Transportation to and from the Cape Wrath Trail
One of the biggest problems with the Cape Wrath Trail is its remoteness. Of course, this is also what makes it so very special. There's not one perfect way to get to and from the trail. But one thing is for sure: it can be kind of a bitch. Here is exactly how we did it with (mostly) public transportation, plus our recommendations to make it cheap and efficient.
*Caveat: we would have loved to try hitch hiking on this route, but alas we pre-booked. We did try it quite a few times on the Cape Wrath trail itself and were quite successful. It might be worth a go if you want to be adventurous!
Getting There
Most people will begin their journeys in one of two places: Glasgow or Edinburgh. We'll tell you exactly how we got to and from the trail beginning in Edinburgh. The journey is similar from any major city, even London.
Now, there's likely a few ways to do this. But this one was the cheapest and easiest that we could find.
We chose to hike the trail from NORTH to SOUTH. This is not the most common route, but we liked it for a variety of reasons that we outline here. The transportation that we go over will work in both directions.
Step one: Edinburgh - Lairg
There are two major options to begin the journey up north: train or bus. However, the train is a way better one in this case. The bus would require a string of regional journeys.
The train will be must faster and can be quite cheap if booked in advance. Trainline and Scotrail are two good places to start for tickets. Ours cost $43/£34 each and took 6 hours including transfers in Stirling and Inverness. It was actually quite enjoyable, and the scenery was beautiful when we weren't sleeping.
Step Two: Lairg - Durness
There's a very nice bus that meets the 12:20PM train from Inverness between Monday and Thursday. This will take you all the way to Durness. Make sure to check their timetable here, just in case it changes. Or if you're looking for a ride from to Durness - Lairg and you're at the end of the trail.
The ticket cost us $11.50/£9 and took about 2 hours.
Step three: Durness - Cape Wrath
Once you arrive in Durness, you'll have to wait for a ferry or walk for a few+ hours around the inlet blocking you from Cape Wrath. This is possible, but we would suggest the ferry. It's very spontaneous, though.
In theory it should run every day in the summer. You can check the website here, but when we arrived it wasn't following anything close to the same schedule. Our one-way tickets cost $5.75/£4.50 each.
Next you can either walk the roughly 11km to Cape Wrath or take the Durness bus, which meets most ferries. Information on that here. Tickets are $10.25/£8 each for a single.
We chose to walk, however. It was a nice jaunt, and it allows you to both save a few bucks and stop at Kearvaig bothy, which is incredibly worth it.
Getting Away
Step One: Glenfinnan to Fort William
The last bit of Cape Wrath either requires a hitch hike or a ferry. We did neither, and instead took a detour through Inverie thanks to Tori's bum knee. But that's a different story.
Check the Harvey map to see where the trail intersects the road if you want to hitch. If you want to make it to the official end, you'll have to catch the ferry. You can find more info on that here. Apparently it can be quite fickle and prices change often. It shouldn't be more than a few pounds.
Step Two: Fort William to Edinburgh
The trail ends (or begins, depending on your mood) at Fort William. It's much better connected than the far north of Scotland.
Here, the bus and train are about equally efficient and cheap. We took the bus, because we happened to finish the trail on a national holiday and the trains weren't running. We took a Megabus for $26/£20 with a connection through Glasgow. It took a little under 5 hours. Check prices here.
Updates or questions? Comment below.
