Alder Trail
- Heather Mackins
- Mar 25
- 14 min read
Updated: Mar 30
Blog detailing mine & Jim's thru-hike of the Alder Trial including itinerary and trail information :)
Hello :) sorry for my absence over here! Life got very busy but I am pleased to finally bring you this blog detailing mine and Jim's thru-hike of the Alder Trail which we hiked for our Third Annual Thru-Hike last May! This Trail had, again, been around a year in the making since Jim and I always try to make some plan for next years adventure once we return home from the last... Last year we spent the most wonderful week on the Skye Trial where we also met Seb, this year we would head back to Fort William, where Jim and I first ever met a couple of years ago whilst we were both waiting anxiously for the boat to start the Cape Wrath Trail… This year the plan was to hike the Alder Trail as penned by Alex Roddie in the Trail Magazine back in 2016. Needless to say, I was excited to get back up to Scotland, to see Jim for the first time in a year, our annual hikes have truly become a much cherished highlight of my year…
About the Alder Trail
The Alder Trail is a challenging 101-mile backpacking route starting in Fort William and ending in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. The Trail passes through prime TGO Challenge country, taking advantage of ancient drove roads, mountain passes, and includes ascents of various Munros along the way...
The Trail was first described by Alex Roddie in the November 2016 issue of Trail Magazine. When Alex was approached by Trail Magazine, he was tasked with the concept of coming up with a wilder, more adventurous alternative to the East Highland Way. Having hiked the East Highland Way previously, I can certainly attest to the fact that this Trail is a total contrast to the East Highland Way, which is more gentle and rarely crosses remote terrain save for the short section that crosses Glen Banchor.
Access to and from the Trail
Both the beginning and the end of the trial are both accessible by public transport (both train and bus). I
took the train to Fort William at the beginning of the trail and I would return home from the trail by train from Aviemore. Jim and I stayed at Glen Nevis Campsite in Fort William at the beginning of the trail but we opted for a B&B in Aviemore at the end of the trail as there is a lack of campsites in Aviemore itself, the closest campsite to Aviemore would probably be the Rothiemurchus campsite which the trail
does pass so this could be a good option for those wanting to stick to camping or to keep costs low :)
Navigation/ Terrain
The Trail is by no means a waymarked trail like the West Highland Way or the Rob Roy Way, this Trail is largely pathless requiring competent navigation. This Trail also reaches elevations well in the excess of 1000m at several different points as the Trail takes in various Munros along the way. The nature of the trail and lack of facilities along the way requires you to be self sufficient with a full food carry, unless you arrange for a resupply parcel ahead of time. The Trail would make an excellent step up for those that have
already hiked long distance trails such as the West Highland Way but perhaps who might have ambitions to hike the Cape Wrath Trail, it was certainly comparable to the Cape Wrath Trail at times in terms of the terrain and navigation experienced.
The GPX route for the Trail can be found on Alex Roddie’s website, however, I note that the link is broken on Alex's website at the time of writing so here is the GPX route from my OS Maps, this was downloaded directly from Alex's website last year. I also used the various HARVEY Maps required to cover the entire route which were gifted to me since I am an ambassador for them.
Itinerary
Day 1 – Fort William to Glen Nevis (12 miles/ 19.5km)
I had arrived into Fort William the day prior to the most amazing blue skies and sunshine, I was as excited, as ever, to see Jim for the first time in a year, for our third Annual Thru-Hike! Jim who would already be at Glen Nevis Campsite in Fort William when I arrived at around 5pm, we spent the evening catching up, both eager and excited to start the trail with hopefully the promise of some more good weather over the next couple of days because let’s face it, sunny days this summer had been extremely limited so far!
As the forecast had promised, Day 1 on the trail was an absolute belter! Apparently, it made it up to 27 degrees on this day… Making our way out of Fort William on a fairly long but picturesque road section of around 7 miles, we eventually reached road end and the start of the path to Steall Falls. Steall Falls was incredible to witness in the sun since my last visit here had been in autumn to hike the Ring of Steall with my friend Simon from Oz...
We stopped a little further down the river for some lunch and to dry our tents out a little before pressing on just a little while further, now finding ourselves in rough, trackless terrain, at around 3pm we found a pitch nestled beneath the mountains in the glen that was just too good to pass by so we spent the afternoon evening happily nestled between the mountains for our first night on the Alder Trail, we were both excited to see what was to come. Oh and at long last, I finally got a washing line in my tent,
thanks to Jim! It is always something I meant to get around to doing but never did - thank you so much Jim mate!
Day 2 ~ Glen Nevis to Loch Ossian (14 miles / 22.5km)
It was overcast when we woke up and it would continue in the same fashion for most of the day but we were blessed we no rain which was lucky as the terrain was pathless and rough going from the outset with lots of bogs, streams and heather bashing to contend with, we finally reached the first bothy of many that we would encounter on the trail, Meanach, where we stopped for a short break before continuing on passed the second bothy, Staoineag...
Continuing on through old ancient woodland and passed the most stunning river with plunge pools which I would have jumped at the chance of a dip in if the weather had continued in yesterday's fashion… Eventually dropping down to Loch Treig which I had been excited to see since I've been quite interested in/ obsessed with Ken, the Hermit of Treig (I can highly recommend his book for those that might be interested) who has lived self-sufficiently by the side of the loch for the last 42 years... we actually also passed another permanent camp beside the Loch, much to my intrigue, I would later learn that
the camp belongs to a chap called 'Davie the Tent' who has also lived beside the Loch self-sufficiently in his camp for the past 12 years! Davie had worked as a draftsman for the shipyard for many years until he was told that he had something wrong with heart, Davie was given only months to live, Davie then made the decision to live out his days in the hills but has now been there for the past 12 years and has overcome his illness, although I don't know Davie, I like to think that is a testament to the healing powers of
nature… I only wish I had been able to meet Davie, or Ken… Continuing onto the remote and desolate moorland of Corrour we eventually arrived at Corrour train station...
We stopped at the station for some food at the pub before choosing to pitch just a little further at
the beautiful Loch Ossian beside the beautifully quaint little hostel...
Day 3 ~ Loch Ossian to Ben Alder Cottage (11 miles/ 18km)
The caretaker at the hostel had said that the weather today was due to the 'wall to wall sunshine' when he'd given us the forecast the night prior and he wasn't wrong! The caretaker was a man called Alex, a truly inspirational man, he is in his mid 80s and goes and camps for 10 days at a time, many times each year, during the hostels opening season, to care for and maintain the hostel and it grounds, he had visited the hostel for many years as a walker and once he retired he asked if he was able to help at the hostel and has
continued to do this ever since, what a legend! I do hope that one day I will be able to leave some sort of legacy such as this… Today we were set to hike two of the Loch Ossian Munros, our first Munros of the trail, and so we were super grateful for the good weather, we were also grateful for the Munro baggers path that would lead us to the summits after having walked on trackless terrain for the past while, we headed up toward our first Munro, Carn Dearg...
We stopped briefly at the summit for a quick snack before pressing on to our second Munro of the day, Sgor Gaibhre, the views from both of these summits were just absolutely incredible! We spent some time marvelling before pressing on…
Our route off the mountain was via a steep gully which would take us to a vast, pathless expanse of peat bog, the biggest expanse either Jim or I had ever experienced or walked through in our lives, we had about 4 miles of peat hags to negotiate before eventually reaching our target for the evening, Ben Alder Cottage... The bothy was busy on our arrival so we pitched outside, Jim and I often preferring to stay in our tent anyway. Ben Alder Cottage is said to be the most haunted bothy, one legend says that the bothy is haunted by the ghost of a ghillie called McCook, it was said that McCook tragically hanged himself on the back door of the bothy, another legend tells of a gruesome tale of a woman and her infant that sought refuge in the bothy for several days during a storm eventually being brought to madness by hunger, the woman killed and ate her child and was later seen passing through the moorland with ‘wild-eyed with despair that no one dared cross her path’. Then in 1996 a man’s body was found near the summit of Ben Alder with a bullet through his heart, the man was eventually identified as Emmanuel Caillet from Paris. Whilst the police concluded that Emmanuel’s death was suicide but his family firmly believe that Emmanuel was in fact killed… Whilst we didn’t experience any strange goings on during our time at the bothy, the area certainly has an eerie feeling to it, the bothy is also extremely remote, located an 8.5 mile walk from the nearest road and so its easy for your imagination to run wild...
Day 4 ~ Ben Alder Cottage to Loch Ericht (11 miles/ 19km)
It had been a beautiful night pitched outside Ben Alder Cottage, we woke and had another slow morning, as we usually do. Leaving the bothy to set off along the shores of Loch Ericht was a pathless scramble to begin with steep drops off to the Loch below but we soon managed to pick up a faint path, reminiscent of the path on the Skye Trail from Camasunary bothy to Elgol but eventually arriving at a 4x4 track which would continue for the remainder of the loch. The weather we had been so blessed with did start to take a turn with dark skies and gusts for the majority of the day into the night which eventually brought the rain with it…We pitched beside the Loch just off the track, a couple of miles before Dalwhinnie has we hadn’t wanted to get too close to the village as we feared that there would be nowhere to camp but just as we get settled, I soon realised that I had camped in a tick nest as everything was covered with the blighters, they were crawling on the outer of my inner tent, on my cup of coffee, they were everywhere... I told Jim that I'd have to move but urged him to stay there since the rain was now coming in thick and I'd just pitch a little down the way but Jim kindly followed me but in doing so nearly lost his tent to the Loch… since his tent was freestanding he had just picked his tent up to move it but one gust too much at it very almost succumbed... Thankfully Jim managed to save his tent and pitched beside me as I attempted to rid myself and my belongings of ticks… I kept finding ticks in my tent for the remainder of the evening and proceeded to burn them since this is seemingly the only way to kill these blighters... I am not in the habit of killing any living being but ticks are, unfortunately, an exception, I'd just rather not die of some brain eating disease or contract Lymes Disease, thank you very much... Jim and I headed to bed around 7pm this evening after the excitement of the ticks and Jim nearly loosing his tent, the rain had
now fully set in….
Day 5 ~ Loch Ericht to Glen Tromie (16 miles / 26.5km)
I woke up to ticks once again surrounding the outside of my tent and some inside my tent, including my sleeping bag after lasts nights invasion… the weather was dark and wet as we packed away and carried on along the remainder of Loch Ericht before eventually hitting the much anticipated village of Dalwhinnie so that we could visit a cafe for some 'proper food'...
I also managed to get a little resupply of snacks at Dalwhinnie Service Station which was also an unexpected but very welcomed treat since there has been so little in terms of civilization on this trail and also since I was running seriously low on snacks having not rationed well at all…
We left Dalwhinnie feeling much more prepared with our bellies full to tackle our third Munro of the trail, Carn na Caim, I have been grateful for the Munros as the Munro baggers paths have offered some respite to the otherwise relentless, pathless terrain at times but what we hadn’t been prepared for was the 5 mile slog off the summit through another vast expanse of bog…
Navigation was incredibly difficult as there was no landmarks, visibility was very low meaning that we were constantly on a bearing whilst being battered by relentless rain and 30mph gusts, it truly felt like some savage commando style training... we eventually descended down toward Glen Tromie where we set camp at around 4pm feeling extremely weather beaten but otherwise still in very good spirits and just so incredibly grateful to be here…
Day 6 ~ Glen Tromie to Glen Feshie (14 miles/ 24.5km)
It was another dark and wet one when we woke again this morning, a complete contrast to the first couple of days weather that we had been blessed with, we packed away our wet tents and as I was doing so I found a tick in my finger, they'd still been plaguing my tent and my belongings since I camped in a tick nest and I'd obviously still being carrying them a round with me… Initially we started out on a good path out of the glen, I was so excited to witness so many caterpillars and also a couple of owls, we have seen owls a
few times this trip which has been an unexpected treat... The good path soon changed to some
extreme heather and mulberry bashing on pathless, rough terrain, then just on que it began to pour as we began negotiating bog with tricky navigation once again, eventually ascending to a plantation we picked up a 4x4 track which gave us some respite and lead us down into the magical Glen Feshie which offered a beautiful contrast in scenery. We were greeted by 3 mystical white horses as we arrived in the Glen, a sight to behold indeed, even if I wondered I was magically tripping for a moment there!
We continued down the Glen before finding a pitch beneath the ancient native pine trees, it was hard to
believe there was just a couple of days left of the trail and mine Jim's 3rd Annual Thru-Hike, it has whizzed by in a blur of crazy adventure, as it always does, but we were excited for the next couple of days ahead as we would head further into the Cairngorms and eventually over the inconic Lairig Ghru before arriving at our end destination in Aviemore!
Day 7 ~ Glen Feshie to Glen Geusachen (12 miles/ 20km)
Our penultimate day on the trail! Where had time gone?! Time on Trail always rushes by in a blur of crazy adventure and before you know it, your thrown back into the grasps of society, I was struggling to come to terms with the fact that we would arrive back in the hustle and bustle of Aviemore tomorrow...It just felt too soon… Leaving our pitch beneath the ancient forest of Glen Feshie we continued down the fairytale glen a little longer before turning off up toward the Munros and the special Moin Mhur ('Great Moss')
Cairngorm plateau, initially following a steep path deep in the forest beside the most majestic waterfalls and pools, we were then thrown out of the forest into more pathless Heather bashing terrain with a very steep ascent for a good few miles, which practically killed us both off before we finally joined the Munro baggers path which offered some relief, despite the continued ascent… I spotted a pair of Ptarmigan as we were nearing the top - those fluffy white little boots are the sweetest thing I have ever seen!
On topping out at Carn Ban Mor, our final Munro of the trail, we continued on the long boggy, pathless stretch beside Loch nan Cnapan, eventually making the steep (seemingly the theme of the day!) ascent down into Glen Geusachen where we continued the Heather bashing for some time before pitching in the most incredible location for our final evening on trail!
Although that being said, I somehow managed to pick a terrible pitch, maybe my worst yet, the huge tussocks of grass and heather were in all the wrong places making for an awful night's sleep the location made up for it though… And yep, my face started swelling again a couple of days ago and so it was in full swing at this point… I still can't figure out what it is... very strange, I think potentially it is just the prolonged exposure to the sun/ wind and other elements?! I will continue to try figure out what it causes it as it isn't comfy...
Day 8 ~ Glen Geusachen to Aviemore (14.5 miles/ 23km)
Whilst the sun shone as we packed away our tents this morning, it would be short lived. We had camped just couple of kilometres short of Corrour Bothy so we made our way to the bothy to find it busy as anticipated since it is one of the more popular bothies, despite its tiny size. We stayed only for a short while before heading onto tackle the famous Lairig Ghru we weren't unfortunately blessed with good weather for our passing of the Lairig Ghru, instead we were met with heavy rain and wind but it felt like an
incredible place to be nonetheless, the vastness of the place is just something else….
The wind and rain finally ceased as we continued along the winding footpaths of the beautiful ancient forest of Rothiemurchus before eventually ending at our final destination in Aviemore! We had completed the 101 mile trail, through the mountains from Fort William to Aviemore with over 5000m of ascent, over lots of difficult terrain with challenging navigation, lots of heather and bog bashing, river crossings, pathless terrain, too many ticks to mention but very few midges to complain of! We were entirely self-
sufficient for the trail, carrying 8 days’ worth of food and everything else needed to survive... I finished the trail with one very swollen face and one trainer falling to pieces, Jims stove broke on the final day on trail and he burnt his pack cover in the process... but apart from that both myself & Jim were otherwise fairly in tact, just a little bit tired and a lot hungry! Hahaha!
What an incredible (and sometimes tough!) adventure this had been! Later that evening I would say goodbye to Jim and bode him well until our next adventure as he made his way back to Orkney and myself back down to Yorkshire...
Thank you for reading - happy hiking xxx
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