Knoydart is not what it once was. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries the population peaked at about 1000, far too many for the land to support. People left voluntarily, or were cleared out by the sheep- and deer-obsessed landlords. The population dwindled to about 80. By the second half of the 20th century everything was all but over as somewhere for ordinary people to live. The estate was by then owned by crooks who ended up in jail. But in 1999 came the Knoydart Foundation community buy-out of the estate that covers about one third of the peninsula. Now the whole place has busily recreated itself as the last wilderness in Britain, with the inevitable result. It is a honeypot for not just the real intrepids, but also the pseudo-intrepids who arrive by cruise ship. There is self-catering, even with hot tubs. However, this all brings in an income to support the population of about 110 who are now mostly incomers of one sort and another, along with income from the walking and mountain bike trails, ranger-guided as well as mindfulness walks (got the idea?), the shop, bike hire, photo-stalking with cameras as well as deer-stalking with guns, team-building activities, the bunkhouse, and the temporary-looking but fun sculptures there were once scattered around the place. The £6 million new-in-2006 pier must have helped all this to happen, along with a regular ferry from Mallaig.
So what to do? Use the well-marked trails and walk about in the lovely woodland of course, in among the native and foreign trees. Stroll to the campsite on the Longbeach. And of course visit the Old Forge which had become more of a restaurant than the cosy local pub it was a few years ago (ph 01687 462 358). The visitors in the summer vastly outnumber the locals and you need to book a table, but I am not sure how when there is no mobile phone reception. It bills itself as the most remote pub on the mainland of Britain, and I guess that is right. Sixteen or-so rough-walking miles from the road end, if you don't come by your own boat or the ferry from Mallaig, or helicopter. It was put up for sale in 2021, offers over £425 000. Quite quickly the local community raised over £250,000 and the rest came from the Scottish Land Fund. The deal was done in 2022 and the pub reopened in 2023. It is now owned by the community and I suspect they will cut back on the gastro and make it more of a pub, a warm hub at the heart of the community. Which is just how I found it in 2026 (child-and dog-friendly, do try the ice cream sundae!). There is also a small but nice tearoom with pottery (ph 01687 460191).
I have not been there, but across the river by the Longbeach there is an old burial ground at Kilchoan, with graveslabs and a stone cross, unusually with a hole in its centre.
If you don't fancy one of the pub's moorings, and want peace and quiet, then you can anchor further up the loch at Tarbet which is pretty remote, or just to the west of the moorings in Glaschoille Bay.
