March Weekend to Fort William

7 members attended the weekend for 2 or 3 days, and were based mainly at the Caledonian Hotel. The weather was changeable all weekend with strong gusting winds and heavy rain and hail showers mixed in with some calm, sunny spells. The walking plans were altered accordingly and waterproofs were required on all the walks undertaken.

Bob and Cornel were the only walkers on Friday, and after some discussion opted to walk from the Braveheart car park in Glen Nevis to the iron age fort at Dun Deardail.

On Saturday, Cornel and Bob set off for a possible ascent of Cruach Innse and Sgurr Innse but decided to stay low and walk to the bothy at Lairig Leacach instead as the weather and walking conditions on the hills did not look good. I walked from the Eas-Chia-aig waterfall at the east end of Loch Arkaig towards the bothy at Invermallie, then climbed above the forest and made a high level return across rough moorland to the track at Achnacarry. The walking over the high moorland was more arduous than expected but the views between the passing hail showers made it a good walk.

Tom and Jean arrived on Saturday afternoon, and later Gordon and Andrew joined us for a while before they headed back to their Fort William base and a late night curry.

On Sunday Cornel headed for home and the 4 staying on till Monday drove round to the Braveheart car park (twice – someone forgot their boots!) and enjoyed a walk around the Cow Hill Circuit which included a visit to the summit for a view over Fort William and the surrounding area. We arrived back at the car in pleasant sunshine but within minutes it had changed to torrential hail, which had stopped by the time we had returned to the hotel 10mins later .. typical for the weather all weekend.

Monday was a day for driving home through the numerous roadworks en route and counting the number of tour buses and minibuses heading north. I counted over 12 buses and over 15 of 'Rabbies Tours' minibuses.

It was another enjoyable weekend despite the challenging weather conditions.

Willie Robison

March Weekday Walk on a section of the River Ayr Way

James picked me up and we drove to Oswald's Bridge where we met up with Allan and Hamish. We were about to leave when we were hit by a sudden hail shower, so the overtrousers were donned.

On the other side of the bridge is the monument to Wallace and Burns, so we walked in to view it. As the hail had stopped, a photo was taken before crossing the road and on to the River Ayr Way.

We crossed a field and into a wood going along what was once a wagonway, but is now a muddy path. We continued on the path through the woods and then crossed to the other bank by the bridge on the B744. On this stretch there were several shelters on fishing beats and we stopped at one just after the Water of Coyle had joined the River Ayr. While there Allan spotted a kingfisher that briefly landed before flying off.

We continued towards Annbank, seeing a roe deer on the path. Leaving the riverside, we walked up to Annbank and along the main street, then turned off and on to another woodland path. This took us back to another sometimes muddy path beside the river. This eventually took us to the Rivergarden where we stopped at the Bothy Café .. we cleaned the mud off our boots before entering!

We enjoyed a nice lunch in the busy café, then returned to the path to take us back to Oswald's Bridge. As the sun was out, we stopped for a photo before finishing our walk.

Bob MacDonald