Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail

The Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail starts in Coille na Glas-Leitir, a pinewood on the shore of Loch Maree that Walkhighlands says has stood for at least 8,000 years. Its preservation was the main reason this ground became Britain’s first National Nature Reserve; Wikipedia dates the reserve to 1951, and NatureScot now manages it as Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree Islands NNR. The trail starts at the Coille na Glas-Leitir car park on the A832, a drive from Torridon by the A896 to Kinlochewe and then north-west along Loch Maree, so it is not a walk from Torridon.

Walkhighlands, which bills it as Britain’s only waymarked mountain walk, describes a path that leaves the car park through an underpass beneath the road and climbs through birch and pine, with views back to Loch Maree and Slioch, before emerging above the trees among white quartzite crags. NatureScot warns that the paths on both trails are narrow with many steps. Large waymarker cairns mark the way, some showing the height reached, and Walkhighlands warns of two sharp left turns where walkers have missed the trail. The high point is the Conservation Cairn at about 560m, on a plateau scraped bare by glaciers, with Beinn Eighe’s ridges ahead. The return passes small lochs, including the Lunar Loch, and drops beside a gorge to join the Woodland Trail.

By Walkhighlands’ count the circuit is 6.5km with 586m of ascent and three to four hours, while NatureScot puts it at just over 6km and calls it the more difficult of the two trails from this car park. Hill boots and waterproofs are the price of a mountain plateau without a summit ridge. The trail is not for anyone needing an easy path, since Walkhighlands calls the ascent a steep, rough one, nor for anyone with weather closing in, because the upper section is exposed. The Woodland Trail from the same car park is the gentler choice, and for a full summit day the Liathach traverse is the serious alternative.