Rogie Falls

The Falls of Rogie are where the Black Water drops through a rocky gorge about two miles 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. Wikipedia records that the bridge takes at most five people, with a narrow, sharp set of steps at its end. 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 seasonally, and Scottish Citylink’s 961 between Inverness and Ullapool runs via Contin, 2¼ miles away.

Walkhighlands walks both waymarked trails as one circuit from the car park, which it measures at 1.5km with 51m of ascent in an hour, and the walk 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. Families whose children will take the steep slope at their own pace get the most from it, and so does anyone visiting in autumn, when FLS says to watch for salmon leaping. It is not a walk for anyone wanting distance, and the Riverside Trail’s roots and rocky steps rule it out for a pushchair beyond the platform. For a full day in the same hills, Ben Wyvis is the walk, from a car park further along the same road.