Rogie Falls

The Falls of Rogie are where the Black Water drops through a rocky gorge about 2km north-west of Contin, beside the A835 to Ullapool, and the reason to come is the fish as much as the water. Forestry and Land Scotland, which manages the forest, describes it as a place to watch wild salmon leaping the falls in autumn, and a viewing platform above the river tells the salmon’s life story before the bridge. The water comes off the slopes of Ben Wyvis, so the falls are at their loudest after rain or snowmelt, which is when FLS’s own page says to come.

Two waymarked trails leave the car park. The Salmon Trail is 0.8km, on a wide, firm gravel path with one long steep slope, down to the viewing platform and out across a suspension bridge over the river to see the falls face-on; FLS grades it moderate. The Riverside Trail adds 1.3km from the platform, along the river’s dark pools and back through pinewood thick with heather and blaeberry, on rough gravel and earth with tree roots, rocky steps and muddy sections, and FLS grades that one strenuous. The bridge, by Wikipedia’s account, takes five people at a time and moves enough underfoot to make a photograph from it a matter of luck. The car park at NH 442 585 is run with The Highland Council, so parking charges apply and Forestry and Land Scotland passes are not valid; the council’s toilets there open from April to October, and a bus serves Contin, 2¼ miles away.

This is an hour at most, a little over 2km even with both trails, and it earns its place as a stop between Inverness and Ullapool or as the wet afternoon’s outing from a base around Beauly, Dingwall or Strathpeffer, not as a destination in itself. It suits anyone with a couple of hours to spare, a family whose children will take the steep slope at their own pace, and October, when the salmon run. It does not suit anyone wanting a walk of any length, or a pushchair beyond the platform, since the Riverside Trail’s roots and rocky steps stop it there. For a full day in the same hills, the Ben Wyvis car park is further north along the same road.