The Silver Walk and Castle Tioram

This walk climbs a steep hill, crosses open moorland and returns along a rocky shore path which has one exposed section of about twenty yards. Good footwear is essential. You can only get to and from Castle Tioram with dry feet if the tide is out - so check before you cross to it. The walk is about three miles in total but don't be fooled - the terrain is hard so allow three hours.

From Riverview, drive out to the main road, turn left, cross the river and follow the main road for a few hundred metres. Where the main road swings right, go straight on towards Dorlinn. Park by the phonebox on the left, in the lay-by opposite the wooden house - if you get to The Square at Dorlinn, you've gone too far.

Cross the road, climb the stile and go up the hill. The pipeline was installed in 1947 to supply a fish farming venture. At the top of the hill, keep to the left of the lochan and follow a faint path, passing through the obvious notch in the hill at the far end of it.

At the next lochan, follow the left hand path and follow the track over the top of the hill.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey
Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with
kind permission of Ordnance Survey,

At the top of the hill there is a cairn, and ahead to the left the ruins are of Briagh, cleared of its population in the mid-1800s. This village was notorious for whisky-distilling and an Exciseman was stationed here in the late 1700s. Continue on the main path, which can be very wet.

Eventually you will come to a junction, marked by a small cairn, overlooking Loch Moidart, with a path running across your path along the hillside. Turn left. Follow this shoreline path, which is quite rocky: there is one exposed section at which the path runs along a wide carved-out ledge above the loch.

As you get towards the end of the path, it swings to the left and gives you a splendid view of Castle Tioram on Eilean Tioram ('Dry Island').  A well-known local story tells that after a quantity of silver was stolen, the ruling Clanranald suspected two men and one woman. He had the two men executed by hanging on the gallows hill south of the castle. The woman was tied to one of the rocks in the estuary by her hair and allowed to drown in the rising tide. The rock is still called the Rock of James's Daughter. In mid-Victorian times, a hoard of silver coins was certainly found in this area.

If the tide is right when you get to the beach you can cross to the Castle, which was built on an earlier structure in the 14th Century and became a Clanranald stronghold. Tradition has it that it was burnt in 1715 to stop it from falling into Government hands.

The future of the Castle is in some doubt due to a dispute between the owner and Historic Scotland - you cannot go inside but you can walk round it.

Return to the mainland and walk along the beach and the road, beyond the car park, then follow the access road round to the left and up the hill back to your vehicle.