If you follow NCR78 religiously from Oban to Fort William, you have to cross the water on two ferries. The first is Inchree to The Corran. If you look up something called the Corran ferry on line, you will find departure times from places called Ardgour and Nether Lochaber, neither of which bizarrely is given on the Landranger sheet 41! Nevertheless, the good news is that ferries are very frequent and go on until the evening (the last is 2110 from Nether Lochaber = Inchree on the map, if you want to be that late!)
Once on the western side of the loch (northern end of Loch Linnhe, I think, altho the Landranger doesn't give this stretch a name. Could be Loch Eil), you have to get back to Fort William, which is on the east side. Route 78 crosses once again on a ferry, at Camusnagaul. The ferry is not so frequent nor does it continue to as late a time as the other. You must not arrive at Camusnagaul later than 1635, according to the timetable, altho I have phoned the ferry operator, asking if there are any later boats (the website invites you to do this). It seems that the boat ties up at Fort William for the night, so there should be a ferry after this 'last' one (outside of the holiday season, they don't normally have anyone to go back), but we can phone on the day.
Or you can just stay on the east side of the loch and avoid either ferry! But then that isn't Route 78.
PS First ferry is free. Second is £1.80 adult fare but a pedal cycle costs £1.50. Is that extra, so £3.30? I didn't ask. I guess we can stretch to that!
Once on the western side of the loch (northern end of Loch Linnhe, I think, altho the Landranger doesn't give this stretch a name. Could be Loch Eil), you have to get back to Fort William, which is on the east side. Route 78 crosses once again on a ferry, at Camusnagaul. The ferry is not so frequent nor does it continue to as late a time as the other. You must not arrive at Camusnagaul later than 1635, according to the timetable, altho I have phoned the ferry operator, asking if there are any later boats (the website invites you to do this). It seems that the boat ties up at Fort William for the night, so there should be a ferry after this 'last' one (outside of the holiday season, they don't normally have anyone to go back), but we can phone on the day.
Or you can just stay on the east side of the loch and avoid either ferry! But then that isn't Route 78.
PS First ferry is free. Second is £1.80 adult fare but a pedal cycle costs £1.50. Is that extra, so £3.30? I didn't ask. I guess we can stretch to that!
Ah, the depth of OS digital mapping. Ardgour is the area stretching about 10km inland from Corran. It is printed in great big letters that are probably difficult to recognise on a small screen. Ardgour is recognised by the OS online search engine, but not Nether Lochaber. However Nether Lochaber is revealed by a search on the OS mapping app, with a drop pin bang on the ferry terminal at Inchree.
ReplyDeleteThe last train from Locheilside (about 20km further round Loch Eil from Camusnagaul) into Fort William is 19.12, or another 10km cycle into Fort William.
Thanks for all that, Martin. There was much I didn't know. I totally overlooked ARDGOUR in large capital letters down the side of the edge of the OS map.It seems that Lochaber is also an area rather than a single place (read eg Wikipedia). Fort William is the capital. I don't think I'll be riding on to Locheilside. I'll delay viewing the station there till the next day, from the train!
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