TWO MEN OF KNOYDART
Twas down by the farm of Scottas
Lord Brocket walked one day
And he saw a sight that troubled him
Far more than he could say
For the two men of York
Were doing what they'd planned
They'd staked their claim, they were digging their drains
On Brocket's private land
(With apologies to Dick Gaughan)
With the Munro count ever increasing, Matt and I decided it was time to visit Knoydart and lay claim to the Munro’s on the former Lord Brocket’s land.
The Knoydart Foundation bunkhouse was booked, the venison ordered and off we set early on a Friday morning with the intention of catching the mid afternoon ferry to Inverie from Mallaig. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and indulged in the fare from the local chippie as well as sampling the local ale.
The ferry was rather crowded and included amongst it passengers were three families with kids, 15 in total, from Weegieland, (more about them later). After a pleasant cruise we docked at Inverie and wandered the mile or so to the bunkhouse where we were shown around by the warden, as there wasn’t any pigeon holes for food we were told to just leave our non perishable food on a table in the dining room, needless to say the table was soon full of food bags as the tribe from Weegieland were also staying in the bunkhouse.
After sampling the local ale in the Old Forge, an exceedingly nice piece of venison sirloin was duly dispatched with some decent red plonk. We then discussed plans for the next couple of days while the Weegie kids attempted a jigsaw or 3. The initial plan was to do Larven on the Saturday and Loonie Bin and Meal Booie on the Sunday but the weather forecast had changed slightly and it looked like the Saturday was going to be the better day so we reversed our plans.
Saturday morning we were up and away early despite the herd of snoring elephants in our room that tried to keep us awake. The memorial to Lord Brocket was soon passed as we headed up the path to Mam Barisdale. From the coll we headed up a muddy track in the direction of Loonie Bin just as the heavens opened and the wind picked up. We soon reached the summit and shortly after descending the rain stopped and Matt put on his waterproofs!!
Two hours later after battling through showers and gale force winds we found ourselves on the top of Meal Booie and then began the long wet descent back to the bunkhouse via Lord Brockets memorial.
After rehydrating we discovered that the Weegies had taken over the kitchen, so food had to wait for a couple of hours until they had finished 🙁
The forecast for Sunday was for heavy rain coming in later so an early start was again on the cards, the good news was that we didn’t have to put up with elephants for a second night.
The wander up through the woods to the ruin at Folach was pleasant in the morning sun but looking back we could see that we were in for some weather. The track up to Coire na Diollaide gradually steepened and as we climbed up the hill the rain started, Matt remembering to put on his waterproofs before it got to bad!! By the time we reached the Coire the cloud had dropped and the wind picked up, we reached the remains of the Trig point and carried on to the summit cairn. As the weather was so pleasant we decided not to hang about and headed down the way we had came, meeting two guys who were also staying at the bunkhouse, they had a ferry to catch so weren’t hanging about.
A celebratory drink was called for, so we popped into the Forge to rehydrate where we met the adult Weegies who were having a last drink before catching the ferry back to Mallaig, they asked how we had got on with the Munro’s etc.
Back at the bunkhouse I got the fire going while Matt had a shower and then went to put the kettle on, a few (lot) of anglo saxon expletives were then heard from Matt as he realised that the Weegies had taken our food bag, evening meal, breakfast and more importantly the wine all gone!!
The warden was informed but their was not a lot she could do, an hour later though she appeared and informed us that the Weegies had reaised their mistake, were most apologetic and insisted that we had a meal on them in the Forge - so we did!!
Monday morning ferry back to Mallaig, drive to Clydebank to drop some venison off for my father then home.
JOB DONE 🙂
