The East Highland Way

Day 4 – Feagour to Kingussie

Sadly, Andy had to go to do his Coastguard final training in Banff and missed this section. Well, that’s his story.

We got a lift back to Feagour and started the walk up through the Blackwood. There is a Pictish hill fort up the hill and off the track. We could see the top of it through the trees but, being philistines, we passed up the opportunity for a visit.

At the end of the forest track there is an unmade road which takes you all the way to Laggan, if you turn left and follow the recommended route. We however turned right towards the A82. Some half a mile later we arrived at the main road and then crossed it in Wolftrax. Charlie thought there were wolves running wild here, but it turns out to be a mountain bike
centre. We crossed the main road and then turned left into a footpath which runs beside the road. Eventually the footpath ends and there are about three quarters of a mile on the A82, to reach Laggan.

Just short of Laggan Dave asked us about the war memorial he could see ahead. We could only see a horse box and so for the rest of our days horse boxes will be known as war memorials.

We stopped for refreshments in the excellent Laggan Stores; ice cream all round, before heading out for Newtonmore.

There is a walk of at least a mile and a half up the A82 before turning right up a small road to a hamlet. Walking past the hamlet we reached the turnoff to the right. The map shows us walking up the edge of the forest, but this path didn’t seem to exist and we followed a parallel bearing which eventually led us to the north end of the forest. Some additional map and compass work led us over heathland using sheep tracks until we reached a track.

I fell over once and vowed to get my poles out if similar conditions were to be met again. The weather conditions of the previous 4 weeks meant that my choice of footwear was appropriate, but I would think for most of the time boots and gaiters would be required to avoid wet feet.

We also had to ford the stream a couple of times.

Around the shoulder of Binnen Mor and then down to the edge of a stream which runs the length of Glen Markie. We stopped for lunch at around 1pm.

The ritual of lunch and dooking the feet continued. We stopped for no more than 20 minutes then continued up to the bothy where we needed to ford the River Calder.

This section of the walk is one of the best I have done. We only met around 4 people. I think that most of the year the Glen Markie – Glen Banchory route will be very boggy and when the Calder is in spate it becomes impassable.

The walk continued in bright sunshine and temperatures of over 20 degrees. The path by the stream was badly eroded and care had to be taken to avoid walking on overhangs. The wild flowers on this section were exceptional as well. It is a pity I can’t identify them all but I did identify wild violas.

At the foot of the glen we passed derelict farm buildings then over a bridge. Charlie and I took 10 minutes to sit with our feet in the water to cool them down. This seems to help aches and pains for at least a hour every time you do it.

We now had to lose height and drop down into Newtonmore. We reached there at 4.15pm, the sun was splitting the pavements and we couldn’t resist the lure of the pub for a pint. At 5pm we headed off once more, this time for Kingusssie. We took the main road for about a mile then headed left up through the trees before reaching open ground. We followed a faint track over open ground until we reached another track. This track took us up to a forest where we turned right in the direction of Loch Gynach.

The walk was again in the open with little shade until we reached the loch, where it turned to a small trail through mixed woodland. At the end of the loch we turned right again until we reached the golf course.

At this point there was a fork – both signposted golf course circular. We selected the left turn and created an additional few miles walk to our destination. We eventually reached our accommodation at 7.30pm.

Our total walk distance for the day was 23.91 miles.

We had booked to eat at 8.30pm in the Silver Fjord. I don’t know why it’s called that, as it’s not a fjord and it’s not silver.

We showered, changed and headed out. We looked like gunslingers as we ambled down the street, most muscles and feet aching with every step.

Andy rejoined us having passed his test and he is now a fully trained member of the Coastguar. Big congrats all round, to him for success, and to us for getting through the last bit from Newtonmore.

We had a great tea, a couple of pints and then exhaustion crept in; well for 3 of us. Charlie headed out in search of the Kingussie
nightlife.