Loch Morar and Loch Nevis

A Journey into Knoydart by Kayak and Canoe

June 2024

Following the success of our Loch Shiel circuit in 2019 we’ve been keen to get back on the water for another multi-day paddle. This is another fairly classic trip which makes a satisfying circuit, has a mix of fresh and salt water and throws in the challenge of a 1.5km portage between the two. We tackled it as a four, in two kayaks and a canoe, and in the spirit of holidaying we filled said canoe with a lot of good food and took our time over it, spending two nights at both Oban Bothy (Loch Morar) and Sourlies Bothy (Loch Nevis). It formed a six day adventure which in total included about 60km of paddling and (collectively) 6 summits.

To complete the circuit we left a car at both Morar (parking by the side of the Loch) and Mallaig (free parking for up to a week at East Bay which is right on the harbour).

Day 1: Morar to Eilean a' Phidhir

Despite living only an hour from Morar it somehow takes us until evening to actually get on the water. Maybe this has something to do with the 26 miles I ran yesterday and how I really couldn’t bring myself to pack the night before or get up early to compensate. We meet in Fort William Morrison’s car park, the start point of many an adventure, and make the most of a late start by going out for a café lunch.

We do eventually make it to the shops and acquire an enormous amount of food to keep four people well fed and happy for anything up to eight days because at this stage the route plan is really only a rough sketch. It’s sunny as we drive out to Morar and undergo the usual faff of getting everything into boats. The food fills a barrel and a comically humungous dry bag and a kayak. Fortunately the car drop in Mallaig is only a couple of miles and we are then finally ready to heave three really heavy boats to the edge of the water and scrape inelegantly off the shore and onto its surface. A gentle wind pushes at our backs forming soft ripples of waves. We meander our way to the islands and spend a pleasant hour exploring their edges (the inners being highly vegetated) and this way stumble upon a number of idyllic looking camp spots and decide to go no further. We pop the tents up on beautifully flat ground and get a fire going to keep the midges at bay. Dinner is tortellini and cheese and brings the realisation that I’ve left the bowls, sporks and mugs in the car, in Mallaig. Oops. Fortunately tortellini and cheese can be eaten perfectly well out of the pan with your fingers and thus that problem is postponed till tomorrow.

Day 2: Eilean a' Phidhir to Oban Bothy

We consolidate yesterday’s lack of mileage with a lie in. I take a morning wander across the island in search of a breeze and spend a very satisfying hour or so making myself a spoon from a piece of driftwood. It’s finished just in time to christen with some breakfast porridge (chunky oats with dried fruit, nuts and honey making a significant upgrade from the standard flavoured sachets). We get underway while it is still just about morning and on leaving our lovely sheltered bay are somewhat brutally smacked into go-mode by a strong side wind and accompanying waves. It’s nothing a kayak can’t handle but there’s a bit of bailing going on in the canoe. We slog our way to the vague shelter offered by the shore (probably more psychological than physical as it’s a due westerly on a perfectly east-west facing loch) and then proceed to make up for low mileages by basically surfing the rest of the loch. It’s mostly excellent fun, with brief moments of panic. I reflect that while I “can” roll my kayak I’ve not actually practiced this skill in longer than I care to admit and resolve to tie my shoes down at the next opportunity.

Loch Morar is long enough that the novelty of surfing does wear a little thin by the end, and some fairly serious thigh cramp develops from the one specific angle needed to hold a diagonal across to the South shore, but at last Oban Bothy is reached. It’s a spacious and well maintained place (if you discount the disintegrating green corner sofa) and we have it all to ourselves. There’s just enough drift wood for another midge-repelling fire and in an effort to make the canoe sit slightly higher in the water we tuck into tinned curry and rice with ginger cake to follow.

Day 3: Oban Bothy

A day to stretch the legs and explore our surroundings. We spend the morning sitting about watching the clouds rise and fall but never actually clear the tops, with wavering levels of enthusiasm about the thought of actually going up anything. Eventually consensus is reached and Craig heads off to run Sgurr nan Coireachan and Sgurr Thuilm, and Robbie, Tas and I take a more plodding approach to Carn Mor. As is always the way, the rough rarely-travelled and completely pathless single Corbett is a lot harder than I remember the two Munros being, but we have fun adding many short scrambles and do eventually reach the top. Back at the loch we fill the canoe with driftwood from the beach just round the corner and have a much better evening fire which is necessary not just for midge deterring but also for warmth as you would really struggle to believe it’s late June just now. We enjoy another decadent dinner and watch the bats zigzag around a darkening sky.

Day 4: Oban Bothy to Sourlies Bothy

Our lazy morning routine is rudely shattered by a 7am alarm as we’re due to cross into salt water this afternoon and paddling life is now ruled by the tide. Getting going up Loch Morar the Westerly wind persists and makes for a moderately arduous slog back to the Tarbet (a common place name which means "crossing point"). Coming at last into South Tarbet Bay we’re suddenly in the shelter of the hills and the loch is perfectly smooth for a last look back the way we’ve come.

There’s the remains of an old jetty which are too fragmented to be of use, and a hard stone edge and the very deceased remains of what was probably a sheep to lift the boats over, but the track runs right down to the water’s edge and is otherwise perfect. We get the canoe on its wheels and make a guess as to how much stuff we can leave in without breaking anything then set off at a bit of a crawl up the hill. After about 50m the canoe falls off said wheels and we have to stop and figure out a better way to strap it down but it does then hold all the way till almost the end, when we realise we left far too much stuff in it and said wheels are now very bent… The kayaks get lugged by hand. The food barrel remains far too heavy. Apparently before the railway was built to Mallaig, Tarbet was actually the main harbour and this track would have been in regular use bringing goods inland. It’s a little piece of history to appreciate as we become the latest in a long line of people to pause gratefully at the cairn that marks the highest point. Ultimately with lots of little shuffles we do the whole thing sort-of in one go in under 2 hours which feels pretty efficient and means there’s time for a leisurely lunch on a perfectly situated picnic bench overlooking the bay. Even more perfectly we then gain an otter, diving very successfully for fish then floating up on its back to eat its catch. We watch it for a good half hour then, punching the boats out into choppy waves find it floating one wave ahead watching us inquisitively with its little ears erect.

Turning the corner out of Tarbet Bay we put the wind behind us once more and gain a rising tide on which we practically fly through the narrows into perfect calm on the other side. The water is glassy smooth and it’s a complete contrast to what we’ve just left behind. We idly drift the remain few kms to Sourlies Bothy, arriving to find two fellow occupants who are camping outside leaving the interior all to us. It’s fortunate really because despite being perfectly situated and a really lovely bothy, Sourlies is also very small. We lighten the canoe further with veggie haggis, instant mash and baked beans for dinner followed by the fruit cocktail we’d forgotten about. No wonder that barrel was so heavy.

Day 5: Sourlies Bothy

Another day for stretching the legs. The morning is sunny and peaceful and we're tucking into a late breakfast when a walker appears for a look around the bothy. He's come down from a high camp on Sgurr na Ciese and brings with him an updated weather forecast and the promise of 50mph winds and rain for the evening. So if we want to get up there then we probably should be on top already. We dither briefly, decide it's a cool enough mountain to risk getting wet on, and leap into action. Bag packed (singular - we're a bit short on rucksacks) we begin a 3 person ascent up the ridge just behind the bothy (Craig's done this one already so is less excited about getting blown off the summit in a storm). Its a moderate slog with an excellent view and compared to Carn Mor delightfully easy. Just goes to prove once again that Corbetts are harder than Munros. We make it to the summit still in the sun but with an abrupt change in the wind from so-calm-there’s-a-risk-of-summit-midge to hold-on-to-your-rucksack-or-it-might-leave-without-you in the final few metres of ascent. The views are appropriately stunning and the visibility superb. We hide behind a rock to download the next few days weather forecast and tide times, and wonder how many things you'd decide you really needed to look up online if you had to climb a mountain every time to do it.

Down the other side we keep the wind which blasts us up to the top of Garbh Chioch Mhor and brings with it a swirling of cloud. Time for a descent we drop back into the gully between the two peaks which tunes out to be stuffed full of rare and beautiful plants. Returning to the bothy we find Craig has been up Bidein a’ Chabair and confirms that you can indeed look down from the top on both Oban and Sourlies and that in a straight line it would be a remarkably short distance between them. We’ve also gained several groups of walkers and it’s a night for mats covering the floor and two tents outside. Very kindly the rain waits until we're all tucked in before it begins in earnest.

Day 6: Sourlies Bothy to Mallaig

The forecast is for a calm couple of days with winds swinging round to the south so after a week of wondering if Mallaig will be possible in a canoe we decide to give it a go (the back up option being a return over Tarbet with a bent canoe trolley). Low tide is at 12 which is really quite unhelpful and means setting the alarm for 6am to paddle out with the ebb. Its a grey start that turn to a soft drizzle as we pass back through the narrows. Out in the main loch any nerves we had about the conditions seem laughable and the water is perfectly smooth with not a ripple to be seen. We spot a porpoise and calf - one small fin and one tiny one breaking the surface in prefect synchronisation.

Paddling on we make it across to Earnsaig where there is a little pebble beach. We had planned to spend a day here (or here-ish, it's not particularly inspiring as a camp spot) and continue round the corner tomorrow but given how flat it is it seems silly to waste a chance. Instead we decide to sit out the flood tide and continue again in the evening, which means six hours sitting on said little pebble beach. My greatest achievement in this time is balancing 17 small stones in a tower. (It was briefly 18 but then I breathed in the wrong direction).

Back on the water the sun has come out and it remains calm and smooth all the way to Mallaig though with the addition of just enough swell to remind you how difficult this corner could be. Halfway along we see more small fins breaking the surface and then are surrounded by a pod of porpoise, several of them also with young. They pay us no attention but go on fishing around us, close enough that you can hear them breathe and see the subtle markings on their sides. Eventually they move away and it’s time for us to carry on the final few kms to reach the harbour. There's a race against the clock as the fish and chip shop shuts at 7:30 and we pull in with just 10 minutes to spare. Robbie does a heroic dash while the rest of us drag the boats up the bank and then we can sit back and fill our bellies with hot food and reflect on a very successful trip.