATP walking!
Since my previous visit, there was now a much greater choice of
passenger ferry options from Mallaig to Inverie so we booked ourselves
on the first of the day, leaving at 9:30. After a swift crossing, we
found ourselves on the pier in Inverie just as the heavens opened.
Luckily there was a small shelter at the end of the pier for us to
shelter in whilst we sorted ourselves out for a walk, and by the time we
were ready the rain had stopped :-)
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| Sgurr an Eilein Ghiubhais across Loch Nevis from Inverie Pier |
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| Inverie Bay |
We popped into the Knoydart Foundation visitor centre and picked up a
leaflet about the "Knoydart in a Knutshell" walk; this sounded
interesting so we thought we'd see how much we could manage with an
ATP!
After ascending steeply from the village we picked up a pleasant
narrow path descending through the woods for just under a kilometre.
Here we met the Barrisdale path, which we followed steeply up through
more woodland to emerge in a small clearing with good views up towards
Sgurr Coire Choinnichean. Here the "Knoydart in a Knutshell" walk takes an abrupt right-turn down some steps; however the way was partially blocked by a fallen tree, which looked tricky to get round with the pushchair.
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| The Knutshell Walk |
Instead we opted to stay on the vehicle track and head towards the mountains. After passing through a couple more areas of woodland the scenery opened out in front of us, with good views over to a monument on a hillock above the track. We continued a short distance beyond here, with good views towards Meall Buidhe and surrounding hills, before deciding it was time to retrace our steps.
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| Monument near Inverie |
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| Meall Buidhe |
At around 12:30pm we were back in the village and headed for The Old Forge for a tasty lunch of haddock and chips washed down with fine ale from the Glenfinnan brewery. Shortly before 2pm we left the cosy interior of the pub and wandered north-west along the shore-side road for a kilometre or so before returning to the pier to catch the 3pm ferry back to Mallaig after an excellent day in Knoydart.
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| Inverie Bay |
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| Inverie Bay |
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| Mallaig harbour |
N.B. 30/10/12 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 17/09/12, (from 19/09/12)
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