Well into their round of the Munros, Cathy and Sheila decided one May to tackle the three summits in Knoydart. And they thought they’d make it a circular trip – getting into Knoydart from Strathan and Glen Dessary, and leaving by the Inverie to Mallaig ferry.

The Scottish Hill Track route 246 from Strathan to Inverie is also a Heritage Path, its heritage being an important role in the 19th-century herring-fishing boom, when barrel-loads of fish were taken over it by pony from Loch Nevis to the head of Loch Arkaig near the Strathan road end.

They had decided to bring their bikes and use them as much as they could. And a friend kindly drove them and their machines along Loch Arkaig to Strathan. Very easy so far! But what followed wasn’t.

In Glen Dessary, they lost the path above the forest at one point and think they must have used forest paths instead, near A’ Chuil bothy. Sheila’s bike was stuck in a high gear, much too high for the climb to the 300m bealach. And, of course, the track was just very hard to bike on for most of the way, though once past the forest, they recall some lovely high, open country. With hindsight, they do think they noticed and enjoyed some traces of the 19th-century track on the way down to Loch Nevis and Sourlies bothy. They hadn’t read the background to it in the ScotWays Scottish Hill Tracks or Heritage Paths accounts (“Wish we had now!”).

On the whole, the choice to use bikes didn’t seem a good one, and they reached Sourlies bothy hours later than planned. And that mattered, because they weren’t overnighting there and then walking over the Màm Meadail. Instead, they’d booked to go on by boat that afternoon, sailing down Loch Nevis and round to Inverie, on Knoydart’s west coast.

Next obstacle, the Carnach river crossing.

Scottish Hill Tracks tells you the shore path from the bothy to the river is not for high tide. They realised this when the water reached their bike panniers. They took to the higher ground and reached Carnach, and its former old suspension bridge (labelled “at user’s risk” in an old Scottish Hill Tracks edition). They survived the hearts-in-mouth crossing and headed down the lochside to the pier.

The boat they had asked for wasn’t there. Two foreign hikers were also seeking the easier way to Inverie, and the four of them were lucky enough to hail and hire another boat, and reach Inverie by 7pm. Where their friends were awaiting them in the Forge!

Sheila and Cathy did their Knoydart Munros, and took another Loch Nevis boat trip to climb Sgùrr na Cìche as well. After four full days they and their bikes boarded the lovely Western Isles, and were soon at the Mallaig railhead. But not on the train! They biked, halfway and all the way respectively, to Fort William station.

And there the last heritage moment occurred. They were making for the bike-space on the sleeper train, but an attendant asked them to leave the stowage to him, because the space was jam-packed already. Packed, that is, with fish, harvested from the western seas and bound for the cities of the south. Just like the 19th century.