Cape Wrath Trail in Winter

For the last few weeks the OS 1:250 000 map for Northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland has been spread out on the office floor and I’ve been scribbling on it in crayon like a Skittles-crazed child. The aim for the new Cape Wrath Trail guide is to bring together the best of the alternative routes that have been suggested by previous authors into a new all singing, all dancing edition chock full of colour photographs and OS maps.

So much for the theory. In practice, there are a huge range of alternatives to be considered and judging which to include is proving tricky. At the beginning there is an immediate and obvious choice to make - either striking up the Great Glen Way or into the Rough Bounds of Knoydart via Glenfinnan. At the moment I’m undecided which to offer as the “main” route (with the other being included as an alternative).

There are other changes that have been enforced by circumstance. For instance, the boat service across Loch Broom from Allt Na H’Airbhe to Ullapool no longer runs meaning walkers must make the choice at Inverlael whether to slog up the busy road to the fleshpots of Ullapool or continue on their way (assuming they are purists and don’t call for a cab to Ullapool that is!).

In other places there are suggestions that I’d like to try and include. In David Paterson’s beautiful coffee table book on the Cape Wrath Trail, although the route suggested is in places slightly eccentric, he likes the idea of summiting Foinaven as part of a fitting (and relatively easy) end to a route that otherwise keeps mostly to the lower levels. This is an idea I really like and intend to try to incorporate.

Paterson also suggested a route North of Ullapool that goes closer to the coast that the more traditional route suggested subsequently by Cameron McNeish and the authors of North to the Cape that goes north via Oykel Bridge to Inchnadamph and Kylesku. I really like the idea of an alternative section for the true wilderness connoisseurs that heads deep into the beating heart of Assynt via its “greatest hits” before rejoining the main route at Kylesku. That’s one where I’ll just have to see how it works on the ground.

So, lots of planning to do before the next research expeditions in spring and summer next year, but I think it’s starting to take shape. As ever I’m always grateful for feedback about what you’d like to see in the guide, the bits of the route that you’ve loved and also the bits that you didn’t love so much. You can email me at iain[dot]harper[at]gmail[dot]com and many thanks to those of you that have already done so.

I gather the plan is that North to the Cape will shortly be reprinted while the new guide is being written, but hopefully we’re looking at publication some time in 2012. Lots of work to do before then.