Carnoch bridge
“Facilitating access to the mountains” is one of the Trust’s objectives. In the access stakes, you can’t get much higher than restoring a footbridge over a powerful river, more than 10 km from a road, a gateway to the wild hills of Knoydart and now part of the Cape Wrath Trail!
August 2019 saw the opening of a fine new bridge over the river Carnach, at the head of Loch Nevis and on Knoydart’s Camusrory Estate. It replaces a suspension bridge from 1981 that was condemned and removed in 2017.
The Trust was proud to be a major funder of this project, led by Camusrory Estate and supported by Scotways, the Mountain Bothies Association and others. We put in £10,000. The bridge itself cost £32,000, and the overall cost was over £62,000.
On a perfect late summer’s day our secretary James Hotchkis revisited the Carnach crossing as one of about 30 guests at the opening. When he saw the bridge in place he realised what a huge job it must have been to get the structure there over the loch and then build it into place. “It was a real pleasure to meet Robert Cooper and David Edwards from the estate,” he recalls, “the people who did the very hard work involved!”
“A triumph for all concerned”, was estate owner Rupert Soames’ comment. Bridge users will often reach it thankfully after a long trek from Inverie or Glen Dessary. But Mr Soames made it a bit easier for the opening party – who were brought by launch from and to Mallaig, with a lunch at Camusrory in between!
