Scottish Bothy Walks - 28 best bothy adventures

WALK 2 Beinn Leòid from Kylestrome visiting Glendhu & Glencoul
The discovery added weight to then controversial
ideas that the earth’s crust moved over time,
causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Contemporary theories of plate tectonics and
continental drift have become accepted only in
the last few decades.
1 Walking down by the newly refurbished
estate house from Kylestrome towards the shore
of Loch Glendhu, it is hard to believe that this
tranquil spot was once the public highway, shown
on the old one-inch map as ‘a narrow class A road
with passing places’. Before the eye-catching
Kylesku Bridge was completed in 1984, a small
turntable ferry plied its trade across the strait,
with the inevitable long queues of traffic on
the journey up and back from Durness. As the
tarmac curves down to the old slipway, turn left
onto the old pony path that winds its way inland
towards the Maldie Burn. A mile from the car
park, a new unmetalled road joins from the left;
it was built to provide access to a hydroelectric
scheme damming the powerful stream below
Loch an Leathaid Bhuain. 2 Beyond the concrete
bridge over the burn, the track returns to its
original stony surface, in places negotiating a
precarious course between the rock face and
the lochside, before Glendhu Bothy finally comes
into view. Close to the bothy it is easy to spot the
slanting band of quartzite with a slightly red hue,
which forms a sheer cliff that slopes down to the
waterside. This continues round the headland
into Loch Glencoul, sandwiched between the
layers of gneiss.
There are three buildings at the head of the
loch: an old stalkers’ cottage, a small stone
stables, and the well-appointed bothy, one of
the best on the MBA roster. The last full-time
tenants in the main house, the Elliots, moved
here from Glencoul in the 1950s, where they had
been resident since before the turn of the 20th
century. During the summer months, a ghillie
lived upstairs in the bothy, using one downstairs
room as a living room, and the other for storing
the deer carcasses shot by paying guests who
travelled in by boat from Kylesku. The last of the
family to live at Glendhu, John Elliot and his son
Willie, finally moved out a few years later, though
their descendants still keep a close connection
to the area.
3 It is wise to make an early start for the
following day’s ascent: tackling the open hillside
can take far longer than you anticipate, even in
dry conditions. The crags of Taobh Granda are
an imposing presence as you make your way
up Gleann Dubh (Black Glen), the sun barely
catching the north-facing rocks for much of the
year. As the valley sides knot together in a tight,
interlocking spur, the stalkers’ path zigzags
steeply above the cascading river, before levelling
out as it reaches Lochan Cadh’ Allein. 4 Cross
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