Cape Wrath Trail food: resupply points and how much to carry

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars. Updated November 2026.

Quick answer: plan on 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day on the 230-mile Cape Wrath Trail and expect to resupply every two to four days, carrying four days of food out of Glenfinnan for Knoydart. The main places to stock up or collect a posted box are Fort William, Kintail, Kinlochewe, Ullapool and Kinlochbervie.

Key points

The Cape Wrath Trail runs 230 miles from Fort William to the Cape Wrath lighthouse on Scotland's far northwest coast. Most thru-hikers complete it in 14 to 21 days. There are about 15 places on or near the route where you can buy food, eat a meal or collect a parcel, but only a handful are real shops, and there are no waymarks and no formal trail. Resupply is the central planning problem, not pack weight or calorie maths.

You will eat at four kinds of place along the trail: village shops, hotel kitchens, posted resupply boxes, and what you carry from the last stop. The choice between posting boxes ahead and buying along the way changes what you eat for three weeks. Most experienced CWT hikers blend the two.

The Knoydart section between Glenfinnan and Kinloch Hourn carries no usable resupply for most hikers and is the section where walks run shortest on food. Plan four days of food out of Glenfinnan, not three.

Daily calorie demand on the Cape Wrath Trail is typically 4,000 to 5,000 calories. Wet days and the Knoydart section sit at the top of that range. Resupply points can be two to four days apart, so calorie density per gram decides how heavy your food bag gets between them.

You cannot post gas canisters through Royal Mail, and batteries are tightly restricted. Buy gas in Fort William or at the outdoor shop in Ullapool.

For broader fuelling principles for multi-week walking, see the Long-Distance Walking Nutrition guide. This page is route-specific.

About this guide

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix and the maker of Phoenix Bars.

This guide draws on the published accounts of experienced CWT walkers (Chris Townsend, Alex Roddie, Andy Wasley, Loz Wong, and the authors of the Cicerone CWT guide), recent walker reports on which shops and hotels are open, and the calorie-density and weight constraints of the route's longest unsupported sections. It is written for hikers planning their first attempt who want a structured food and resupply plan rather than a personal trail diary. I mention Phoenix Bars in one section near the end, with how many to carry.

Last updated: November 2026.

Why Cape Wrath Trail food planning is different from other long-distance walks

Most UK long-distance trails run on a recurring resupply rhythm. The West Highland Way has a town every day. The Pennine Way has a B and B almost every evening. The South West Coast Path has cafes you cannot avoid. You barely need to plan food beyond walking into the next shop.

The Cape Wrath Trail is structurally different. It is unmarked, has no formally defined route, and crosses some of the emptiest terrain in Western Europe. There are stretches where the next shop is two or three days' walk away. Some resupply points, such as Inchnadamph out of season and the café at the lighthouse in poor weather, may be shut when you arrive, and others, such as Kinloch Hourn and Oykel Bridge, are meal stops, not shops. The places where you can do a real grocery shop come down to Fort William, Ullapool and a handful of small village and petrol-station shops, plus a few hotels and the Kinlochewe post office that will hold a parcel.

The result: food planning happens at the route-design stage, not on the walk itself. You decide where you will resupply before you set out, you accept that some of those decisions are weather-dependent, and you carry a buffer for the days when the weather turns and you cannot move at planned pace.

The two strategies (and why most experienced hikers blend them)

There are two valid approaches to feeding yourself across the trail.

Buy-as-you-go means you stock up at Fort William before leaving, then resupply at the shops along the route (Kintail, Kinlochewe, Ullapool, Kinlochbervie). You buy what is on the shelf, you eat what is available, and you take advantage of pubs and hotel meals where they appear. It works well in summer when shops are open and stocked, and a delay of a day rarely costs you a meal. It is lighter on the spreadsheet but heavier on the trail itself, because you cannot pre-select calorie-dense items: you eat what the shop has.

Posting boxes ahead means you pack three or four resupply parcels at home, post them to walker-friendly establishments along the route, and pick them up as you pass. Alex Roddie's winter CWT account is the canonical example. The advantages are real: you eat exactly what you want, you can pre-select calorie-dense and dietary-specific food, and you sidestep the problem of arriving at a closed shop. The trade-offs are postage cost, schedule commitment, the fact that gas cannot go in the post, and the need to arrive while the receiving establishment's reception is open.

Most experienced CWT hikers do a hybrid: one or two posted boxes for the longest gaps and the dietary-restricted meals, plus shop-bought food for everything else. The hybrid is what I would recommend for a first attempt, with boxes posted to the Kintail Lodge Hotel near Shiel Bridge and the post office at Kinlochewe, and shop resupply at Ullapool and Kinlochbervie.

If you are vegan, gluten-free, or have other dietary requirements, lean toward posting more boxes. Highland village shops carry limited specialist food. After Fort William, Ullapool's Tesco is the only supermarket on or near the route and the safest stop for dietary-restricted resupply. If your itinerary cannot detour to Ullapool, plan to receive a box.

Where can you buy food on the Cape Wrath Trail?

Working from south to north, these are the 15 places on or near the route where you can buy food, eat a meal or collect a parcel. Only a handful are real shops.

Opening times and parcel policies change, and several of these are small family businesses that close early, on Sundays or out of season, so confirm anything you are relying on before you set off.

Fort William is the start, with full supermarkets and outdoor shops that stock dehydrated meals and gas. This is where most thru-hikers do their main shop. Carry food from Fort William through Glenfinnan to Kinloch Hourn or Shiel Bridge, and buy your starting gas canister here.

Glenfinnan has a café at the visitor centre for coffee and cake, but no grocery shop. Treat Fort William as your launch supply.

Kinloch Hourn has a tearoom in a famously remote glen that can give you a hot meal. Treat it as a morale stop: there are no groceries to buy.

Shiel Bridge and Kintail no longer have a proper grocery shop at the campsite, which now sells mostly chocolate and snacks and may only open in season. Kintail Crafts nearby sells basics such as tins, noodles and chocolate, and the Kintail Lodge Hotel serves meals and accepts food parcels, which makes it a good place to send a box.

Strathcarron has the Strathcarron Hotel for a meal. The nearest shop is in Lochcarron, a detour off the route, so most walkers treat Strathcarron as a meal stop.

Torridon village has a small shop and the youth hostel. Limited groceries, but enough for a day or two if needed.

Kinlochewe is one of the two best mid-trail resupply points. It has a petrol station shop, a post office shop that can hold a post restante parcel, and the Whistle Stop Cafe. Plan to spend a night here, and pick up your first resupply box if you are posting them.

Ullapool is about seven miles off the trail by road from Inverlael, so most walkers hitch or take the bus, but it rewards you with a Tesco, an outdoor shop selling dehydrated meals and gas, places to eat and a chance to rest. It is the safest stop for vegan, gluten-free and other dietary needs, and many hikers take a rest day here.

Oykel Bridge Hotel sits on the trail and serves meals to walkers. Treat it as a meal stop, not a grocery resupply.

Inchnadamph has a small shop at the Explorers' Lodge hostel. It is useful in season, but check it is open before you rely on it, especially in winter and the shoulder months.

Rhiconich Hotel serves meals, and it is worth asking ahead if you want to send it a parcel. There is no village shop at Rhiconich itself.

London Stores, on the road between Rhiconich and Kinlochbervie, is a small general store with a fair range for its size and a long-standing favourite with CWT walkers. It can close early or be shut on Sundays.

Kinlochbervie has a Spar, the last proper shop on the trail, and the Kinlochbervie Hotel for a meal. Stock up here for the final day or two to the lighthouse.

The café at the Cape Wrath lighthouse serves hot food to hikers who arrive when it is open. Do not rely on it: weather and season can shut it without notice.

Durness is the gateway home from Cape Wrath (or the start if you are walking north to south). It has a village shop and cafés. Eat as much as you can.

How much food do you need for Knoydart?

The toughest food-planning section on the entire trail is the stretch from Glenfinnan to either Kinloch Hourn or Shiel Bridge, crossing Knoydart, the most rugged peninsula in Britain. There are no shops, no reliable hot food stops in winter or shoulder season, and the terrain is the kind that turns a planned 18-mile day into a 12-mile day if the weather closes in.

Most CWT planning guides estimate this section at three days. Plan four. Carry four full days of food out of Glenfinnan, which means roughly 16,000 to 20,000 calories per person at 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day. In a calorie-dense format (nuts, high calorie bars, dehydrated meals) that is around 4 to 5kg of food. In a low-density format (sandwiches, fresh items, regular cereal bars), it is closer to 6 to 7kg.

Weights are approximate, worked out from the four-day calorie total, and exclude packaging and fuel.

Here, calories per gram decide how heavy that food bag is. Nuts, oatcakes, chocolate and calorie-dense bars sit around 450 to 600 calories per 100g, while sandwiches and fresh food sit nearer 200 to 300, which is the difference between a 3.6kg and a 6kg food bag for the same four days. Our guide to the best energy bars for hiking compares the popular alternatives on calorie density.

If you carry only three days of food through Knoydart and the weather slows you down, you will arrive at Kinloch Hourn already calorie-deficit, and you will spend the next four days catching up. The cost of the spare day's food is small. The cost of arriving at Shiel Bridge depleted is large.

Hot food and stove-free meals

Two CWT-specific factors make hot food disproportionately important on this trail.

First, the wet. The Cape Wrath Trail crosses some of the wettest country in the UK, and the cold that gets into a hiker is rarely the cold of below-freezing air. It is the cold of wet feet and wet socks at six degrees Celsius after eight hours of bog-walking. A hot lunch is how you warm back up.

Second, the bothies. The CWT spends more nights in bothies than almost any other UK trail, partly because tent pitching on saturated ground is difficult. A bothy is a basic stone shelter with no power, no water supply, no stove, and no kitchen. You carry your own food and your own way to heat it.

For most hikers, this means a small gas stove, with a canister bought at Fort William or Ullapool. If you want to cut weight and stove time, or you reach a bothy at the end of a long day too tired to cook, no-cook food earns its place: instant oats or muesli soaked in cold water, oatcakes with cheese and nut butter, or anything else you can eat straight from the bag.

Cold-soaked oats work the same way for a trailside lunch in driving rain, with no need to take the stove out in horizontal rain.

Midges and the hot-food window

From mid-June to early September, midges shape when and where you can cook on the CWT. They make stove cooking outside the tent or bothy unpleasant, and on still summer evenings they can make it impossible. Many summer CWT hikers eat cold dinners during the worst midge weeks, then catch up on hot food at hotel and bothy stops.

No-cook food helps here. A cold-soaked breakfast or dinner prepared inside the tent porch, before the midges find you, saves ten minutes of standing outside.

How many Phoenix Bars to pack for the Cape Wrath Trail

I make Phoenix Bars, so read this as the maker's suggestion. Each one packs up to 557 calories in a compact, 120g bar, about 4.6 calories per gram, which matters on the long carries between resupply points. They mix with water to make porridge, so a bar can stand in for a bothy breakfast or a midge-season dinner without lighting the stove (the method is in how to use Phoenix Bars). They hold their texture in freezing conditions, and they are vegan and gluten-free, which helps given how little specialist food Highland village shops carry.

The base recommendation is one bar per day plus two to three spares. For a 14-day CWT this is 16 to 18 bars; for a 21-day attempt it is 23 to 25 bars.

The 18-bar bundle suits a planned 14 to 16 day walk, especially paired with meals out at Kinlochewe, Ullapool and Kinlochbervie. Two 12-bar bundles (24 bars, £126) suit a slower 18 to 21 day walk, a winter attempt, or using the porridge as a second meal on most days.

If you are buying as you go and using bars only as trail snacks rather than as camp meals, the 12-bar bundle is enough for a 14-day walk. Concentrate them on Knoydart: four bars across four days through the hardest stretch.

Eat them across the day rather than all in one sitting. A quarter-bar every 90 minutes is roughly the right rhythm. For full guidance on intake across multi-day walking, see the Long-Distance Walking Nutrition guide.

Cape Wrath Trail food mistakes to avoid

Underestimating Knoydart. Three days of food is not enough if the weather is bad. Four days is the right answer.

Treating Inchnadamph as a guaranteed stop. The small shop at the Explorers' Lodge is useful but not guaranteed, especially outside summer. Check ahead or plan to walk through.

Posting gas. You cannot post gas canisters through Royal Mail. Buy gas in Fort William or Ullapool.

Banking on the Cape Wrath Cafe. The cafe is wonderful when open. It is also weather-dependent and seasonal. Have a meal in your pack for the final approach.

All-sweet trail food. By day five, sugar fatigue is real. Carry savoury options (cheese, crackers, salted nuts, oatcakes, jerky) alongside calorie-dense bars. Variety matters across two weeks.

Underweighting the wet days. A good weather forecast will not save you from a fortnight of Highland weather. The wet days burn more calories. Plan an extra 500 calories per day above your fair-weather estimate.

Skipping London Stores. The small shop between Rhiconich and Kinlochbervie is a long-standing CWT favourite and, with the Spar in Kinlochbervie, your last chance to buy food before the lighthouse. It can be shut on Sundays, so check its hours rather than relying on it alone.

Related guides

Long-Distance Walking Nutrition covers the broader fuelling framework for multi-week walks: calorie burn, palatability over many days, and the timing rules that prevent the day-three slump.

Hiking and Trekking Nutrition covers calorie demand for shorter walks and weekend hikes.

Wild Camping Food covers food planning for unsupported wild-camping nights, which the CWT involves frequently.

Lightest High Calorie Food for Backpacking ranks foods by calories per gram for hikers optimising pack weight.

Calorie-Dense Foods explains how calorie density works and what it does to your pack weight.

How to Use Phoenix Bars covers practical formats including the porridge method.

LEJOG Nutrition is the equivalent guide for end-to-end Britain.

Ultra-Endurance and Expedition Nutrition Guide is the pillar page for multi-day endurance fuelling.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories per day do you burn on the Cape Wrath Trail?

Most CWT thru-hikers burn 4,000 to 5,000 calories per day, depending on body weight, pack weight, terrain, weather, and pace. Wet, cold, and windy days raise the number. Days through Knoydart and across the Fisherfield section sit at the top of the range. Days on easier riverside or road sections sit at the bottom.

How many days does the Cape Wrath Trail take?

Most thru-hikers complete the route in 14 to 21 days. Fast hikers manage 12 to 14 days. Slower hikers and those wanting rest days take 18 to 21. Winter attempts are typically slower because of shorter daylight and weather delays.

What is the toughest food-planning section?

The Glenfinnan to Kinloch Hourn section across Knoydart. There is no useful resupply for most hikers, and the terrain is the slowest on the trail. Plan four days of food, not three.

Can I post gas canisters and batteries to my resupply boxes?

Not gas. Royal Mail does not accept gas canisters, and lithium batteries can only be sent under strict conditions, so check the current rules before packing any. Buy gas in Fort William or at the outdoor shop in Ullapool, and carry spare batteries from the start.

Can you post food parcels on the Cape Wrath Trail?

Yes. The post office at Kinlochewe can hold a post restante parcel, and the Kintail Lodge Hotel near Shiel Bridge accepts food parcels. Some other hotels and hostels will take one if you ask first. Arrange it before you post, allow plenty of time for delivery, and plan to arrive while the place is open.

Where is the last shop on the Cape Wrath Trail?

The Spar in Kinlochbervie, with London Stores a little before it on the road from Rhiconich. After that there is only the café at the lighthouse, which you should not rely on, so leave Kinlochbervie with food for the final day or two.

Is the Cape Wrath Trail vegan-friendly?

Highland village shops carry limited specialist food, so vegan and gluten-free hikers should plan more posted resupply boxes than buy-as-you-go hikers. Ullapool's Tesco is the safest dietary-restricted resupply.

Buy Phoenix Bars

If you have questions about food planning for a specific Cape Wrath Trail itinerary or season, contact me directly. I am happy to help with quantities, flavour selection, and resupply box content.

James Frost Founder, Flaming Phoenix jfrost@flaming-phoenix.co.uk 07990 519422

Sources: Cicerone guidebook to the Cape Wrath Trail; published Cape Wrath Trail accounts by Chris Townsend, Alex Roddie, Andy Wasley and Loz Wong; Royal Mail guidance on prohibited and restricted items.