Days 3 & 4: Affric Lodge to Fort Augustus

 

 

Days 3 & 4: TGO Challenge Route Plan (2010)

On days 3 and 4 of my hike, I’m going to be walking cross-country to Fort Augustus which is located at the southern end of Loch Ness. I’ll spend the night there in a B&B, get cleaned up, and resupply my food stores.

The route described below is a revision on my original plan to walk from Tomich to Torgyle and then to Fort Augustus. The problem with that route was that I’d spend an entire day walking next to high tension wires. For example, see NH294185. That was not appealing, so I designed the following alternate route to the west crossing the River Morriston at Ceannacroc Bridge and then heading east to Fort Augustus. This will probably be a lonely remote walk, but I think it will be much more scenic than the alternative.

So, on day 3 after breaking camp on Loch Affric, I head south along Allt Garbh (NH180220) until I find a path heading east (NH187212) toward the western border of the Glen Affric National Nature Reserve. This area is home to one of the largest remaining ancient pinewoods of Scotland. Tragically, Scotland was once forested over with 1.5 million hectares of woods including Scots pine, birch, rowan and juniper. Today, only 1% of that forest remains and many of the species that lived in it such as bear, wolf, wild boar, beaver, lynx, wild ox and moose are now extinct in the UK.

The path continues past at small lock at Allt an Laghair (NH210217) at mile 3 where it turns into a jeep track continuing southeast to the hamlet of Cougie (NH241211) at mile 5. From Cougie, I head 3.5 miles southeast down a path bordering Allt Raibach (NH217188) until Creag Bhog (NH200172). From here, I head due south just over 2 miles to the Rive Doe at mile 11.

The path ends on the north side of the Doe and requires a water crossing at (NH199133.) If the river is too high to ford here, it is possible to walk along the north side of the river (no track) for a mile or so to a bridge over the river (NH215126), south of two damns. Both routes lead south to Col Dubh (NH217125) where I plan to stop and camp for the evening.

 

 

On Day 4, I continue south along the River Doe to Ceannacroc Lodge (NH226115) and at mile one cross the River Morriston at Ceannacroc Bridge (NH227106.) From here I walk along a jeep road parallel to the A887 until I come to Mackenzie’s Carin at NH237108. From here, I pick up another jeep road that heads east toward Fort Augustus and follow it for 3 miles over Allt an Edin and past waterfalls until it peters out at NH291102. From here, I head due east, cross-country, for about two and a half miles until I can see the high tension wires and I meet up with the old military road leading to Fort Augustus. From there, it’s just another 2.5 miles into town.

I expect day 4 to be a short day which is good because I need to restock my food for my next section, check into a B&B for the evening, wash my few clothes and get cleaned up. If you have any recommendations for walker friendly places to stay in Fort Augustus, please leave a comment.

Written 2010.

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