Walks | North-West
Poolese - Ardlair
Start: Poolewe, car park near shop
Description: Walk or cycle on land rover tracks to remote banks of Loch Maree.
OS Map: #19, Gairloch & Ullapool
Multimap: Online Map
This is a fairly easy but longish walk on good land rover tracks from Poolewe, to the banks of Loch Maree at Ardlair. Park in the car park just North of the bridge in the middle of Poolewe. Follow the small road up the banks of the river, passing through land with free roaming sheep, so keep dogs on leads! Pass through a gate (leave it as you find it) and take the left hand fork. The track becomes rougher, but is still perfect for biking along. Pass through another gate, and over a burn. The track soon rises a little to give views onto Loch Kernsary, and up to the Wilderness Hills of the Fisherfield Forest.
At the settlement of Kernsary, take the right hand track, which undulates it's way over some small hills, and eventually gives views onto Loch Maree. Where the track begins to drop it is a good idea to leave bike secured by the roadside unless you are confident of your ability to cycle back up the mile long climb on the rough track. Walk down the track, past a couple of holiday houses, and evidence of where the hill side was quarried to make the road.
On reaching the newer house at Ardlair, head for the small jetty on the shore, and relax for lunch. The views all around are spectacular, West along the shore to Poolewe, South across the Loch to Slattadale, Basobheinn, Beinn an Eoin, Beinn Eighe, Ruadh-Stac Mor and all the other Torridon hills. East along the shore towards Kinlochewe shows the picturesque Glen Docherty climbing up into the distance. Looking into the water, plenty of small fish give evidence to the clean nature of the water in the loch.
From here, return along the same tracks to Poolewe. Alternatively, if on foot you can turn right at Kernsary, and cross the stream to pick up the muddy path along the Northern shore of the Loch back to Poolewe.