Loch Sunart day 04 - Rest Day

Thursday 21st June,

Beinn Resipol from the lounge 06.00 – it’s raining.

For the first time this week it was actually raining when I got up, so I took the picture and went back to bed! We had walked every day since we left home last Friday, (except Sunday when we had spent the day travelling over from Nairn), and had been promising ourselves a lazy day ever since. Well it looked as if it had arrived. So a long lie and a cholesterol packed breakfast followed before Mo caught up with some reading and I drafted a few bits and pieces for the blogs. We were both still a bit stiff and sore from our exertions yesterday but by lunchtime we were ready to get on with something. On Sunday when we had arrived at the cottage there had been what looked like a home baked loaf waiting for us in the kitchen with a card from the Ariundel Centre so, since it was only just the other side of the loch by Strontian, we decided to go over and have a look. This also had the advantage of being the start of the walk that goes up through the oak woods to the old lead mines, which was a walk we had planned to do at some point. The centre itself is made up mainly of a souvenir shop and a cafe so we had a look around the shop followed by a nice soup and a sandwich lunch and a discussion about how we would pass the rest of the afternoon. The weather was still at its west coast worse but it was dry in the car so after leaving the Centre we turned right along a very narrow road signposted for Polloch. With no maps with us today we had no real idea where this went or where Polloch was or if indeed there was anything there at all, but it was a great road. We drove up past the old, and not so old, lead mines up gradients of 1:4 with terrific views again on all sides made even more dramatic by the rain and low cloud. We stopped at a signed viewpoint for Loch Doilet and parked beside the only other car we’d seen since leaving the Centre.

Loch Doilet

The weather finally drove us back to the car, never having seen the occupants of the other car. They were obviously much hardier than us! We carried on along the road, winding our way down the steep narrow road eventually reaching the banks of the loch. Here, with the loch on our right, the pine forest on our left and the low mist with persistent rain, we were in a very atmospheric place. Polloch turned out to be a couple of houses and a SNH / Forestry Commission car park with waymarked walks that seemed to go towards the distant and unseen Loch Shiel. We were tempted, despite the weather, to explore a little further on foot, especially when we came across a signpost for the “coffin road” to Glen Shiel. These were roads used in the past to transport the dead for burial in sanctified ground, in this case the burial isle on Loch Shiel.

Signpost for the coffin road to Loch Shiel

In the end we decided to stick to the plan of having a lazy day, so made our way back up over the hills to Strontian where we bought something nice for tea and a very passable bottle of wine.

J

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