NAME OF RIVER: Allt a' Chaorainn.

WHERE IS IT?: A tiddly little tributary of the River Etive in, unsurprisingly, Glen Etive. It joins from river left about a kilometre below the biggest fall on the Etive.

PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: Complicated. From where it joins the Etive, paddle across (no bridge!) and carry your boats up the river left bank. When you come to a (fenced-off) footbridge paddle across to river right and lift your boats up to the path above. Follow this river right path up to the put-in, which is where the river starts an extreme increase in gradient with a narrow flume fall.

Another route to the river is described by Kris Waring...'We took a rather odd route last time, heading directly to the top of the stream from Right Angle Falls on the Etive. I think this meant walking a little further, but the gradient was much less steep. Basically, from the bottom of Right Angle Falls, you paddle out of the gorge and at the first available opportunity (when climbing the bank no longer requires considerable climbing skills) take out river left. Then head for the small forested area you and see in the distance. If you walk along the base of the forest area this will bring you out at the very top of the fun bits. This way, you are out of sight of the house until you paddle the last drop. We then paddled back down to the Etive which should be possible (if a scrape) for Allt a' Chaorainn to be running. This way the people in the house will barely be aware of your presence as you paddle past. Well, certainly less so than when you go ducking under their deer fence and tramping over their bridge. This worked for us last time around although you miss the last fall on the Etive.'

APPROX LENGTH: 500 metres.

TIME NEEDED: 1 hour including carry up.

ACCESS SITUATION: Unknown, but you are paddling through land belonging to the house beside the stream so exercise discretion. DO NOT go up in large groups, be sensitive.

WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Remarkably, this is usually on when there isn't enough water to paddle down the bit where it meets the Etive.

Billy Powell, Colin Hamilton, Graham Dawson (Spetember 2005)...'We've paddled this at levels where water is pouring into the chasm over the rocks on both sides. Everything still goes, but the lines on the first drop and pinball are flipped (the right side of Pinball was almost out the river and the hole at the bottom backed up). There is also a large hole on the entry to Ecstasy that needs protection, it has recirced swimmers and swimming the rest of the rapid would be... interesting. The chasm itself is committed to once running pinball and looks terrible, but appears to spit you out with down time galore (I re-broke my nose in it, but as usual I leant the wrong way!). Make a quick roll because the pourover below gets meaty. The runout at this level is however a pleasurable float as you gibber back to your car. This is the closest you'll get to Nowerigen or Californian slide paddling in the UK. Probably.'

GRADING: In low water it's just a stunt requiring little technical ability but plenty of bottle...but in high water it has unseated some very experienced paddlers I know. I have no personal experience of paddling this in these levels.

MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Exhaustion on the carry up. Elbow pads are not a bad idea.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Makes a nice end to a trip on the Etive. The first narrow flume looks dangerous but is remarkably smooth...like a playground slide! Then you descend a long series of steep slides through stoppers, great fun. After this you come to the most dubious fall...you'll recognise it, a metre wide entrance leads to an uncomfortable pin-ball fall where the elbow pads may come into their own.

Dan Heyworth 'styles' the final drop of the pinball fall (1 meg video)

The final fall is another narrow flume, a smashing end to the weirdest of rivers...do it before they start charging admission! If the level is low, you may have to carry your boat down to the end of the river.

OTHER NOTES: There must be more to this river upstream...anyone been up there? Anyone done it in silly water levels?

See Jay Sigbrandt's article on paddling it in freezing temperatures...

CONTRIBUTED BY: Mark Rainsley, also Kris Waring, Billy Powell, Colin Hamilton, Graham Dawson.

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