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The plan was to climb Braebag and visit the Bone Caves on the way back. We parked in the car park signed for Bone Caves and had a first proper look at the sky in the direction we were heading. The cloud was lower than expected from MWIS. Oh well.... hopefully it would clear.
Group consisted of one son, two grandsons, a friend from Singapore and a friend from Ireland. The Irishman loves caves and as this was likely to be his last walk before returning to Ireland a hill with bonus bone caves seemed like a good choice.
Group at start
We followed the path past the building and along the side of the Allt nan Uamh (burn of the caves) through bracken and birch, bringing us soon to a waterfall.
Waterfall
The lads skipped up the path and we didn't have a proper look at the spring sprouting out from the rock until our return. When we reached the point opposite the caves I could see the cloud was sitting well down on our target hill. Since I was the only one all that bothered about climbing Braebag and with low cloud and no clear path to the summit I concluded it might be better to go straight for the caves and head somewhere else after.
We continued on the main path before cutting across to one of the narrow paths that traverses below Beinn an Fhuarain's northern crags and leads round to the caves.
The caves were not a disappointment. We spent a good half hour exploring them and James from Ireland said they were the best he'd seen. The younger grandson checked out the tunnel linking two of the caves and managed to surprise us when he suddenly emerged from the other end!
Son and grandsons
Good spot for a fly cup
Irish caveman
These caves were excavated in 1889 by geologists Peach and Horne. They found bones of animals including lynx, polar bear, reindeer, arctic fox and lemmings, indicating they had all at one time roamed the Highlands. It's likely the caves sheltered these animals, although it's unlikely reindeer would have gone into the caves which raises the question how their bones and antlers got there - unless taken there by humans perhaps. The discovery of a 2000 year old walrus ivory pin in one of the caves suggests that people were here by the Iron Age (700 BC to AD 500).
Grandson photographed by other grandson from inside cave
For the descent we took the path to the left, which was steep at one point and led down to the main path we'd come up earlier.
Dry riverbed
We hadn't really noticed it on the way up but were looking out for it on the way down and, once you're aware of what you're seeing, it is a bit strange. You come down this limestone valley with its almost dry riverbed and all of a sudden there's water bubbling out of the base of the crag.
The spring
This is a major spring, the Fuaran Allt nan Uamh. The limestone in this area is so permeable that the water flows through it in a series of caves and fissures, only appearing at the surface at a few points. The water reaching the surface here apparently entered the underground system about a kilometre higher up the valley. It would be an interesting experiment to inject harmless dye at the entry point and see how long it takes to emerge at the spring - except that the porous limestone would probably filter it clean so you would never know.
In the west the sky was brighter with a little cloud on Canisp that looked like it would clear and I wondered if we'd been too hasty aborting the climb up Braebag. But I was the only one still thinking about Braebag.
Cloud over Canisp
Messing about by the river
On the way back to the car we met a number of other folk heading for the caves. It looked like it was going to be busy and we were glad we'd gone when we did getting a good half hour without another soul appearing. Definitely a good short walk if you happen to be in the area and with the added bonus of enough interest to keep the kids happy!
We discussed where to go next - Lochinver or Knockan Crag - and despite the lure of the Lochinver pie shop they chose Knockan Crag. To compensate for that we stopped in Ullapool where Feng treated us to sizzling hot scampi from the fish shop, which was seriously good.
