Falls of Glomach from Morvich

The Falls of Glomach drop down a narrow cleft on the Allt a’ Ghlomaich in a single leap of 113m, and only a walk reaches them. The National Trust for Scotland, which agrees with Walkhighlands on the height, takes the name from the Gaelic glòmach, hazy, for the spray over the gorge. The falls were the first land in Kintail to come into its care, in 1943, a year before the Five Sisters, and they lie inside the Kintail National Scenic Area. Walkhighlands calls this approach from Morvich, off the A87 just north of Shiel Bridge, the easiest and shortest.

The walk starts at the Trust’s Morvich countryside centre, where it says parking is free for members. Walkhighlands crosses the bridge at Innichro, the Trust’s Innis a’ Chrotha, and follows the Abhainn Chonaig and forest tracks to an old stalkers’ path. It climbs to the Bealach na Sroine, the pass of the nose, named for the steep north end of A’ Ghlas-bheinn. Beyond the pass it drops towards a gorge that stays hidden until the end, and only the top of the falls shows from above. Walkhighlands calls the ground beyond dangerous and exposed, and says most visitors go very carefully down a rough path to a rocky balcony facing the full height of the water, which falls in two leaps; the Trust asks for great care there. The return retraces the route; Walkhighlands leaves the path on down to Glen Elchaig to the most experienced.

Walkhighlands gives 17.5km and 790m of ascent in five to six hours, a straightforward hillwalk on a good path that still crosses a high pass and should not be tried without hillwalking skills. The Trust calls it 12 miles and six hours. No bus reaches Morvich; Citylink stops at Allt a’ Chruinn, 2km away. Heading for the Scottish Hills lists A’ Ghlas-bheinn, above the pass, as Inverinate Estate ground with stalking from late August to 20 October, none on Sundays. It suits a party with hill experience who want a destination, not a summit. It does not suit anyone without the navigation for an open pass, or with half a day rather than a whole one; for them Steall Falls, from the end of the Glen Nevis road, is a waterfall walk of an hour and a half to two hours there and back.