About Eas a’ Chual Aluinn
The Eas a’ Chual Aluinn was the bastardized Gaelic name of what has been widely reported to be Great Britain’s highest above-surface waterfall at 658ft (about 200m).
The actual Gaelic name was said to be “Eas a’ Chuil Alainn” meaning waterfall of the beautiful tresses.
The guide on the boat who pronounced it “es-a-KOLL-a-LOO-un” told me a different meaning translating into something like “the waterfall of the beautiful Glencoul”.
Whatever the meaning and translations may be, it turned out that there were two main ways of visiting this waterfall – by trail or by boat.
As you can see from this web page, I made the choice to do it by boat as the logistics and uncertainty of the long hike to get to the top of the falls wasn’t feasible.
The Case Against Hiking to Eas a’ Chual Aluinn
From my pre-trip research, I almost tried to fit in a 5th night’s stay in Inverness.
This would have given me the possibility of doing a very long 13-mile out-and-back solo hike to get from the A837 road to the top of Eas a’ Chual Aluinn.
But given that I had already set out to do another long hike to Falls of Glomach, making Julie and Tahia wait another whole day without me just didn’t seem very practical.
Plus, I had been getting feedback from locals on the boat tour as well as in the literature that this was not an easy hike.
Moreover, it could also be quite dangerous as it involved scrambling around the cliff-exposed top of the falls to attain a better view.
Regardless of whether these claims were founded or not, in the end, I ultimately decided against hiking to this waterfall.
Visiting the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn by Boat
So in the end, we managed to arrive at the Kylesku Hotel (see directions below), then wait for one of the boat tours that tended to leave every two hours (10am, 12pm, and 2pm).
We happened to join the 12pm boat since we had just missed the 10am boat tour by a few minutes.
In any case, they wouldn’t run the boat tours unless there was a minimum of 4 passengers.
Fortunately on the beautiful day that we showed up, there was way more people than that.
Unfortunately, our daughter couldn’t go on the boat because they didn’t have life jackets small enough for her.
Moreover, the boat was too small to dampen out any choppiness in the loch.
So that was a real bummer, and it caused Julie to have to kill time with Tahia at the hotel’s restaurant while I went on the boat tour.
I paid about 25 pounds in cash to go on.
Description of the Boat Tour to view the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn
The boat tour began pretty much cruising about the Loch Glencoul where we spotted numerous seals (gray seals and the misnamed common seal) as well as some birds of prey that seemed to have been familiar with this boat.
We also spotted many mussels clinging to the loch walls throughout this body of water, including some mussel collecting infrastructure.
In addition to the wildlife, we also saw a few abandoned houses or farms in the remote ends of both Loch Glencoul and Loch Beag.
Surrounding these lakes were the beautiful landscapes that were revealed to us given the rare beautiful weather we had been experiencing on the day of our tour.
As the tour continued on, we then spotted a few seemingly significant waterfalls.
One of them seemed to have heavy flow as it was said to have come through a hydropower scheme before the high-flowing stream spilled into Loch Glencoul.
According to my maps
As we got to the end of Loch Glencoul and into Loch Beag, that was when we started seeing the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn Waterfall, but what surprised us was that there was a companion waterfall opposite the valley.
Although this companion waterfall didn’t quite have the volume of the more famous one across the valley, it might be fed from Loch nan Caorach so its flow might be more permanent than at first glance.
Indeed, overall this was a relaxing way to experience the stunning beauty of the Assynt Parish at Glencoul.
With the combination of wildlife, landscapes, a little history, and of course waterfalls, it had all the makings of a really great family outing, especially on a beautiful day.
I’ve been told that just a week ago, the guide did a similar tour under stormier conditions, and given the relative lack of shelter in the boat, he had to stand in the rain as the rest of the paying customers crammed near the boat driver.
Nonetheless, there was no need to do the very long and arduous hike to earn a closer view of the falls though I’m sure that could’ve yielded a more intimate and closer-to-Nature experience than doing the boat tour.
Now if only our daughter could have done this trip, she would’ve really enjoyed seeing all the wildlife.
Only then would I say it could very well have been the perfect spontaneous waterfall boat tour.
Authorities
The Eas a’ Chual Aluinn Waterfall resides near Kylestrome in Sutherland, Scotland. It may be administered by the Assynt Development Trust, but the boat tour was administered by the Kylesku Hotel. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit the Assynt Tourism website or the Kylesku Boat Tours website.
The boat tour encompassing the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn Waterfall began from the Kylesku Hotel in the village of Kylesku.
Driving here from Inverness involved taking the A9 towards Tore (a little over 8 miles), then taking the A835 (becoming A837) towards the A894 (about 74 miles).
Finally, we’d follow the A894 for about 1.7 miles to the turnoff on the right for Kylesku.
The Kylesku Hotel and boat ramp was at the end of the 0.3-mile spur road.
Overall, this drive took us about 2.5 hours.
Even though I didn’t do the long hike, I did enough research (in the event that I would do the hike) to tell you that the trailhead was at a hairpin turn on the A894 just 4.1 miles north of Ardvreck Castle or 3.8 miles south of Kylesku.
For additional context, our base of Inverness was 57 miles (90 minutes drive) southeast of Ullapool, 155 miles (3.5 hours drive) north of Edinburgh and 169 miles (3.5 hours drive) north of Glasgow.
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View of the waterfall from the Loch Beag on a boat tour
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Canyons and waterfalls (Eas a’ Chual Aluinn) July 25, 2016 9:36 am - Great report but the photograph accompanied by "This was some interesting rock formation near where I suspect the trailhead for the hard hike to Eas a' Chual Aluinn was" is about a quarter of a mile north of the start of the walk in to Eas a' Chual Aluinn. We always comment on this feature… ...Read MoreVisitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
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