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The best way to get to Essan bothy?

The best way to get to Essan bothy?


Postby bothybum » Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:26 pm

I am walking from along the A 830 from Fort William in December, and I was wondering if anybody had done the walk,looking at the map,the rail track looks like the only way in.
welcome all advice
Phil
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountain tortoise » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:21 pm

Where are you going to?
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby bothybum » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:35 pm

Going to essan then Peanmeanachy bothy,then across to skye,want to come along? lol
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby malky_c » Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:42 pm

I think the railway is the only route, unless you fancy swimming ( :shock: ), or you've come off the hills behind it. You could probably stick to the shore of the loch rather than the railway itself. You can have a look in Google Streetview for a bit of an idea - the loch is quite narrow so you can see the railway and the other shore quite clearly in most places.

Hopefully someone will come along that has actually stayed there :lol:
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby bothybum » Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:46 am

street view is a great idea,many thanks for the info
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby Paul Webster » Wed Nov 24, 2010 10:01 am

You could always send a private message to Essan - sounds like he would know :shifty:
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountain tortoise » Wed Nov 24, 2010 10:20 am

See your problem. You can walk along the south side of Loch Eil to Kinlocheil but from there I do not know a route that does not take you way out of your way. Why go that way there are more interesting routes to Skye form Fort William, if a little long.
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountainstar » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:01 pm

The only easy way is to walk along the railway line (although i know you are not supposed to!), anything else is to rough. Try to walk it between trains, although goods trains also can go through at any time inbetween. It only takes about 1 hour to walk from the road, you will find that you will also have to walk along the centre of the track for much of the time, as again its to rough on either side.
Coming from the east (F William) direction you come to a fairly long cutting (a few hundred meters) and you would not want to be there when a train passes! :shock: The west side is slightly shorter and has no cuttings, and also has a good parking spot right by the track where you would start if you had a car.
I was in both in Oct, both are good well maintained bothys with fireplaces, but you'll have to search for fuel (no driftwood on the beach by Peanmeanach when I was there... I took in my own coal)
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountain coward » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:13 pm

While I'm always quite happy to trespass along railway lines (with my head looking both ways :lol: ), there must be some semi-official way to this bothy surely? What would that be?
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountainstar » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:17 pm

strangely there is not, the MBA says not to walk along the line (they would have to!) Perhaps "Essan" (walkhighlands member) could comment, as he is the Maintenance officer for Essan.
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountain coward » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:19 pm

I'd love to know the official line
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby bothybum » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:50 pm

thanks guys for the posts,maybe i could build a little railway station there and trick scotrail into stopping for us :D
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby bothybum » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:01 pm

looking at the map and googling it to death it looks like (as mentioned) the track is the safest (gulp) way to go,i will wave a flag and pretend to be one of the railway children
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby malky_c » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:13 pm

mountain coward wrote:I'd love to know the official line


The official line will be 'follow the shore of the loch or crash through the undergrowth and bog on the other side of the railway'

As you can technically get there without using the railway (despite the fact that it is very hard going) there is no requirement to provide an actual path that is visible on the ground. Obviously a bothy for the adventurous only!
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Re: The best way to get to Essan bothy?

Postby mountain coward » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:13 pm

Probably safer than the road the other side!
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