Allt Gleann a Chalais

The Allt Gleann a Chaolais crosses under the B863 Glencoe to Kinlochleven road, about half-way between the two places. This river is in the SCA Scottish White Water guide, 2nd edition, where they describe the lower section.

I came across it during a bit of corbett bagging up behind Kinlochleven, and walked down quite a lot of it, and took all the following pictures.

The SCA guide describes the lower section as a grade 4/5, and it certainly is. However the upper part is a very nice burn with continuous white water between grade 2 and grade 4, and it would be easy enough to get off before the lower grade 4/5 section.

It would need a bit of water in it, but it wouldn`t have to be huge.

I came down off Garbh Bheinn and met the river maybe about 1.5 - 1.7 km`s up from the getout at the roadside. Here`s what it looks like looking upstream at that point.

photograph of looking up river

Looking downstream from the same point -

photograph looking downstream

That is pretty much how it continues for the next 1.2 - 1.3 km`s or so - grade 4`ish rock slides and other features, and grade 2/3 bits in-between. It is only the last 400 - 500 metres that have the higher grade water.

There are some obstacles to be aware of - the first one is a small tree lying across the river - if someone just happened to have a saw with them.....

photograph of the tree across the river

Then it is more of the same - rock slides and grade 2/3 water,

photograph looking down on the river

until you come to next the two obstacles - a couple of undercuts both river left - they are not too easy to photograph I`m afraid, the second one is quite a bit bigger than the first one, and could be a bit of a problem.

photograph looking at first undercut

photograph looking at second undercut

Things start to hot up a bit, there is a drop that is a bit more technical,

photograph of another rockslide

and then you are facing into a nice wall - I guess you`ll get a good going pillow there, merged into the lower bit of the stopper caused by the drop.

photograph looking at first undercut

Another harder rock slide,

photograph of rock slide

before the river drops into a sort of amphitheatre, and the first freefall waterfall.

photograph of first freefall waterfall

If you don`t want to paddle this, get out quite a bit before it, otherwise you will have one heck of a climb up the steep bank of the amphitheatre.

Another 100 metre or so of grade 2, then the next drop - a nice staircase.

photograph looking at the staircase

Quickly followed by big drop number three -

photograph looking at third bigger drop

which doesn`t look too bad, except in this picture, you can`t see the rock wall below the grassy bank in the foreground of the picture - so you come whizzing down the waterfall and bash straight into the rock wall. Ouch !

After that it gets more hectic, more drops, some quite long rock slides, and the narrow slot described in the SCA guide. I wonder if it is actually wide enough to get a boat down.

One of the drops near the end is a dam made out of concrete, there are lots of plastic pipes around, so I guess it is the water supply for the caravan park along the road. When I was there, there was what looked like a steel cable stretched across the river just above and out from the dam. It would I think be a serious problem if you were wanting to paddle the dam.

Here`s the last drop, I can`t remember if this is the dam or if the dam is a bit further up.

photograph of the last drop

I took that picture standing on the bridge, so the whole last section is easily inspected.

That`s it - read the SCA Scottish White Water guide for more information.

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