West Coast walks (2)

From http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

On Saturday, the Famous Five had planned to drive from Plockton over to Skye and catch the morning ferry to Raasay, where they intended to complete two walks, with me hoping to join them for the afternoon coastal one.

I left Banchory not long before 7 am on a glorious Saturday morning - not a cloud in the sky. My plan was to catch the 1 pm ferry from Sconser and head for the north of Raasay, hoping to bump in to the others along the way.

I took my time on the drive, stopping three times in all, including this photo shoot on the stretch between Ballater and Corgarff:

Yes - shorts were the order of the day (and remained so for the whole weekend).

My third stop was not long past Inverness, where I picked up a paper. Not long after this, I phoned Ken to check whether I should take my car on the ferry to Raasay or not. Ken enquired where I was and wondered whether I had any chance of making the same 10:30 am ferry as them? "No way", I replied - but I might now have an outside chance of catching the 11:25 am ferry as I seemed to be making such good progress.

I crossed the Skye Bridge about 10:10 am and headed towards Sconser behind a steady stream of slow moving traffic. My Sat Nav was now telling me that I would get there at 10:30 am - still too late to get on the ferry the boys were on, I thought, but at least in plenty of time for the 11:25 am crossing.

I got to Sconser at precisely 10:30 am, imagining I would have to buy a ticket etc, but the ferry was there and I was just waved on. The first person I saw was Ken, who seemed as surprised as I was that I'd made it in time.

It had taken me about three and three-quarter hours, with three stops on the way, for what I had thought would be a 5-6 hour journey. So now I was able to join them for their morning walk up Dun Caan, a flat topped hill towards the south-east of the island:

The weather on the Western Isles wasn't anywhere near as nice as the rest of the country on Saturday, but it was very acceptable for walking - dry and mild-ish. The first part of the route up was fairly easy, but it got a little steeper nearer the top, once we were past a small reservoir loch. Here's the team photo at the top:

The stats and the route for this walk were:

A quick bite, then down the hill again, in to the cars and we drove north along narrow bumpy roads towards Calum's Road and the ruins of Brochtel Castle:

We drove to the end of Calum's Road and that was where our afternoon coastal walk began. It had to be relatively short to allow us to drive back in good time to catch the 5pm ferry back to Skye. Here's the stats and the route:

On the drive from Sconser to our hotel in Sleat, I recognised the car registration plate in front of me - it was Jack and Frances Simpson, who were staying at a hotel nearby ours, so they joined us for a quick drink before baths and dinner.

The hotel was nice and we enjoyed some Red Cuillin over dinner in the bar, where we were later entertained by a local three-piece.