Cape Wrath Trail in Winter

With the route planning for my winter trip on the Cape Wrath Trail approaching completion (I’ll post it here as soon as it’s done), I thought I’d write a few thoughts on North to the Cape by Denis Brook and Phil Hinchcliffe.

This book has been invaluable in helping me sketch out the route I’ll take. Like Wainwright’s Coast to Coast path, there is no official route for the Cape Wrath Trail, indeed that’s one of the attractions. The authors simply share a journey they took that avoids long strecthes of road and offer some possible variations.

They break the trip down into 21 stages, none longer than 15 miles. Most stages finish at places where overnight accomodation is in theory available. In summer, many of the stages will be too short for the more ambitious walker, but the authors seem to have struck a reasonable balance.

The prose is well written, if a little old fashioned in places and the route descriptions detailed. The journey narrative is interspersed with bits of history, trivia, warnings against midges and occasional poetry. Not to everyones taste, but adding colour and charm.

This book is an excellent starting point for anyone considering the Cape Wrath Trail. There are a few frustrations. It is now over ten years old and so references to collapsed bridges which may well have been resurrected and even fallen down again in the interim are no longer reliable.

Also, the book is black and white (with the odd bit of red) throughout. The enclosed maps are therefore of limited use. Instead of photographs, you get rather odd pictures reproduced from wood carvings which add to the slightly dated feel. The choice of a 3D image for the cover over a photo of the cape is just weird.

Consider in contrast the newish book on the Coast to Coast path by Martin Wainwright (no relation apparently) which has colour photography and OS 1:25000 maps throughout and is £2 cheaper. Perhaps these are issues that can be looked at for a future edition.

The most serious criticism I can find is the omission of bothies (dealt with in the next post).

All this notwithstanding, if you are doing the Cape Wrath Trail, this is the book for you. Don’t be fooled by alternatives such as A Walk Through the Highlands of Scotland: Discovering the Cape Wrath Trail which has little detail about the walk itself or The Cape Wrath Trail: A New 200-mile Walking Route Through the North-west Scottish Highlands which has stunning photography, but little in the way of practical help for planning a route.

Which leaves North to the Cape, an invalubale (if quirky) tome that could do with being brought into the 21st Century.

Route planning is well under way and I’m realising why not a lot of people walk the Cape Wrath Trail in winter - pretty much everything is shut. Even the bunkhouses that I thought might have some traffic from gnarled winter munro baggers have drawn a blank.

In some ways this makes the whole undertaking purer. It is after all a long distance backpacking trail. The upshot is that I’m going to end up carrying most of my food supplies with me for long stretches of the trail, so I’m already starting to develop a slightly unhealthy interest in how much things weigh.

Generally, the obsession with lightweight kit that seems to have sprung up in recent years really winds me up. I’m bored of reading “I did the West Highland Way carrying gear that weighed less than a gnats chuff” stories.

If a new walker were to pick up one of the main walking magazines, they would surely conclude that they couldn’t possibly venture into the wild places without several thousand pounds worth of lightweight kit on their back and give up without setting foot outside.

By all means spend money on good kit, but let’s keep how much it weighs in perspective. If you’re spending hard earned money on a folding titanium spork then the cash would probably be better invested in a life. You should also know the following:

- De-hydrated food tastes like cack - without exception.
- Lightweight Gore-tex trousers WILL rip, probably on their second outing.
- Lightweight waterproof jackets will not stand up to the deluges the UK mountains will generally throw at you, so saving 120g is a bit pointless.
- Trail shoes or lightweight boots will let in water, lots of it. Ideal if you like walking with wet feet.

For me kit is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The mountains are the ultimate goal. Wainwright spent a life on the hills in a hair shirt and hobnail boots. I like that.

That said, there’s no point being a complete luddite. Technical advances have undoubtedly made things more comfortable on the hills.

On a long distance backpack, comfort and weight become bigger issues. I may have to carry up to ten days worth of supplies. This is why with great hesitation I have decided to replace some of my old faithful kit.

Although leaving base without my Trangia feels as unnatural as finding Graham Norton in a remote bothy, if I’m going to get through this, there’ll have to be a few concessions to lightweight. Sorry Graham.

As I start to sketch out the logistics of the trip, it’s already becoming clear that doing this in winter is going to present plenty of extra problems, chief of which is accommodation and transport.

Living in London I’ve become accustomed to everything being open 24/7, but most hotels and hostels in North West Scotland are closed over the Christmas and New Year period. There are a few exceptions and everyone I have spoken to has been unerringly helpful, if slightly bemused as to why anyone would be visiting at that time of year.

The plan as it stands is to camp or stay in bothies wherever possible, but to intersperse the three week trip with a few overnight stops at places I can get my kit dry. Backpacking in Scotland can be tough at any time of year, and days on end in the rain inevitably mean that however good your kit is, the damp gradually seeps into everything. That’s livable with for a week or so, but eventually you’ve got to be able to get dry or it becomes miserable.

Bizarrely, the northernmost hotel at Kinlochbervie, the last jumping off point for Cape Wrath, is resolutely open, so at least that’s one dry bed. At the moment I’m glued to North to the Cape, seeing how the authors did it, and adjusting for places I feel I can stretch my legs further. As promised I’ll post some detailed thoughts on the book in due course.

There are some useful route notes at what seems to be an unofficial CWT site, which are nevertheless helpful. I’ve also happened across some nutters that did it in 9 days, although in September with plenty of light. Still pretty impressive though and some beautiful pictures. I’m currently looking at doing it in 18 days, but with only 7 hours of light a day at best, I have a feeling the head torch is going to get plenty of use.

Wikipedia succinctly lists the hazards of the Cape Wrath Trail as “severe weather” and “lack of facilities”. You can double that for winter.