Started at the Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm, 5:34am on Friday 11 September 2020.
Finished at the Cape Wrath Lighthouse, 1:09am on Friday 25 September 2020.
Total elapsed time 13 days, 19 hours, 35 minutes. Original schedule was for 15 days, so I was very happy to finish early in 14 days.
Solo, self-supported attempt. Carried all my own gear, base weight approximately 7 kg. Friends and strangers paid me brief visits on the trail on about four occasions (mostly to surprise me, based on tracking my GPS), but I was careful not to accept support of any kind, or to have them accompany me on the trail at all. I purchased food in towns along the way (generally carrying 0.5-3 days' worth of food at a time) and either collected water in towns or from natural sources in the countryside (only had to carry 0.5-1 Litre most of the time). On one occasion I accepted food from a stranger, but this was unplanned and therefore it isn't considered 'support'. I also deliberately avoided returning to my flat in Edinburgh, as this would have been considered support.
I did my best to follow the 864 km route listed at https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/scottish-national-trail.shtml
There were a few minor detours required (e.g. Union Canal repairs, diversions around forestry work), but all of these kept the length the same or slightly longer. Whenever I left the trail for food/accommodation, I made sure to return to the same point I left it to avoid missing any of the trail proper. I used a Spot Gen3 tracker with tracking interval set to 10 minutes. There were several times when it went for quite a while without successfully sending locations, therefore there are some straight line sections on the map.
Accommodation: 9 nights wild camping. 3 nights in bothies/huts. 2 nights paid accommodation (Kilsyth and Blair Atholl).
Comments
If anybody wants to know more about the trip, I've finally finished a detailed trip report on my blog at the link below:
https://stubbornlyoptimisticmatt.wordpress.com/2020/12/28/scottish-nati…
On Sunday 23/06/24 I completed the Scottish National Trail in 15d 22h 26m.
I followed the standard route from Kirk Yetholm as far as Glen Affric, then cut north to join Glen Elchaig past the falls of Glomach. I climbed to the bealach above Bearnais bothy and descended to Lair, picking up the forest track behind the station to the Cuilin pass. I bypassed Sheneval and took the Strathmulzie variation to the Old Schoolhouse, went round the back of Ben Mor Assynt, and cut the corner after Glendhu rather than heading right out to Kylestrome. At the end I took the wildest variation, over the Bealach Horn from Achfary and down Strath Dionard, then straight across the bog to Strathan and on to the Cape via Strathcailleach.
This route added up to 884.7 km and 19923 m of ascent.
My style was lightweight but not fully ultralight backpacking, base weight around 8 kg, and walking rather than running. I was self supported - in the earlier stages I lived off the land, then picked up a 3 day cache just outside Fort Augustus. A second cache at Inverlael was compromised by pine martens, necessitating a return taxi ride to Ullapool to resupply.
I came in just over 2 days slower than Matt Girvan's 2020 self supported FKT of 13d 19h 35m, but was fully 2 days faster than Graham Nash's 2015 supported run, which was the time that Matt was aiming to beat when he set out.
Matt's self supported FKT is a solid time and one that will take a bit of beating!
Gavin Macfie, Inverness.