Last weekend my father and I took the bus north to Drumnadrochit which marks the start of the Affric Kintail Way. The route opened in 2015 and travels 46 miles from Drumnadrochit on the shores of Loch Ness to Morvich, threading its way through Glen Affric’s moorland, forests and valleys. We planned to take our time, enjoying the landscape and each other’s company – as a result the walk took us nearly two-and-a-half days, stopping to camp at Cannich and the Glen Affric Youth Hostel (marked on the map below).
I had classes on Friday so we left in the afternoon, taking a bus first to Inverness and then down the western shore of Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit. There we stayed in ‘1 Lochness Hostel’, which was surprisingly nice and the warm shower made up for the baby screaming next door. Supper was had at the Fiddler’s Rest across the road where haggis and veal stroganoff eased our hunger pangs. Those pangs were further eased by a Full Scottish breakfast at the nearby cafe before setting off early on Saturday morning.
The 16 mile route from Drumnadrochit to Cannich initially climbs steeply through forestry before descending slowly back to the valley floor and meandering through woods and fields. As is so often the case with Scottish weather, it was pouring with rain the whole day leaving little room for photography, and by the time we reached Cannich we were hot, sweaty and surprisingly tired. Given the weather and the two days left to finish the walk, we elected to stay at the campsite. After a warm bowl of soup we set our tents up under a pine tree, hung our clothes and shoes in the drying room, went through most of a hip flask’s worth of rum and then stumbled into our tents for the night.
From Cannich onwards the sun shone and the scenery improved in grandeur. As we skirted Loch Beinn A’Mheadhoin, snow was visible on the mountains to the north and autumn colours were on full display. We had trail mix and cereal bars on benches in the car park, before continuing along Loch Affric where we encountered other walkers for the first time. Once we had passed the head of Loch Affric golden hour gifted us with a spectacular show and the hillsides blazed yellow and orange.
From here the trail became more lonely, although the quality of the track never waned; vegetation decreased and moorland opened up with peaks dwarfing us to either side and deer watching us with suspicion. After 20 miles of walking, the temperature dropped and we were glad to reach the Youth Hostel (which appeared to be doing its very best to seem shut). Once we’d checked all the doors we found the rear entrance to the furthest building where the stripped out dorm room provided shelter but no warmth. If possible it seemed even colder inside the hostel than it did outside, we were both glad of the remaining rum and our winter sleeping bags.
When we awoke mist was covering the valley floor and frost was on the ground. The path narrowed and hillocks at the head of the valley meant a lot of ups and downs. Rutting season was upon us and the deer were bellowing like devils up in the hills, we had fun hypothesising whether the throaty roars were actually deer or in fact bears circling us before descending for a breakfast snack. Luckily no bears appeared, although neither did the deer so I guess we’ll never know. There was a stunning waterfall on the Allt Grannda as we descended towards Kintail Forest, then the path joined a track on the otherside of the river Croe. It was easy going all the way to Morvich, although we rushed the last half-hour to make the midday bus and avoid sitting around for one we’d booked 5 hours later.
All-in-all the walk was a great success, the weather was with us for the last two days and the landscape was stunning! Glen Affric is certainly worth a visit and I will be returning to bag some of the Munro’s in the very near future. I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful, if you’d like to be emailed next time I post then be sure to sign up below!
Patrick Kyak 