Ardnamurchan Point – A Coast Walk to the Lighthouse

The walk

Park in the small car park at the top of the Portuairk road, off the B8007 beyond Kilchoan, on the right just before the road zigzags down to the village; parking in the village itself is difficult. The round by Bay MacNeil, out to the lighthouse and back, is about 9 km (5.6 miles), as gps-routes.co.uk gives it. Without the lighthouse it is a loop of about 6 km: the AA gives 6 km and 1 hour 30 minutes, Wild About Lochaber 5.5 km. No time is published for the whole walk. From the end of the road in the village, a gate signed for Bay MacNeil leads onto a faint moorland path marked by the occasional wooden post, west down a valley past old ruined houses, over a stile in the deer fence and on along a track behind the caravan site. Where the path meets the single-track road at Grigadale, turn right: the lighthouse is 1.6 km along (a mile, the AA says), and you come back the same way, then keep east along the road to the B8007 and up the Portuairk road to the car park. The path is rather muddy and boggy in places, with a stile and gates, and the rest is road, so wear boots.

The small sandy beach of Bay MacNeil is a short detour through the dunes; the path itself stays inland behind them. The lighthouse is a 35-metre tower of grey granite, built in 1849 by Alan Stevenson, with its light 55 metres above the sea. The old stables beside it hold the café and the shop, and the former head keeper's house the exhibition, on lighthouses, the rocks of the peninsula and its wildlife. The lighthouse's own site gives its season as 1 April to 31 October, Tuesday to Sunday, the café from 10am to 4.30pm and the lighthouse and tower from 11am to 4pm, with nothing stated for the winter months. Ring 01972 510210 to book the tower, and carry food and water in any case. The lighthouse stands at the western end of the mainland, and Corrachadh Mòr, a little over a kilometre south, is a few metres further west. Sheep graze the crofts: keep dogs on a lead.

If you only want the Point, the lighthouse has a car park of its own at the end of the road, past the traffic lights on the narrow causeway, for day parking only. The B8007 is single-track and slow. The Corran Ferry is the short way to this side of Loch Linnhe when it's running. While its main boat, MV Corran, is away for its refit, the smaller Maid of Glencoul runs the usual timetable from 30 October, with the work expected to be finished by the end of November, the Highland Council says, so look at its Corran Ferry page first. The A861 comes round by road in any case, from the A830 at Lochailort or at the head of Loch Eil. At midwinter the sun sets at Portuairk at about a quarter to four. For dinner, both in Kilchoan, the Kilchoan House Hotel serves evening meals from 5.30pm to 8.30pm and is closed on Mondays, and Mingary Castle serves a tasting menu from Wednesday to Sunday, from April to December, booked ahead, as each says on its own site.