Two Ravines (or one) at Unapool, near Kylesku, Sutherland

Robert Wine

You need to log in as a member of Walkingworld to access the details for this walk and have an active subscription. Please join, or log in above if you are already a member.

The fishing hamlet of Kylesku sits at the junction of three sea lochs. Until the 1980s the only way to progress north from here on the A894 towards Scourie, Durness and beyond was to take the ferry, but an elegant bridge now sweeps you over the water in an effortless arc. Stop at the viewing point and memorial just north of the bridge.

Just south of Kylesku is Unapool, the starting point for this walk. Sutherland, Assynt and Coigach have far more than fantastic mountains: seemingly millions of lochs, lochans, rivers, streams and coasts - everywhere you look you'll be seeing water, crossing water, trudging through water, admiring watery views.

This is an unusual walk, ideal for days of low clouds or just for a leg-stretch without the need to tick off summits and kilometres. A short 1.5km from roadside to seaside takes you down (and back) along a lush (for NW Scotland!), picturesque, treed, mini-ravine (Creag Mhor na Cairidh) with a sea view as a reward. For the bold and those prepared to take a risk on their own, you can round the headland and return via a second, very different, ravine (Creag an Spardain). The final stretches are dominated to the north by the faceless-sphinx bulk of Quinag's towering red sandstone buttresses - my favourite mountain!

Scotland - Highlands and Islands - Highland - Sutherland