The Small Lochans Above Assynt
A day of walking on the empty side of the Scottish Highlands.
Assynt is a small region in the northwest of Scotland that most visitors reach only after they have already seen Skye and Glencoe. It is quieter than either, wilder in places, and has a landscape that geologists call inselberg: isolated mountains rising out of a low plain of heather, peat and hundreds of small lakes, called lochans in Gaelic. Walking here is not really about summits. It is about the water.
Starting from Lochinver
Lochinver is the main village. It has a good bakery, a post office, and a small harbor that still lands langoustines and crab. Park near the small tourist office and follow the path signposted for Glencanisp Lodge. Within twenty minutes you have left the village entirely and are walking on a stalker's track through open moor.
The track climbs gently for the first hour, and then you begin to see the lochans. First one, small and half hidden by rocks. Then two, then five. The larger ones have names on the map. The smaller ones do not.
Suilven from the side
The famous mountain here is Suilven, a long sandstone ridge that looks like a sleeping animal from most angles. Most walkers head straight for it, and the summit push from the north is a full day. But the loop that skirts Suilven from the south, past Loch na Gainimh and back via the Kirkaig river, gives you the mountain in profile the whole way and adds a river gorge with two waterfalls, without any of the summit day's exposure.
Give the loop seven hours in dry conditions, nine if the peat is wet. There are no bridges over the smaller burns, so wet feet are inevitable in spring.
Cape Wrath side trip
If you have a second day, drive north to Kinlochbervie and then to the small ferry across the Kyle of Durness. On the other side, a minibus service, weather permitting, runs to Cape Wrath, the most northwesterly point of the British mainland. The road is a military track and the whole peninsula is a live-fire range, closed on training days. When it is open, the walk out to the lighthouse is one of the most remote-feeling experiences you can have without leaving the road network.
Practical notes
- The A835 north of Ullapool is narrow. Use the passing places. Do not stop in them.
- Midges from June to August; bring a head net and repellent with DEET.
- The Lochinver Larder does the pies. Buy two.
- Weather changes hourly. Bring a shell layer even on the sunniest morning.
Assynt has almost none of the branding of the more famous Highlands regions. That is the whole reason to go. The lochans do their own thing, and you are welcome to walk among them as long as you leave no trace.
