A Search for a Lochan

In early July we set off to find a small, un-named lochan in the hills to the southeast of the tiny township of Ockle.  We left our car in the small car park and followed the Allt Ockle upstream, pausing to look back at the view down the valley and across the sea to Eigg, Rum and, to the left of Rum, the flat outline of Canna.

At this time of year the bracken is rampant, forming impenetrable thickets in places, but this didn't prevent us from enjoying the orchids which grew wherever they could find enough light.

There's a ford to be crossed before this old croft house is found, with a byre to the right and a magnificent view across the valley towards Swordle.  While crofting is, and has always been a hard life, living in this place must have had its compensations.

Once past the forestry, we turned eastwards and climbed into a landscape which, in some ways, is almost intimidating, for it is wild and open and, except for the occasional rocky peak, relatively featureless.  Finding the lochan proved surprisingly difficult as it is perched between two peaks and, therefore, invisible until you're almost on top of it. The Diary has talked for some time about buying a GPS machine, but being 'lost' in these circumstances really is part of the fun.

In such open land, wildlife is never abundant, but we stopped to watch a golden eagle soaring above us and, later, a small herd of deer, of which this individual allowed us quite close before snorting at the intrusion and running off.

We finally found our objective.  The Ordnance Survey hasn't named this lochan on the map probably because it, and the others which lie close by to the east, are so remote that few people visit them.  This is a shame as, other than a few of the older residents, no-one knows their names, and they will soon be lost.

Turning northeast, we walked to the edge of a steep drop into a open bowl of land.  Much of its floor  showed signs of having been worked at some time.  On the far side a burn meandered through a stand of bracken.  The burn is called the Allt Eas a' Ghaidheil, which seems to mean the stream of the Gael's waterfall.  It's the stream we forded at the start of the walk.

The reason for the name rapidly became apparent as we followed the valley downstream.  We scrambled down the steep slope to the burn, crossed it just below the falls, and made our way back to Ockle via the coastal path that leads eastwards to Gortenfern.

An interactive version of the map is here.

The walk took us 2.5 hours.