Summery
A deep, fully featured canyon with high quality features throughout.
Canyon Descent:
120m
Highest Drop:
20m
Canyon Length:
750m
Minimum Ropes:
1X 40m
Flood Risk:
Extreme
Access Type:
Public
Rock Type:
Microdiorite
Catchment:
10km2
Duration: in, down and out:
IN: 25 mins DOWN: 3hrs OUT: 15 mins
Anchors
Mixed
Notes
This trip includes the tributary. carefully read the access map and topo before entering. Some drops have no anchors and shallow pools, check carefully prior to descent. Often the pools that look deep, aren't. The house located at the end of the gorge is very unfriendly towards canyoneers, please avoid contact and park at location shown on the route below.
Description
Approach by Car: lot's of parking available in the area around the parking pin on the route.
Approach by foot: Follow the road up until you see the obvious footpath left, take this until you reach the military access road that leads you to the start of the Tributary.
Canyon entry: Enter at the bridge, follow the bank downhill until you reach the first abseil, get in here to avoid the slippery scramble above.
Canyon descent: A brilliant canyon with some impressive features which, unfortunately is separated by lots of very slippery scrambling. Posiibly the slipperiest canyon in Scotland?
Exit: This canyon finishes when you get to the road bridge, Climb out TL.
Escapes: Some escapes possible however there are particular sections which are completely inescapable.
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Have You Descended This Canyon Recently?
If so we would love to hear from you in the comment section below! Let the whole community know more about this canyon, Information such as time taken to: approach, descend and exit are extremely helpful, as well as any new hazards you may have come across whilst canyoning at this location.
If any information on this page is missing, incorrect or out of date, please get in contact with us directly so we can rectify as soon as possible.
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability is taken for any harm, death or loss of property from using the information found on Canyon Log. Topo features, descriptions and notes may not be accurate and could be misleading. You must carry anchor building materials, be experienced and use your own judgement when canyoning. Flooding can completely change the layout, features and conditions. Insufficient experience may result in death.
Team of 4, medium water level – Tributary as well. Really enjoyable features in this canyon just sometimes a bit spread out with gorge walking – love the double drop! Few things to note…dead sheep in one of the pools around the long gorge walk before the double drop. Also there is a large tree in the bottom of the first drop (15m Jump) which makes it more technical with a smaller landing zone now. Generally quite a bit of tree derby around the gorge walk sections which is manageable in medium flow but could become more.probpematic in higher flows.
Also, the guy who owns the house told us we shouldn’t be in there upon exiting the canyon as it’s his water source. Doesn’t seem to be a particularly canyon friendly chap. To check levels at the bridge beforehand we pulled in at ipowerboat.co.uk place just before the bridge to avoid annoying the guy.
Descended group of 4, (15 mins in, 1.5hrs down, 10 mins out) Water felt low despite some rain earlier in the day. Stayed in the tributary until we reached the main canyon, all anchors are okay except for what has already been mentioned. Love the canyon just a shame there is so much slippery scrambling in between each element.
Descended 7/7/24 team of 3. Topo accurate, including trib. Bolts for abseil 2 in trib are a bit flexy and lacking much glue, especially seeing as it’s a hanging belay.
There is a bolt on river right for a guided rappel on abseil 5 on this topo, which is pretty wobbly, but it’s possible to use a huge jammed tree as the lower anchor. On Abseil 10, couldn’t find the bolts for the ab through the arch, but a couple of big logs are easy to use for an anchor, or it could be downclimbed.
The guy who owns the house nearest the get-out is a bit of a knob. Had a bit of a go at us for parking in the lay-by at his driveway end for 5 mins to check levels, despite us not being on his property or blocking it. Tread carefully so as not to upset this delicate little flower.
There’s a tiny trib to the main nathrach at 166629 on the 1:25k map, we entered river just downstream of this and it seemed to fit description well.
Fantastic canyon!!!
One of my favourite canyons in Scotland with plenty of fun features. 2nd time I’ve descended this canyon, this time was in relatively high flow.
Be prepared for some complex natural anchor building required on certain pitches at high flow. Don’t go expecting it to be fully bolted, as it is not. Some more bolts wouldn’t go amiss. You have got several slides and jumps with no anchors, so should the pool depths change/ no one in your team wants to commit to jumping/ sliding them then you may need to place bolts yourself.
Definitely recommend this descent to any experienced team.
Descended on 10/07/2023. Group of 5 mixed ability. Entered at the trib, water was moderate (At road bridge), some natural anchors are in need of replacing especially A3. Jumps are still deep! The path from the trib to the main canyon is all but gone, had some heavy rain which was predicted, by the time we made it to the section where the trib drains into the main canyon levels had risen significantly and was equal to the amount of water flowing down the main canyon. See water level indicator for reference.
Abseil 3 in the trib now has good tat on a tree on river left near the lip. Some older junk on other trees which probably wouldn’t reach the pool on a 40m rope