Description
Approach by Car: Park in one of the lay by's on the road, ensuring you don't obstruct gateways, footpaths and the road. Use the route card to see the best locations. from your vehicle, head towards the start of the canyon, We strongly recommend rigging escape ropes if you have any doubts about the weather / team ability as it is completely inescapable inside.
Canyon entry: An abseil is required to enter the gorge, Use the shape ion the river to work out where you should enter, ideally you will enter at a bend on the river with a large bank be aware of the loose rock as you abseil in.
Canyon descent: All the drops are below 15m, expect around 10-11 pitches in total (some can be jumped). Features inside the canyon are always changing, some of the log jams will move after each flood. expect to find false floors and loose rock.
Exit: Canyon walls will end and you'll be able to climb the ladder on the TL to escape, climb out here and head back to wherever you parked.
Escapes: not possible until the end, escape ropes are highly recommend.
External – Descended on 23rd May 2023. Group of 3, 5hrs descent time. “We left the entry rappel in place and retrieved later. The log jams made for a strenuous day out, and the high flow required a lot of caution in sections. We slung logs a few times for anchors. Seems to be a more recent large tree down in the canyon toward the end. The exit ladder is damaged (by a downed tree), but still easy to exit. Cold and tiring, but beautiful and challenging. Don’t underestimate this canyon.”
Attempted to descend on the 3/9/2023. Unfortunately after getting in the river we assessed the conditions to be too high to make a safe descent. There is a large volume of water that passes through this gorge with multiple log jams throughout. For reference the River level at Alness was 0.45m at the time. We had no rain in the 4 days leading up to the attempted descent. Photos have been taken by abseiling in multiple different points in the gorge.