Walkhighlands

Hi, me and my girlfriend are planning on hiking the first stage of the Cape Wrath Trail from Fort William to Strathcarron, and I've been warned to talk to local estates about access issues due to deer stalking taking place along sections of the trail. I'm coming from Canada, and not familiar with the estate system here. The heading for the hills website that gives information on deer stalking seems to be geared towards people who are summitting specific hills, and I can't figure out how to use it to get information for such a long section of trail. Does anyone know how I can go about figuring out who to contact?

The land is all privately owned, with the land owned by a given landowner forming an estate. The best way to figure out who to contact is probably to sit down with a map and see which hills close to your intended route are in each estate. From that you should be able to work out roughly which areas correspond to which estates and thus who to contact.

When are you planning on going?

So long as you are keeping to the Trail - and not climbing any hills - you should be okay as stalking normally takes place in the higher corries. But be aware that some bothies may officially be closed during the peak stag stalking season from mid Sept to mid Oct. It's really only during this period that any problems might arise.

You should probably be more concerned about the short daylight hours than the stalking. The gillies I ever met were friendly (asking us where we were going, so they could adjust their plans. On the CWT I wouldn't really mind being asked to go a different route. Adding a couple of miles to such a long trail is not a tragedy) and as Essan said, there shouldn't be any problems if you don't go mountaineering. It's worth checking out beforehand which bothies and hostels will be closed, though.

merwood wrote:Hi, me and my girlfriend are planning on hiking the first stage of the Cape Wrath Trail from Fort William to Strathcarron, and I've been warned to talk to local estates about access issues due to deer stalking taking place along sections of the trail. I'm coming from Canada, and not familiar with the estate system here. The heading for the hills website that gives information on deer stalking seems to be geared towards people who are summitting specific hills, and I can't figure out how to use it to get information for such a long section of trail. Does anyone know how I can go about figuring out who to contact?

This section should have no problems as is all of the CWT. IMHO. The trail follows permissive and stalkers tracks. Therefore no problems? Unless you get lost. )

Although certain bothies may be closed due to stalking operations. Nowadays these bothies are not really used by the estate clients!