OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Paddling through the autumn beauties of Affric and Aigas
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A day of calm sunshine is most certainly a bonus in the Highlands at the end of October, and conditions were perfect for a club paddle on Loch Affric.
As usual, launching and landing were the hardest parts of the trip but once into the river we were soon paddling up placid water past Affric Lodge, surely one of the most stunning settings in Scotland.
Mountains and autumn trees were mirrored in the still waters of the loch, but the peace was disturbed by a few distant shots, someone was killing the local wildlife – so-called ‘country sports’.
Then one of the shots was much closer, and a man with a shotgun and a couple of dogs appeared over a nearby skyline, evidently not expecting to find a group of kayakers. Fortunately he let us pass before letting loose again…
I used to do the annual Highland Cross duathlon and the last section of the 20-mile running stage took the hard "Yellow Brick Road" above the southern shore of the loch. By that time most are past appreciating the scenery.
A gentle paddle westward with the sunlit orange-brown peaks soaring above was a much better way of seeing the area. Lunch was at a sandy beach at the far end of the loch, truly in the heart of the hills, before a leisurely paddle back down the loch, admiring fine stands of native Scots pine.
A couple of braver paddlers chose to tackle a short stretch of rapids under the bridge but most of us demurred, as any mistake would have meant being swept down much more serious water.
After a night on the Cannich campsite, the next day’s trip was to Aigas Gorge. I’d always thought this was a serious white-water paddle but the gorge has long been flooded by the Kilmorack dam and is now almost flat water, it’s an easy paddle and a popular destination.
Access though is difficult, there is little car parking and no good approach. There are also nesting ospreys, peregrines and red kites which can be disturbed in spring and early summer so any trip to the gorge needs careful planning.
We arranged a complicated car shuttle, leaving the boats a few miles upstream at Struy and the cars in the only big car park, about a mile from the finish.
Eventually we were off, paddling under the Struy bridge on another fine morning. It was a lovely, gentle paddle down the river Cannich, the birches and oaks orange and golden. A red kite flew over, and there were possible signs of beavers in one place with gnawed and barked trees.
There’s a little golf course just before the gorge, then the river splits around the densely-wooded Eilean Aigas. High walls of knobbly conglomerate rock festooned with pines and autumnal trees drop vertically into calm water, you drift gently between them before emerging in a big, quiet pool where a tiny, steep-sided island tempts you to scramble out of the boat and up to the top for a unique view of the gorge and its wooded surround.
We turned to paddle back up the other branch of the river, under the imposing facade of the luxurious Eilean Aigas House, built new about 20 years ago to resemble an old shooting lodge. (It fetched three million in 2015.) The paddle upstream was hard but well worth it for the glorious autumn colours as well as for the opportunity for a second trip down the gorge!
A family with two children in two open canoes had also come down from Struy – it’s not at all hard – and there were a couple of paddle-boarders. The toughest bit is getting out, there is an awkward landing spot just below the dam, then boats have to be manhandled up very steep and slippery slopes to the dam road. This also is steep and it is more hard work carrying the boats up to the public road, where you can briefly squeeze in two cars at a time to load up.
There’s a salmon viewing chamber at the Kilmorack dam, you used to be able to peer through a glass porthole and watch huge fish swimming up the fish ladder. Sadly it’s now closed to the public, presumably because of the expense needed to meet modern safety standards. Surely SSE can do better!
With our great Scottish access laws, anyone is allowed to do this trip, provided you park sensibly and behave responsibly when birds are nesting. It’s quite difficult to reach the Aigas Gorge but well worth the effort, especially when the trees are at their autumn best.
