Salachan, WigWam and Oranges

The Salachan Burn and the WigWam Burn are two Scottish Creeks which you might not have paddled, but really should. Following a couple of sweet runs with Thom Brown I thought I’d do a quick rough guide for those who aren’t in the know. Both are grade 4/5, but there’s nothing too stressful if the flow is sensible.

The Salachan is located about 5 minutes drive south of the village of Duror on the Glencoe to Oban road (about 10 mins from the Ballachulish bridge turnoff). It needs quite a bit of water so looking over the road bridge there should be enough flow to get down the main channel without scraping off any rocks. If it was super high (completely covering the entire river bed upstream of the bridge) then it would be fast and scary with big holes everywhere and no eddies….

You can park up at the bottom of the private track which leads up beside river left. Walk up for about a kilometre and a half until you reach a fork in the road, there should now be an open grassy area to your left. Walk down and put on to a short grade 3 warm up and after 70 metres or so you’ll be at the top of one of the coolest drops in Scotland. It’s a pretty easy line at a low flow, but would get pushy high and could feel shallow if you don’t boof (Gr5): enjoy the rare feeling of complete disconnection and freefall!

After this the difficulty of the river will be entirely dependent on the flow, but is generally good 3-4 which can almost all be run from the boat. There’s a big horizon line which is a fun 15ft slide followed by pool then a fast flume into a sweet parabola boof off a 3 metre drop. This is all good and easy at low/med flow, but would get very serious at high flow.

After this you’ve got another section of good G3/4 action which all goes well- mostly from the boat. There are a couple of trees and the odd dodgy looking boulder trap to avoid, but it’s all good if you’re upright and in control. The get out is on the left where you will spot the track that you walked up winding along above the riverbank.

Next up is the Allt Auchtertyre or WigWam Burn which flows into the north side of the glen between Tyndrum and Crianlarich (opposite the Connonish). Coming from the south take the right hand turn immediately after the bridge over the Connonish (sign for wigwams) and follow the track to a large parking area. Looking over the bridge the rock beneath the downstream side should be completely covered and forming a reasonably chunky hole. If you don’t think you can run this rapid then maybe the rest of the river won’t be for you…

Walk up the track which follows river right. It’s probably a good idea to stop at the top of the first hill and bash your way to the river to check out a big fall, “Spit Roaster”. It’s big and gnarly and may require a portage although it has been run at a good flow (but not tremendously successfully!). If it’s very low then this drop would be an excellent park and huck…

Carry on walking until you reach a stile above the point at which the river splits. The bigger river, on river left, has got some cool slabby stuff to be explored and is more worth it than it might look. Otherwise it’s probably best to put on below the ‘Destroyer’, a grinding, churning hole which is immediately after the meeting of the two streams.

Some good grade 4 boofs for 100 metres lead to an obvious horizon line which can be inspected on river right. “The Lamb Fondler” is definitely one of my favourite drops and seems to go nicely at most reasonable flows. I’ll let you decide the line, but it’s pretty obvious that you don’t want to go left on the bottom ramp… The short gorge that follows is turbo, but has a few trees to avoid and a good face shot from a river left waterfall if the river is high.

After this there’s a kilometre of awesome grade 3/4 which all goes sweetly. It flows through a reasonably gentle sided and escapable gorge which makes for easy scouting and portage if necessary. There’s a great drop and hole under the railway bridge then a 2/3 section until the Spit Roaster breakout. The bit from the big drop downwards is a “Stay Left” boulder affair until you reach the rapid under the bridge. Take out river right and be careful not to damage the fence. Enjoy!!

The stills have been taken from footage which I am collecting for “Sneaky Freaky Creeky”, a Scottish boating film. It’s going to be a while coming, but it’s going to be radical!

Dave B