Weather: Drizzle off and on all day. Pretty miserable.
Location: Arisaig to Lochailort.
Distance: 10 miles.
Total
distance: 2323 miles.
Terrain: A lot of roads. Several miles of a firm woodland track which
was very pleasant. Undulating.
Tide: Out.
Rivers: No.261, The Canal. No.262, Brunery Burn. No.263, Borrodal Burn. No.264, Allt à Mhàma.
Ferries: None.
Piers: None.
Kissing
gates: No.214, as we left the woodland
track.
Pubs: None.
‘Historic Scotland’ properties: None.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: None.
How we got there and
back: We were staying in our caravan
near Arisaig. This morning we drove to
Lochailort Station and caught a train to Arisaig. From the station we walked down into the
village to the spot where we finished the last Walk.
At the end, we
finished the Walk at the road junction next to the Lochailort Hotel. We walked up to the station which was only
about two hundred yards away. We had our
tea and caramel shortcake, then drove back to our caravan near Arisaig.
It was a miserable day, and very misty as we left Arisaig. Photography was a problem because we didn’t
want to get the cameras wet. So we kept
them tucked away in plastic bags, only bringing them out occasionally to
photograph something special because it was such a palaver trying to keep them
dry under an umbrella. The Walk was very
scenic, and the few pictures we did take didn’t do it justice at all.
We took a lane leading south out of Arisaig. We had good views across the bay with a
number of yachts moored in the mist. We
passed a picnic site with rope swings — nobody playing there today in the damp
and gloom.
After about a mile we turned on to a very pleasant woodland track
labelled “Farm Track, no Vehicles”. It
was a lovely leafy woodland track which led alongside a stream — pity about the
weather. We met a couple with two dogs
coming the other way, and stopped for a chat.
They both had accents like Billy Connolly! We passed a little waterfall, and sat on a
fallen tree to eat our pies.
Further on we passed a small loch where the water was absolutely
still. All too soon we came out on to
the road again through swanky green gates.
It was raining too hard to risk getting out my camera at this point, so
they remained unphotographed! I got a
bit fed up with keep getting my camera out of its plastic bag, then having to
put it hurriedly away again.
We were on the road for the rest of the Walk. This road was vastly improved just two years
ago, and is now a lovely smooth road to drive on. Trouble is, this makes the traffic go
fast. Sometimes there was a
cycle/walkway, and sometimes there was not.
It goes parallel to the railway, occasionally very near to it and at
other times on the other side of rocks.
We heard a steam train in the distance and we saw smoke, but it went
into a tunnel and we didn’t see it again.
It was going towards Mallaig.
We went under the railway — the bridge was so narrow it had to be
controlled by traffic lights. Almost
immediately we came to Beasdale Station, a tiny halt in the middle of nowhere with
a minute ‘waiting room’ on the single platform.
Since it was still tipping it down, we made use of the seat under cover
to have our lunch. A young woman wearing
a railway worker’s uniform appeared unexpectedly and stopped for a chat. She said she had stopped off to make sure the
station was clean, but she didn’t do much cleaning while she was there. Was it a coincidence that her ‘cleaning’
visit coincided with our picnic? We
don’t think so because we noticed the CCTV camera after she had gone! It is said that we are the most spied on
nation in the world, with all these CCTV cameras everywhere. But at least we know that this beautiful line
won’t be vandalised — she must have been tipped off pretty damn quick that we
were there!
We continued down towards the loch.
The road cut through the rock, over a river and under the railway
again. Meanwhile the railway cut through
little tunnels so it could keep an even height.
The rain just about stopped, but the mist hung over the hills and it
remained very dull.
There were some history boards down by the loch, telling us how, in the
18th century, the French aligned themselves with the Scots — particularly
the MacDonald clan — against the English.
How brave the Scots were, and how the English were forced to
retreat! There are rumours that there is
still some gold hidden in the hills nearby, left over from this conflict. Prince Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known
as Bonnie Prince Charlie, left these shores for the last time in 1746 after his
failed attempt to regain the throne of the United Kingdom for the House of
Stuart. There is a cairn marking the
place where he is thought to have embarked on a ship to France.
We came, then, to the Loch-nan-Uamh viaduct where the railway line comes
straight out of a tunnel on to the viaduct.
The train is horizontal and the ground is vertical! Colin knew that the last steam train of the
day was due to return from Mallaig anytime soon. So we went over to a rocky knoll and sat down
to wait for it. And we sat there….and we
sat there….and we sat there. At least it
had stopped raining, but we got a bit bored.
We even started eating our chocolate, for something to do.
Colin said, “I’m going over to that pier of the viaduct to see what the
plaque is about!” He called me over
because it read:
THE LEGEND OF BUILDER ROBERT MACALPINE’S
HORSE AND CART FALLING DOWN INSIDE A
PIER OF GLENFINNAN VIADUCT IN c1899 WAS
CORRECTED IN 2001
WHEN RADAR IMAGING
PROVED THAT THE EVENT OCCURRED
HERE IN
THE CENTRE PIER
So the body of
the horse is still there, inside the viaduct!
What a horrible death for the poor creature, I wonder if there is a
ghost!
We were just discussing the enormity of that terrible accident all those
years ago when we heard the train on the other side of the tunnel. So we rushed back to the knoll and took up
our positions again. And there it was —
straight out of the tunnel and on to the viaduct, blowing steam out fit to
bust! How it took us back to our
childhoods! Then we travelled frequently
on trains, for we had no cars, and every time it was a steam train. We just took it for granted. This engine was the ‘Sherwood Forester’, we
could see its name quite clearly. The
only mild disappointment was that the engine was on backwards.
The road continued further inland than the line of the railway. We crossed a stream on a new bit of road, and
admired the original stone bridge on the loop of old road. Then we went up a steep hill, and down
crossing the railway again on a high bridge.
Not only had it stopped raining, but it got quite hot and we found we
were peeling off layers as we went.
We came to Loch Ailort with a white chapel high above it. There we sat on a rock to finish our
chocolate. We both felt very tired, our
feet had had enough! We had less than a
mile to go to the road junction where the A861 led south towards Glenuig.
That ended Walk no.250, we shall pick up Walk no.251 next time at the
road junction near Lochailort station.
It was half past four, so the Walk had taken us six and a half
hours. We walked a couple of hundred yards
up the road to Lochailort station where our car was parked. We had our tea and
caramel shortcake before driving back to our caravan near Arisaig.
No comments:
Post a Comment