End to End - North of Scotland Way

Introduction

The North of Scotland Way (formerly called the Caithness and Sutherland Way) is my own invention. Out here, in the wild northeastern extremity of the Scottish Highlands, there are no recognised long-distance paths. Indeed, the opportunities for off-road walking are very limited. To plot a route across this bleak landscape of lonely, heather-clad moors one needs to use estate roads and forestry tracks wherever possible.

The route has already changed substantially from that which I originally drew up. It commences at Cannich, in Inverness-shire, and adopts what were formerly the last 3 days of the Great Glen Way. It heads up Strath Glass to Struy, then takes the Orrin Dam hill track into Glen Gowrie and a series of local paths (mainly through the Fairburn estate) around the edge of the Beauly and Cromarty firths. At Contin we head through the Torrachilty Forest and the Blackwater gorge to Garve, then by forest paths to Inchbay. From here a series of estate paths pushes through remote, empty country; Strath Rannoch, Strath Vaich, and Gleann Mor bring us to Glencalvie Lodge, then the public road along Strath Carron leads us to Ardgay on the south side of the Dornoch firth. We cross here to Bonar Bridge.

Back lanes and forest tracks lead along the north side of the Firth to Invershin, from where more forest tracks and unavoidable stretches of main road take us to Lairg. Another day of road walking takes us to the lonely inn at Crask. From here a track leads eastwards to Loch Choire, from where an estate road and public road lead out to Kinbrace station. The main road must be used as far north as Forsinain, from where a small maze of forest tracks - the only viable route across the marshy ridge that is the Flow Country - heads towards the railway halt at Altnabreac. From here a track leads to Dalnawillan Lodge from where an estate road leads out along the valley of the river Thurso to Westerdale. Finally, two days of road walking among this strange, stilted countryside leads to the north coast of Scotland and to John O'Groats, the northwestern tip of Britain, and journey's end at last.

Logistics

Planning this walk is not easy. There aren't many places to stay. There isn't much public transport either, and the Inverness to Thurso railway line is almost the only lifeline through Sutherland and Caithness. Between Cannich and Inchbay there are sufficient bus services running to and from Inverness, though at Struy the service is infrequent and only runs on certain days of the week. Here and there postbus services will need to be used, and their awkward timetabling will necessitate breaking up obvious day walks into half day expeditions with long walks in or out. In other places the only alternative to backpacking is to gird up one's loins for very long day hikes. Inchbae to Ardgay would appear to involve around 30 miles of walking and either a tent, a bothy night or a mountain bike will be needed, unless you use the postbus and "cheat" by walking from Glenalvie Lodge to Inchbae in the reverse direction.

The various one-day walks that make up the North of Scotland Way:

(Click the links for the individual walk indexes and photo galleries)

1	Cannich to Struy	8 miles
2	Struy to Altgowrie	10½ miles
3	Altgowrie to Contin	6 miles
4	Contin to Inchbae Hotel	13 miles
5	Inchbay Hotel to Glencalvie Lodge	20 miles
6	Glencalvie Lodge to Ardgay	10 miles
7	Ardgay to Lairg	14 miles
8	Lairg to Crask Inn	13 miles
9	Crask Inn to Kinbrace	25 miles
10	Kinbrace to Forsinard	7½ miles
11	Forsinard to Altnabreac	15 miles
12	Altnabreac to Westerdale	14½ miles
13	Westerdale to Hastigrow	13 miles
14	Hastigrow to John O'Groats	14½ miles

Links

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This page last updated 26th January 2004

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