An Open Gate

We set off in the car in grey weather this morning to walk in the area to the west Camas nan Geall, but an open gate at the start of the forestry beyond Caim tempted us: it's Ardnamurchan Estate land and often has cattle on it, so this is not an area we've explored before.

It's a lumpy land of rocky hillocks with marshy hollows between, which rises steadily towards the heights of Ben Hiant (seen in the distance in this picture).  It's drained by some lovely little burns which have cut secluded valleys that one comes across suddenly.

The picture looks back towards our starting point at the left of the forestry.  The burn that has cut this particular valley is the Allt nan Gabhar, the stream of the goat, and the hill in the right distance is Beinn an Leathaid.

We saw plenty of deer, this group mainly stags which weren't too keen on our getting close.  While one understands their nervousness one wishes they wouldn't run away: surely they can tell the difference between a rifle and a camera?

As we climbed so the view back towards Kilchoan opened up.  It's a beautiful view, with the B8007, the only road that links the village to 'civilisation' clearly visible in the foreground, but the overcast weather does the scenery no favours.  By this stage in the walk it had come on to rain, a thin drizzle, enough to irritate us rather than spoil our walking.

Just before we turned back towards the car an eagle came along the ridge line of Beinn na h-Urchrach, then dropped suddenly towards an area where we'd seen some hinds grazing a little earlier.

For most of the way back we followed the Allt nan Gobhar.  The burn runs northwestwards along this part of its course, dropping quickly in a series of falls and rapids, before joining the Allt Choire Mhuillinn, which runs almost southwards to reach the sea near Mingary Castle.

It was rough walking, with plenty of ups and downs, so what looks like four kilometres on the map took us two hours with few stops.  We've a lot more still to explore in the area.

An interactive map of the area is here.