Instruction 1
From the car park a track runs out, signed for Ardintoul and Totaig. It ascends gently through two gates and then goes through a third into a plantation. With high power lines just above, the track then forks. Go left, downhill, passing an arrow painted on a rock. The track runs between the feet of a tall pylon and then climbs again to contour through a birch wood. It runs in and out of a tiny stream gorge, then gently descends towards the shore. On the other side of Loch Alsh, the white houses of Balmacara are directly ahead.
Instruction 2
Along the shoreline, the track veers off into an open field strip. Continue along the short cropped grass next to the shingle beach, passing a salmon farm just offshore. When the trees start to run down to the sea, a green track runs next to the shore. It passes below a small crag with birches to reach open flat ground near Ardintoul Farm. Continue along the shore, outside field walls, and sometimes taking to the stripy schist shingle, towards a square brick building on the point ahead. Just before reaching it you come to a wall gap. Here a track that's simply a pair of green ruts runs directly inland. It joins a gravel track, where you turn left to pass sheds and a house to regain the shoreline at Ardintoul.
Instruction 3
The track runs along the shoreline, then turns inland to climb the hill behind. Below on the left, the Allt na Dalach runs into Loch Alsh, with a beautifully clear example of a gravel spit where river debris runs into tidal water. The track enters plantations, crosses a stream and bends right to complete its climb to the Bealach Luachrach.
Instruction 4
Continue downhill on the unsurfaced road, which reaches the tarred public road, a mile (1.6km) north of Glenelg village. A grassy verge between road and sea leads back to the ferry pier.