Cape Wrath Trail 2023
How Dávid headed off to Scotland
for the Cape Wrath Trail
Hey everyone, my dear sister Mária kindly agreed to publish my “travel diary” on this site. My name’s Dávid, and I love my family (D+M+Ľ+H+A), running, hiking and tree pruning, in that order. Back in 2015, my friend Bučo and I hiked the Slovak SNP Trail. A lot of time has passed since then, and between family and work I started feeling the need to get out into the wilderness for at least a week. It was 2020 and I’d just turned 30. As a birthday gift, I got a permit from my wife for a multi-day trek. I settled on Scotland, where we used to do summer work picking strawberries but never had the time to actually explore it properly. I started looking for a suitable route, and the obvious first choice was the West Highland Way. After a bit of research into the route and reviews, I decided it would be too easy for me. Browsing forums, I stumbled onto the Cape Wrath Trail, and it grabbed my attention immediately. The route is almost 400 km with roughly 11,000 m of elevation gain, and it has several route variants. It’s often called the toughest trek in the UK, mainly due to the lack of proper paths, the tough, wet, boggy terrain, and Scotland’s notoriously wild weather. The route runs from the town of Fort William northward through the valleys and passes of Scotland’s west coast. The finish is Cape Wrath — the northwesternmost point of mainland Britain, considered the most remote spot in Scotland.
You can find a detailed route description here: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cape-wrath-trail.shtml?s=1
Three years went by before I finally managed to find a free window to comlete the trail. I set off on 26 April 2023. As for gear, my brother-in-law Jožko — an experienced lightweight hiker — lent me most of the light stuff (backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent and all the cooking gear). Base pack weight is around 9 kg, plus food (dehydrated Summit to Eat dinners, oats, bars, nuts, etc. for about 5 days) and water (always 1 liter plus a filter). All in, the pack comes to about 13 kg, which really isn’t bad. On my feet: my old Altra Lone Peak trail runners, already with 800 km on them and more holes than they should really have — but at least whatever gets in also drains out fast. For navigation I’m using mapy.cz with a GPX track, and for planning, cousin Peťa bought me the paper CWT maps from Harvey Maps. For sleeping, I want to make the most of bothies — shelters for hikers found all across Scotland. Originally shepherds’ cottages in remote spots. There are quite a few of them along my route.
26.4.2023 Wednesday – day 0
The flight was fairly calm and quick. I have about an hour at Glasgow airport, grab something to eat and wait for the bus. The bus from Glasgow runs past Loch Lomond National Park and around the highest peaks of the West Highlands, all the way to Portree on the Isle of Skye. I thought I’d get some sleep in, but there was no chance of that. I just sat there gawking at the scenery. A brilliant welcome to Scotland!
The road itself is pretty wild — narrow lanes, and a few times we barely squeezed past oncoming buses. The trip took about 3 hours and around five o’clock I stepped off in Fort William. Peťa picked me up at the station and we headed to the campsite. The campsite is the final stop on the West Highland Way, and you can also set off straight from there up Ben Nevis — the highest mountain in Britain.
Peťa gave me a royal welcome, for which I’m hugely grateful to her and Tom — I feel completely at home here. I brought her a little Slovak specialty (read: borovička/juniper brandy), which she can’t exactly find around here.
Dávame si krátku prechádzku s výhľadmi na Ben Nevis a okolité kopce, ktorú zakončíme v reštaurácii. Na večeru mám burger, k tomu pár pínt miestneho oroseného a ide sa spať.
We go for a short walk with views of Ben Nevis and the surrounding hills, wrapping it up at a restaurant. Dinner is a burger, along with a couple of pints of the local frosty beer, and then we’re off to bed.
Starting tomorrow!
