About Rogie Falls
Rogie Falls (pronounced “ROH-ghee”) was actually a bonus waterfall that Julie and I hadn’t even counted on seeing when we made plans to visit Scotland in August 2014.
In fact, we didn’t even know it existed as this seemingly well-known waterfall somehow eluded us in our trip research!
However, that all changed after we noticed mention about it both in the local literature and by word-of-mouth from local Scots during our travels throughout Scotland.
We also saw a road sign for it while making the long drive to Durness from Inverness.
So I guess you can say that all of this serendipitous reinforcement ultimately got us to pursue Rogie Falls, especially since we had some spare time to do it on our last full day staying in Inverness.
Rogie Falls and Salmon
Apparently, the claim to fame of this roughly 30ft waterfall on the river Black Water was that it was a well-known route of salmon making the arduous swim from the North Sea towards spawning grounds in this part of the river.
A salmon ladder was built to make it easier for salmon to continue their journey further upstream to lay eggs or to spawn.
Such ladders were basically an alternate man-made watercourse with less severe drops running alongside the main cascade (something we had seen a lot of in Norway).
I wasn’t fortunate enough to see any of the salmon do their thing even though I was well within the typical July-September spawning run.
However, the scenery here was quite nice as well.
The Rogie Falls Experience on the Salmon Trail
From the well-signed and fairly spacious car park (see directions below), I took the short Salmon Trail, which was said to be only a half-mile circuit.
I walked the circuit in a clockwise manner since it wasn’t very obvious at first how to do the trail going in the other direction.
The path was a pleasant nature walk partially shaded amongst the trees of the Forest of Ross as it eventually went downhill towards the banks of Black Water.
It was barely 10-15 minutes before I ultimately was able to see the Rogie Falls as well as the suspension bridge spanning Black Water.
As I was walking the bouncy suspension bridge, that was when I noticed there was a gate in the middle of it.
Behind the gate was a path leading down closer to the salmon ladder, which was right next to and below the far side of the suspension bridge.
I had to be careful here as there were some exposure to dropoffs plunging right into the river.
When I had my fill of taking frontal photos of Rogie Falls from the suspension bridge, I then returned back across the suspension bridge to continue along a rocky and not-so-obvious path hugging some fencing along the Black Water River.
After another 5-10 minutes, I then found myself at a more distant lookout called the Raven’s Crag.
This lookout allowed me to look back at Rogie Falls fronted by the suspension bridge.
The rest of the walk was gently uphill, and before I knew it, I was back at the car park from its southern end.
Overall, I spent about 50 minutes away from the car, but I took my time taking photos and just enjoying the nature walk.
Therefore, the time commitment here could easily be as little as 20-30 minutes.
Authorities
Rogie Falls resides near Contin in the Ross-shire, Scotland. It is administered by Forestry and Land Scotland. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
To drive to Rogie Falls from Inverness, I took the A9 roughly 6-7 miles over the Beauly Firth to the roundabout with the A835 road near Tore.
Going left onto the A835, I continued about another 13.5 miles to the well-signed car park on the right for Rogie Falls.
This car park was about 1.6 miles past the town of Contin and nearly 8 miles past the A835/A862 junction at Maryburgh.
This drive took me roughly 35 minutes (including some rush hour traffic in Inverness).
For some geographic context, our base of Inverness was 65 miles (about 90-120 minutes drive) northeast of Fort William, 155 miles (3.5 hours drive) north of Edinburgh and 169 miles (3.5 hours drive) north of Glasgow.
Find A Place To Stay
Left to right sweep of the falls following along Black Water before ending towards the suspension bridge spanning the river
Sweep of the falls as seen from the suspension bridge spanning the Black Water before ending with a sweep of the salmon ladder
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
