Around Coire Ardair

As the path curves westward after Point 3, you'll see the crags of Creag Meagaidh ahead of you. When well iced up, these create many famous winter climbs. On the right, they're bounded by a narrow pass high on the skyline.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

After the defeat of the Jacobite cause at Culloden Moor on 16 April, 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart went on the run in the Scottish Highlands. From then until 18 September he sheltered in caves and bothies (shepherds' huts) and in the open heather. He was often hungry, usually wet, hunted by redcoat soldiers and plagued by midges. His flight took him across the country to Mallaig, for an 80-mile (129km) journey by open boat in a storm to the Outer Hebrides. He came back to Skye disguised as the maidservant of Miss Flora MacDonald. The prince adapted well to the life of a long-distance backpacker, living for weeks in the same dirty shirt and greasy black kilt, growing a long red beard and learning to enjoy the oat bread and whisky of the country. In a bothy on South Uist, he out-drank all of his companions and then proceeded to intone a penitential psalm over their unconscious bodies.

In the face of the weather and a barbarous and implacable enemy, he showed not just strength and courage, but good humour as well. He made jokes with Flora MacDonald – 'they'll never guess what I've got hidden up my skirts' (it was a pistol).

The prince came to know Scotland like no monarch before or since, and at the same time, Scotland's people – from clan chieftains to crofters and fishermen, and even outlaws like the Seven Men of Glenmoriston. Despite a price on his head of £30,000, equivalent to more than a lottery jackpot of today, not one of them betrayed him.

Back on the mainland, in July he was encircled by Hanoverian soldiers, but slipped between two sentries in the dark. By mid-August the manhunt had been abandoned. Soon afterwards he heard of a French boat waiting near Mallaig. Travelling away from the main roads, on 18 September he passed along the route of the walk, up to Coire Ardair and then through the high pass alongside Creag Meagaidh into the empty country around Glen Roy. That pass is called Uinneag Coire Ardair. Translating it into English we can say that Prince Charlie left Scotland through the Window.

A new path runs alongside the grey gravel track, leading to Aberarder farm. Here there's an information area and a bench under a roof. Pass to the right of the buildings on to a rebuilt path.

The well-built path rises through bracken, then crosses a boggy area to reach a junction with an interpretation board. The path to the right heads up the valley of Allt Coire Ardair, keeping a little way up the right-hand side, becoming steeper as it ascends through an area of regenerating birch trees. Now the crags of Coire Ardair come into sight ahead. The path crosses many small streams – here it is still being reconstructed. 

As the valley bends towards the cragged corrie, the path bends left, slightly downhill, to join the main river. Tiny rowan trees can be seen attempting to regenerate among the heather. Wild flowers in the boggy ground include the pink or white pyramids of the heath spotted orchid (the leaves have the spots). The path winds gently near the stream, then suddenly to the outflow of Lochan a'Choire.

This time turn right, on a wide gravel path that runs close to the Allt Coire Ardair stream. A footbridge on the right lets you admire the small waterfall underneath, but don't cross it. Continue on the main path until it veers left through a gate; here fork right on a smaller path. This runs on duckboards through a swampy wood to a junction. The left fork is the shorter way back to the path near the walk start, with the car park nearby on the right.