{"id":23864,"date":"2023-02-20T11:56:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T10:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/?p=138587"},"modified":"2023-02-20T12:35:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T11:35:55","slug":"guide-to-assynt-in-north-west-scotland-where-to-stay-places-to-visit-and-great-walks","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/rss_feed\/guide-to-assynt-in-north-west-scotland-where-to-stay-places-to-visit-and-great-walks\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide to Assynt in north-west Scotland: where to stay, places to visit and great walks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you like wild walking, wildlife watching or simply wandering on empty beaches, Assynt offers a taste of Scottish wilderness says Countryfile Magazine editor Fergus Collins <\/p>

By Fergus Collins\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 20 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Escape to Assynt in north-west Scotland, home to hundreds of lochs, legendary mountains and coves of silver sand. And a tiny human population. Filled with thrilling unmarked walks, this community-owned landscape is one of the few places left in the UK where you can head to for a real-life wild adventure. Fergus Collins explores.<\/p>\n

Where is Assynt?<\/h2>\n

Assynt and Coigach is a rugged region of Sutherland just north of Ullapool in the northwest of Scotland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The human story is a big one, however. Like much of Scotland, the land is divided among a handful of major landholders after suffering unforgiveable clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries. But fortunes were partially reversed in 1993 when the Assynt Crofters Association bought the North Assynt Estate, enabling \u201cordinary people who live and work on the land to have some control over their own economic future\u201d.<\/p>\n

While crofting continues, tourism is an important source of revenue, especially from those who come to fish the lochs for brown trout.<\/p>\n

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A view towards the western peak of Suilven, while climbing the more familiar eastern peak.\/Credit: Gavin Meredith<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Where to walk in Assynt<\/h2>\n

Like most of Scotland, the landscape is open to wander. It\u2019s a deep feeling of surprising relief to explore off-track, untrammelled by footpaths or assaulted by \u201ckeep out\u201d signs and hostile fences. The walks are thrilling, the nature hit overpowering. Grasshopper warblers reel from scrub, orchids<\/a> bloom in their thousands among countless unfamiliar wildflowers. A merlin might shriek from a crag, hunting meadow pipits. And, all the time, cuckoos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A rotted landing stage on the western shore of Loch Leathad a Bhaile Fhoghair, which lies between the villages of Stoer and Clach Toll. You can walk around the Loch or, if fishing, take a boat out. @Gavin Meredith<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

One special day, under moody skies, we walked in from the small township of Stoer deep into an area of crags and heather and lochs, where water and land dance around each other. It felt mildly dangerous: Loch nan Lub, Garbh Loch M\u00f2r and Loch Poll Dhaidh, eerie, beautiful places that seldom see people. Surrounding crags occasionally part to reveal the bigger peaks \u2013 Quinag, Canisp, Suilven. But the feverish shape of the lochs and the sheer brooding presence of wilderness made me feel small. It\u2019s hard to express just how impressive our forebears must have been to eek a living out here \u2013 though there is little sign of any human activity, save for an occasional sheep.<\/p>\n

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Left to right, the three mighty peaks of southern Assynt: Canisp, Suilven and Cul Mor.\/Credit: Gavin Meredith<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

How to climb Suilven Peak in Asssynt<\/h2>\n

The best walk I\u2019ve taken in Assynt was without rod in hand when we set out to conquer Suilven. This mountain is actually small, just 731m (Pen y Fan in my Brecon Beacons home is 886m) but has a ferocious Sphinx-like appearance and you climb pretty much all of those 731m in one go. Even before you start, it\u2019s a two-and-a-half hour walk through Glencanisp to the foot of Suilven; an undulating stroll from the wooded sanctuary of Glencanisp Lodge, where redpolls and siskins hog the birdfeeders. Burns and shallow reedy lochs flank the path, with the great peaks of Canisp and Suilven ever-present, their heads drifting in and out of cloud. I dawdled among the wildflowers and strange calls of sandpipers and greenshanks and curlews. No doubt there were eagles watching us.<\/p>\n

The final climb up Suilven is a steep, rough stair. You need to use your hands. It took me about 30 minutes, but there\u2019s no respite at the top of the ascent. I arrived on a narrow ridge, a void opening up to reveal a breath-stealing vista south of lochs, peninsulas, islands and distant mountains, including the sawn-off silhouette of Stach Pollaidh. I swooned with vertigo that was only partly assuaged by the arrival of two ring ouzels, calling loudly around my head.<\/p>\n

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Author Fergus at the top of the main climb up the northern flank of Suilven.\/Credit: Gavin Meredith<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Suilven\u2019s peak requires a further clamber and negotiation of tight ledge. I struggled. It was a long way down. But the peak itself is a cricket pitch-sized plateau and the place to lunch, gawp and try not to think about the climb down. There is a curious drystone wall, built here some 160 years ago and still standing proudly. Called the \u2018famine wall\u2019 or \u2018destitution wall\u2019, it is a bleak reminder of the Clearances. After being forced from the lands, people faced either starvation or virtual slave labour for landowners in return for food, often working on projects with no purpose, such as this bizarre, mountain-top, wall-to-nowhere. It does, at least, offer climbers a respite from the elements.<\/p>\n

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