Saturday, 9 May 2015

BOLYNE FALLS
Broad Cove Banks, Inverness County
46° N 12.624 061° W 20.987
UTM:  20T  E 627294 N 5118748


RIVER: North Branch Rankins Brook
CLASS: steep cascade
SIZE: 25'
RATING: average (***)

TRAIL: roadside 
DISTANCE: 50m
HIKING TIME: 5 min
CONDITIONS: moderate

GEOCACHE: none

NS Atlas Page: 12/W1
NS topo map: 011K03 (Lake Ainslie)



DRIVING DIRECTIONS: from Port Hastings, at the Canso Causeway, take HWY19 northeast off the roundabout, and travel 79.3km to the town of Inverness. Turn left onto Broad Cove Banks Rd (towards Sight Point) and follow this road, (which turns to a gravel road soon enough) 6.4km to a low point in the road where the North Branch of Rankin Brook crosses beneath. There is a nice little pull off just after the road begins to head uphill again.

TRAIL DESCRIPTION: these falls are just downstream of the road, the easiest path to the base of the falls is on the right side of the brook (facing downstream), where the descent is much shallower, and there are trees to grip to assist ones re-ascent.

These falls tumble down a steep 70 degree cascade approximately twenty feet, which then split around a bouldery outcropping and fall a further five feet over a fortyfive degree cascade. On lands that were granted to Archibald McIsaac, who after apportioning the land out to his three sons, this eastern portion was given to Donald McIsaac who sold it to Hugh Rankin (for whom the brook got its name). Hugh named his land "Bolyne", from which I've given these falls that name, in a fashion preserving the dreams and aspirations of the early Scots settlers to Inverness county.

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