"Rough Bounds"
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-> "Rough Bounds"
The remote and sparsely-populated southwest corner of the Highlands, from the empty district of Morvern to the isolated peninsula of Knoydart, is a dramatic, lonely region of mountain, moorland and almost deserted glens fringed by a coast of stunning white beaches, with wonderful views to Mull and Skye. Its Gaelic name, Garbh-chiochan, translates as the "Rough Bounds", implying a region geographically and spiritually apart. Even if you have got a car, you should spend a few days here exploring on foot; there are so few roads that some determined hiking is almost inevitable.
The southwest Highlands' main road is the A830, often described as "the Road to the Isles", which winds in tandem with the rail line through the glens from Fort William to the road- and rail-head at Mallaig, a busy fishing port with ferry connections to Skye. Along the way, the road passes Glenfinnan, the much-photographed spot at the head of stunning Loch Shiel where Bonnie Prince Charlie gathered the clans to start the doomed Jacobite uprising of 1745. There are regular buses and trains along the main road; elsewhere in the region you'll usually have to rely on daily post- or schoolbuses. If you have your own transport, the five-minute ferry crossing at Corran Ferry (every 15min; foot passengers and bicycles go free), a nine-mile drive south of Fort William down Loch Linnhe, provides a more direct point of entry for Morvern and the rugged Ardnamurchan peninsula.
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