The north and northwest Highlands - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 220

ACTIVITIES
Arisaig Sea Kayak Centre T 07858 214985, W arisaig
seakayakcentre.co.uk. Based at the Arisaig Hotel , this
operator offers trips several times a week in season for
all levels (day-trips £70 or private guiding £250 for two
people). You can also rent craft here (from £25/day) - a

superb way to experience this coastline.
West Coast Cycles T 07769 901823, W westcoast
cyclehire.co.uk. Rents mountain bikes by the day (£20) or
up to a week. Collect bikes from Arisaig Hotel .

ACCOMMODAT ION AND EATING
Arisaig Hotel Arisaig T 01687 450210, W arisaighotel
.co.uk. Enthusiastic new management has pepped up a
tired hotel since 2013. It now prepares a solid pub menu at
good prices plus Highland real ales on draught. A revamp
of accommodation (Easter-Oct) is promised. Daily 12.30-
2.30pm & 6-9pm.
The Boatyard Arisaig marina T 01687 450224. Although
more of a gift shop/chandlery than a café, this is a splendid
spot - with floor-to-ceiling windows offering mesmerizing
views down the loch - for coffees, simple toasties and baked
potatoes priced around a fiver. Mon-Sat 9am-4pm.
Ì Camusdarach Campsite Camusdarach T 01687
450221, W camusdarachcampsiteandbeach.co.uk. By

far the loveliest campsite in the area, its neat fields a
pleasing balance of eco-emptiness and facilities, all
spread behind sands so white they've featured in films.
A campsit e ca fé is promised from 2014. Late March to
early Oct. £12 /pitch
Cnoc-na-Faire Back of Keppoch, 1 mile north of Arisaig
T 01687 450249, W cnoc-na-faire.co.uk. Highlands
meets Art Deco in a hotel with smart modern-country
rooms of tartan fabrics, stainless steel and blond wood. It
also prepares breakfasts, light lunches and dinners, all of
fine Scottish cuisine: expect venison and sloe gin jus,
seafood pastas or fresh fish priced around £14 -18. Daily
8.30-9.30am, 11.30am-2.30pm & 6-10pm. £110

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE
The Road to the Isles is steeped in the tragic tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie is failed rebellion.
Having landed on the Western Isles (see p.294), he set foot on the Scottish mainland on the
sands of Borrodale at Loch nan Uamh (Loch of Caves) near Arisaig on July 25, 1745. He had
been promised ten thousand French troops to back a claim to the British throne on behalf of
his father, the Old Pretender. Instead he arrived with only seven companions - the “Seven Men
of Moidart”, commemorated at Kinlochmoidart by a line of beech trees (now reduced in
number). For a week he gauged support, then took an old hill route to Dalilea , on the north
shore of Loch Shiel, and on August 19 rowed to the head of the loch at Glenfinnan . At a
position marked by the Glenfinnan monument, the young rebel prince, surrounded by two
hundred loyal clansmen, waited to see if the Cameron of Loch Shiel would arrive. Without
the support of this powerful chief, the Stuarts' claim to the throne would have been folly.
Late in the day, Cameron backed the uprising with eight hundred men. The prince raised his
red-and-white silk colours, proclaimed his father as King James III of England and marched on
London. Only a handful of the soldiers would return.
If Charles's original visit to Arisaig and Moidart was full of optimism, his return was desperate.
By summer 1746 he was on the run, his armies routed at Culloden and a £30,000 bounty on his
head. Yet none of the Highlanders the prince called on for food, favours or hiding turned him
in, and his fortitude and bravery in those months earned much respect. Fleeing from Culloden
down the Great Glen, he passed through Arisaig en route to the Western Isles, desperately
hoping for a French ship to rescue him. On South Uist, Flora MacDonald extracted him from
a tight squeeze (see p.283), but still on the run he landed back on the mainland again at
Mallaigvaig , near Mallaig.
It was swarming with soldiers, so he returned to Borrodale , this time hiding in a large cave,
then fled to Lochaber, dodging patrols and hiding in caves near Loch Arkaig (see p.192) and
on the slopes of Ben Alder, by Loch Ericht (see p.150). Finally, some hope: a French frigate,
L'Heureux , was off the west coast. Charles dashed back to Arisaig and from a promontory in
Loch nan Uamh on September 19, 1746, half a mile east of where he'd landed fourteen
months before, he clambered into the French shoreboat. It was his last footfall in Scotland and
he died, an embittered alcoholic, in Rome. A cairn on the shore between Lochailort and Arisaig
village (on A380) marks the spot.
The best place to learn more of the prince's doomed campaign is on the site of his final
defeat, Culloden (see p.208).

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