09 August 2017 – Glen Cassley

The funeral of a family friend brought Colette, Damian and me back up north again. Colette and I decided to stay on an extra day and do some cycling while we were up there, and Damian had a hill to climb too. We managed to find a B&B in Bonar Bridge with a couple of rooms available due to a late cancellation, which was lucky as the rest of the highlands seemed to be fully booked. After a fine meal at the Crannag Bistro, a night’s sleep and a full cooked breakfast, we were ready for the adventure ahead.

Our circuit started at Lairg, about a 10 mile drive north from our lodgings. It was an overcast and cool start to the day, but there was no rain in the forecast at least.

As I got the bikes ready, a couple of other cyclists saw me with pump in hand and came over to ask for some air. I could describe them as a pair of beatniks, on a road trip to Scrabster, riding well-loaded vintage bikes. One of the guys was even wearing a beret. I was happy to help pumping up a couple of soft tyres and wished them well as they continued on their way north.

We went off the other way out of Lairg, but were only on our bikes for a few seconds before stopping for a photo of the wee white house on the island. After that, we took a right turn over the bridge in the direction of Ullapool.

The road out of Lairg rose gently through quite bleak-looking moorland. Low cloud was hanging on the hilltops ahead of us, and it wasn’t long before we felt a fine mist of rain, which turned into a committed drizzle, forcing us to stop and don waterproofs.

After about 5 miles, we started descending as we got nearer to Rosehall. Then, after a steep descent, he took a right turn onto the Glen Cassley road. The drizzle by this stage had stopped temporarily, but we had swapped that for a headwind. I can’t really complain, it wasn’t particularly strong, and it certainly wasn’t a battle against the elements as we pedalled up the glen.

Soon, we passed the Achness Hotel, which would have been the ideal place to stay for today’s ride, although it caters mainly for salmon anglers, fishing on River Cassley that runs through the glen. As we rode alongside the river, we could see that the pools were all individually named. The waters were very dark, coloured by peat, and in places gushed noisily down small waterfalls.

A castle, perhaps?

The single track road had a generally good surface, and a mile or so was even freshly tarmacked. That stretch ended at a bend in the road, where I spotted some castellations to the right. I was on the lookout for Glencassley Castle, so I stopped to investigate. In fact, it turned out to be a grand dog kennel, housing a number of small and initially noisy but very friendly dogs.

This was as much as we saw of Glencassley Castle

A short way further along, we caught a glimpse of the castle proper through the trees on our right. After that, we left the trees behind for a while, and in the open countryside, we endured a return to the rain for a final few minutes. We also caught a glimpse of a hen harrier, and heard its now familiar (to us) call.

Cow pats on the road indicated the presence of cattle, but we didn’t have any close run-ins. In the middle distance, we could see a large herd of red deer. They could see us too, and they seemed very nervous, which was a bit of an over-reaction seeing as we were separated by at least half a mile, with a river between us.

As we returned to the trees, Colette and I both stopped upon spying a pretty waterfall on a burn that feeds the main river. We went to have a closer look. This would have been a fine place to stop for our lunch, but it was just a bit too early, and just a bit too midgey. So we carried on…

The road began to undulate a little more steeply as we approached the top half of the valley, and now the shape of the mountain Ben More Assynt came to dominate the horizon ahead, especially as the low cloud was beginning to clear. Finally, the public road ended at the approach to Duchally Lodge. A gravelly landrover track took over, and led us down alongside the river.

River Cassley

On finding a nice spot, we stopped for lunch. I filled my kettle from the river and placed it on top of the Trangia spirit burner. The water started out a light brown colour, so there was no danger of ending up with a weak-looking brew! A few minutes later, we were drinking hot tea and eating lunch, and the sun even decided to make an appearance for the occasion.

Moving onwards, we came to some really steep inclines in the road. They were also lumpy, loose and hard to ride on, so we both got off and pushed. It occurred to me that the steep bits are always the most bumpy, and the best explanation I could come up with was the rain washing out the finer gravel on the steep slopes, leaving behind the larger stuff. There is no shortage of rain in this neck of the woods.

Ben More Assynt, with Duchally dam in the foreground

One prominent feature of the landscape was a large water pipe, which we followed all the way to a dam, where water cascaded out into a small reservoir. I think there is a small hydroelectric generator there, which would explain why the Hydro Board (now SSE) had built a tarmac road to access it. That was good for us, as we could get off the bumpy gravel road and onto the smooth stuff again.

The only problem was that we were now faced with a stiff climb to get over Maovally hill and link up with the public road on the other side. The gradient went up to about 15%, forcing me down to a crawl, whilst Colette chose to push on the steepest parts. The important thing was not to push too hard, so we could continue to enjoy every minute.

At the top, we could see a vast expanse of flow country to the right, and had our first view of Loch Shin (well, simce starting in Lairg anyway). After that, we had a fast 1000 ft descent, where we were glad that we had good disk brakes to slow us down.

View on the way down Maovally

At the bottom of the descent, after passing the huts of a clay pigeon shooting club, we circled round, till we reached a bridge over a river that links Loch a’ Ghriama like an appendix to Loch Shin. Following that, we went round a locked gate and reached the A838, which was to take us pretty much the whole length of Loch Shin.

Although we were a little tired, the sun was out, the road was fairly flat and the wind was at our backs, meaning we had a quick ride back. If I were to complain about anything, it would be that Loch Shin is fairly boring in terms of the view. It’s about 17 miles long, with the far bank a featureless expanse of green. Perhaps there were trees alongside the far bank in the past, but their remains would be underwater now, as the loch was dammed in the 1950s, raising the level by as much as 30 feet. Thanks to Wikipedia for that info!

After a while, we came to the Overscaig Hotel, with a sign outside saying they served coffee. Colette was keen for a stop and went down to the entrance before spotting the big “Closed” sign. Luckily, they have an outside tap, so she was able to top up her water bottles. Not as good as a coffee stop, but with her water supply nearly finished, it was just what she needed.

The rest of the ride was more of the same – a bit of a time trial, punctuated by slowing or pulling in to let cars past. Finally, Lairg came into view and we rolled back up to the car park. I packed away the bikes and Colette disappeared into a nearby shop, reappearing with Magnums. Yum!

We then drove the short way back to the B&B, where we caught up with Damian, and shared the tales of our adventures over another top meal at the Crannag. It was so good, we will have to go back and do more exploring soon…

 

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