Drove back to Glenbrittle for my last night in the hostel, got some good views of the mountains on the way
Saturday 19 May
Said goodbye to the folks I'd met at the hostel. I'd booked a hostel in Kyleakin that night and wanted to do a hill on the way, so decided on Garbh-beinn. Starting from the car park near Loch Ainort. It was a good walk with a bit of a scramble up to the narrow summit from where there was excellent views of the Cuillins
Black Cuillins
Blaven from Garbh-beinn
Cuillins from Garbh-beinn
on Garbh-beinn
The Knoydart Munros
After my week on Skye, where I had got up 10 of the 12 Munros, I took the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, left my car on the big car park and took the ferry across to Inverie. Had a pint and a pub lunch at The Old Forge, then set off over Mam Barrisdale and down to the bothy and campsite at Barrisdale Bay. Pitched the tent and enjoyed the fantastic views.
on the ferry to Mallaig
Monday 20 May
The idea of tackling the hills from Barrisdale was that I would do Ladhar Bheinn from the north side, doing a horse-shoe route with views of the Corries and some scrambling on Stob a' Chearcaill. Conditions were perfect, after the unsettled weather of the week before, I couldn't have hoped for better weather.
At the start of the walk there was the views across Loch Hourn, with Beinn Sgritheall on the opposite side of the loch
Loch Hourn and Beinn Sgritheall
Loch Hourn and Barrisdale Bay
Loch Hourn pano
Coire Odhar, Ladhar Bheinn
view from Stob a' Chearcaill
Ladhar Bheinn from Stob a' Chearchaill
Ladhar Bheinn
Ladhar Bheinn pano
Aonach Sgoilte
east ridge of Ladhar Beinn
Stob Coire a' Odhar
on Ladhar Beinn
view of Skye from Ladhar Beinn
Ladhar Beinn summit from the trig point
looking towards Rum from Ladhar Beinn
Ladhar Bheinn from Stob a' Coire Odhar
Beinn Sgritheall, Loch Hourn
Loch Hourn pano
Sgurr a' Choire-bheithe, Luinne Bheinn
I descended by the Druin a' Choire Odhair ridge and rejoined the stalker's path I'd followed on the way up. There was a beautiful sunset that evening with the hills aglow
alpenglow on Sgurr a' Choire-bheithe and Luinne Bheinn
sunset from Barrisdale
alpenglow on Sgurr a' Choire-bheithe and Luinne Bheinn
Tuesday 21 May
Packed the tent away and set off back up the path to Mam Barrisdale, then up to Luinne Beinn, was a hard slog up, carrying all my gear, and from the summit it was a long way over to Meall Buidhe.
I made something of a route-finding error low down on the descent of Buidhe, instead of coming off the ridge to the south and picking up a path that joins the track to Inverie, I took a direct line over marshy ground. Boots were soaked through by the time I'd gone through to the footbridge and track to Inverie. Worse was to come when I came to pitch the tent at the campsite and found that one of the fibre-glass poles had snapped, leaving me to use the tent as a kind of bivvy bag. At least I had a nice meal and a few pints at The Old Forge
Ladhar Bheinn from Luinne Bheinn
Meall Buidhe from Luinne Bheinn
Ben Aden and Sgurr na Ciche
Meall Buidhe summit
Ladhar Beinn from Meall Buidhe
looking west from Meall Buidhe
Inverie Bay
Inverie Bay from Long Beach
view from The Old Forge with a pint of Glenfinnan Gold
The next morning, I went back to Mallaig on the ferry, got back to my car and went for a drive to Morar and took a walk along the beach. Collected lots of Mussels and boiled them on my camping stove when I got back to my car. Managed to get hold of George (my guide on Skye) and arranged to meet up with his group to do the 2 Munros on Skye that I still needed to do. Then it was back over to Skye on the ferry and a drive up to the Sligachan campsite.
It was a nice evening to camp and enjoy the views of the Cuillins
The Red Cuillin
Black Cuillin
Cuillins pano from Sligachan
Cuillins pano from Marsco
Blaven from Marsco
Friday 25 May
Met up with George and his SYHA Munro group to do Sgurr nan Gillean and Am Basteir, it was another hot one as we made our way up the Allt Dearg Beag path into Coire a' Bhasteir. From the bealach we climed up a rock chimney onto the West ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean. From there it was only a moderately difficult scramble up to the summit.
We reversed the route back down to the bealach and then along a series of exposed ledges to the summit of Am Basteir
approach to Sgurr nan Gillean
Sgurr nan Gillean west ridge
on the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean
on the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean
Am Basteir, Sgurr a' Fionn Choire
ascending the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean
on summit of Sgurr nan Gillean
Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe from Sgurr nan Gillean
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| Pinnacle ridge of Sgurr an Gillean |
I'd now summited all 12 of the Cuillin Munros, and couldn't have done them all without the help from my guide, George. It certainly was money well spent and I'd fully recommend anyone thinking of taking on the Cuillin Munros the benefits of hiring a reputable, experienced guide.
After a celebratory pint in the Sligachan pub, I drove down to Armadale, found a place to stay for the night not far from the ferry terminal and the next morning took the ferry over to Mallaig. I'd got a couple of Munros in my sights, just along the road from there.
The Glenfinnan Munros
To many tourists, Glenfinnan is an attraction simply because of Harry Potter films, where they gawp out of the train windows snapping photos of the viaduct. The attraction for me was the 2 Munros at the head of the glen.
It was a long approach on foot along the track to Corryhully bothy, a bicycle would save a lot of time on this rather tedious walk-in.
The road in to Corryhully bothy
ascending Sgurr Thuilm
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Loch Arkaig and Gulvain from Sgurr Thuilm
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| Streap from Sgurr Thuilm |
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| Sgurr nan Coireachan |
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| on Sgurr Thuilm |
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| Glen Finnan |
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| Sgurr Thuilm from Sgurr nan Coireachan |
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| Glenfinnan viaduct |
The walk itself was fairly easy, it was another warm day and the views were splendid. Made a phone call to Crianlarich hostel from the top of Coireachan to book a bed for the night. Wish I'd have stopped to take photos on the road over Rannoch Moor in the evening light.
One for the road
On the last day of my 2 week holiday I left Crianlarich, and with the fine weather holding I decided to do a hill on the drive back.
Beinn a' Chroin, just to the south of Crianlarich, amongst that fine group of Munros was the one. I got talking to a chap who was on his 5th round of the Munros on the walk in.
I followed the path alongside the burn and up to Bealach Buidhe and ascended the steep west flank and traversed the summit plateau to descend via the long north ridge and down into the glen. Stopped for a refreshing lemonade at The Drover's Inn just down the road before the long drive back home.
That was it as far as Munros were concerned in 2012, I went trekking in the Écrins, French Alps in the summer. I'd only added 15 to my tally (which at the time was 110), but those problematic Skye mountains were in the bag
Autumn 2013: Back with a vengeance!
Since the previous year, it had been somewhat quiet on the Munro front. I'd had a week in March when I was in the Loch Tay area, but the weather was so poor that I did not get a single Munro done, just a few low-level walk was all it was fit for. The ensuing foul weather of that spring put me off the idea of venturing north for two weeks in May, when I went to Corsica (where the weather was no better, resulting in a gallant failure on the GR20).
Learning from previous mistakes, and taking sage advice from a seasoned hill-goer, I didn't make any definite advance plans - just drove up to Stirling for my first night and there I would look at the weather forecasts and take it from there. Booked in at the SYHA for 1 night, and having perused the forecasts, the decision was to head East, to Braemar and have a week in the Cairngorms.
I left Stirling on a sunny Sunday morning, drove north on the A9, turning off at Perth, then up the A93. Stopped at the Glen Shee ski resort and waited to be joined by a friend of mine to have a go at the three Munros on the Cairnwell.
Starting from an elevation of 650 metres, it doesn't take long to get up to the first of the 3 Munros, Carn Aosda. It's a nice walk past Loch Vrotachan, then up to Carn a' Gheoidh and following the rim of the Corrie to The Cairnwell. A very leisurely day out.
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| Carn Aosda |
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| Carn a' Gheoidh and Loch Vrotachan |
From Braemar, I drove along the A93 to Ballater, and up to the Spittal of Glen Muick, starting point for the circuit of 5 Muunros on Lochnagar. It was a bright, sunny morning as I headed along the track from the car park
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| path to Lochnagar |
I nipped up to the Corbett, Conachcraig. There were good views of Lochnagar from there.
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| Lochnagar from Conachcraig |
A bit of rock-hopping brought me up to the path alongside the rim of the Lochnagar corrie, I was in mist at the summit but it soon cleared to reveal the tremendous views.
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| Lochnagar |
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ridge to Lochnagar summit |
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| Lochnagar summit viewfider |
The hard work was done for the day, there are no significant drops in height to take in the other 4 Munros, and with the superb visibilty it was a pleasant afternoon's walk with a steady descent from Broad Cairn to the shore of Loch Muick and the track back to the car park.
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| Lochnagar northwest ridge |
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| Loch nan Eun |
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Lochnagar cliffs, Meikle Pap and Conachraig |
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| Loch nan Eun |
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| Lochnagar |
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| Cairngorms plateau from Carn an t-Sagairt Mor |
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| Cairn Bannoch |
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| Loch Muick from Broad Cairn |
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| Glen Clova from Broad Cairn |
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| Loch Muick |
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| Loch Muick |
I was joined by my friend Jac, and her partner Ronnie and we went up An Socach. Didn't get much in the way of views, but I saw a mountain hare
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| An Socach |
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| mountain hare |
6 from Glenshee
The day started with blue skies and sunshine, I drove up the Glen to see how much I could do before the weather deteriorated. It did turn out to be a day of 2 halves, the first half was when all these photos were taken. The 2nd half was in the fog and rain.
From the roadside it took little more than an hour to reach the summit of Carn an Tuirc. Rather like the nearby hills on the White Mounth, there are no big height losses in between these hills, so having gained the height, I went over to the 2 Munros to the East - Tolmount and Tom Buidhe. The clouds began to gather as I made my way to Cairn of Claise, and by the time I got to Glas Maol there was zero visibility, but I thought I might aswell press on to Creag Leacach while I was up there. It was raining by now. To get back, I walked back along the ridge to the saddle with Glas Maol, the traversed across to Meall Odhar, and followed the pistes down to the ski centre. From there it was a bit of a road walk back to my car, and drive back to the excellent welcoming Braemar SYHA to get warm and dry.
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| Carn an Tuirc |
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| Glen Shee |
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| Tolmount & Tom Buidhe |
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| Loch Callater from Tolmount |
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| Tom Buidhe from Tolmount |
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| The White Mounth from Tolmount |
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| looking south-west from Tolmount |
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| Carn an Tuirc, Carn of Claise |
After spending a few days in the comfortable surrounds of SYHA Braemar, I decided to head out to the wilds for a couple of days, and spend the night in my tent. The objective of this mini-expedition was to take in the Munros either side of the Lairig Ghru (I'd had a similar idea in 2011, but was beaten back bythe fierce weather), looking at the forecasts, I'd got a decent 2 day weather window for it.
Parked my car at the Linn of Dee, then walked in to Derry Lodge and followed the Glen Luibeg path to Corrour Bothy. I went inside for a brew, dismayed at the mess inside, left by previous visitors (the resident mice didn't seem to mind). Pitched my tent a short distance away from the bothy, then set off up the Lairig Ghru path towards Braeriach. I left the path after about 3km and crossed over rough ground in direction of the south-east ridge of Braeriach. It was easy scrambling on the ridge to the top of the huge cliffs of Coire Bhrochain and onwards to the summit.
The views from the third highest mountain in Scotland were quite spectacular, with the bulky Ben Macdui opposite and the ridgelines of Cairn Toul and Angel's Peak. It was now about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I had to traverse the ridge, over the tops of these Cairngorm giants and descending to Corrour bothy on the Coire Odhar path, arriving back at my tent not long before it went dark. Cooked a simple meal and had a restful night in the tent.
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| Devil's Point, Cairn Toul |
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| Lairig Ghru |
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| Corrour Bothy |
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| My tent |
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| Braeriach |
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| An Garbh Choire |
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| Braeriach |
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| Coire Bhrochain (Braeriach) |
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| on Braeriach |
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| Ben Macdui |
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| Looking down Braeriach south-east ridge |
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| looking across the Cairngorms plateau from Braeriach |
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Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine (Angel's Peak)
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In the morning I set off up the faint path alongside Allt Clach nan Taillear, rising steeply to reach the summit plateau of Scotland's second highest Mountain. In mist at the summit, so got no view whatsoever.
Took care from the summit cairn to descend the featureless ground to find the path down to Loch Etchachan. It was a lot calmer than it was here on my previous visit, in May 2011. From the Loch, I went up to Beinn Mheadhoin, with it's rocky summit tors. Good views from the summit, this is an area of concentrated high ground, with high Lochs and mountain passes. It's an area that deserves much further exploration, rather than just ticking off the highest tops.
Saw quite a few people on the way down, I descended into Glen Derry, a lovely walk that turned into a midge-fest lower down the Glen. Stayed the night at Braemar. Met some friends in Kirriemuir on the way home for a little excursion into the Angus Glens and an interesting walk to Corrie Fee.
I'd had a very productive week, adding 20 Munros. So, at the end of 2013 my Munro tally was up to 130
