Tag Archives: Scotland

Part 2: Maol Chean-dearg, 933m.

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Rain cleared before dawn. 12°C, building breeze.
Woke before 6 and fixed breakfast. Re-packing the bag took a while but I made time for sweeping out the bothy.
My sleep in the night was good but had a strange interruption. From deep sleep, my mind was penetrative by a sound. At first like an approaching steam train, all thundering and chuffing. The sound got closer to the bothy, the thundering deeper and deeper. And an unearthly grunting and chuffing. It was a herd of deer, maybe in stampede. I have been spooked by deer before, at Glenfinnan for example. Still wary of them.
Anyway, back to my ‘adventure’. I left the bothy at 8am and got to the bealach by 10. The climb only took an hour and a half. It starts over brittle, sharp quartzite. More quartzite, loose and steep, then to more friendly sandstone. Quartzite seems less likely to be consolidated by organic matter, and much looser on steep slopes. The summit is found after several ledges of pillow like sandstone. It has the best cairn I have seen. It has six shelters arranged like an asterisk.
The summit was a bit cold to spend long there. The strong wind saw to that.I met and chatted to few people on the way down, but I was definitely the first up.
Something caught my eye on the way back to collect my stash. The Mountain opposite. It lifted from the same bealach as MCd. But the curves, textures and shapes in the quartzite captivated me. The way the inclined layers blended into the bealach reminded me of those fascinating forms you can find in comes. I will have to spend a day with this mountain.
On the walk out, I took my time. The loch beneath the day’s summit has beaches. I couldn’t resist washing my feet in it’s pure, clear waters. Lovely.
The day drew to a close with improving skies and stronger wind.

Oban, at the end of the road.

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23°C, Clear blue and light wind.
Chased north avoiding the rain. Started at 09.15 and got to Oban at 18.00. No rush, it’s good to stopp a few times: one layby in Glen Awe, there is a marked walk in the woods to a very nice waterfall. Just what I needed when sat in the car driving for all those hours.

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The forecast has changed, it looks like the heavy rain has tracked east and gone to the other side of Scotland.

Beinn Eighe and the 3 buttresses

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Saturday, endless showers, 14C, strong SW.
Bad weather plus a desire to walk my last day means a valley hike. I went around the back of Liathach and snaked around the back of Beinn Eighe. The idea was to visit the corrie where the 3 buttresses are.
These hills are also sandstone of the same type as further north. It is layered in steps and terraces. Waterfalls usually fall in stages too. The one at the mouth of the corrie was swept back by the very strong wind. A smaller one further up didn’t fall at all sometimes. The water simply blasted into the air above.

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I had to crouch behind an erratic to get out of that wind and eat my snack. The socks I sat on were polished and scarred with striations. Strong wind sprayed water backwards from the waterfall as I said. That made the gusts even colder.
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I stayed there for a while, ate sandwiches and looked upon the scene. The cliffs had deep scars with conical landslides at the base of each.
The effects of cold air, spray and rain ended my time there. You can find photos mostly taken on the descent on my Flickr site. Showers became more frequent and heavier. Patches of sun did break through the drizzle. The stage was set for a meteorological special effect: low down a clear rainbow rose before the valley side.

Coffee, had a success with an idea taken from the German teenagers in Achmelvich the other day. I got this coffee maker for £8 that works on a gas stove.

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Good coffee.

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Suilven, the north approach.

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Thur,16C, light wind and breaks in the cloud mostly midday.
This very long day started at 9.30 with the three hour walkin through the Glencanisp estate. Most of the track is easy up to the turn. After, it’s very boggy until the lowest slopes. Then it was steep, very steep. More than 1 in 1 until the bealach.

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Suilvan looming

About this time, breaks in the cloud appeared, very encouraging.
Walking back felt hard, my feet hurt from three days of long walks with wet boots and socks. Long walks like these always run down my water supply. I had about four miles to go when the water bladder ran out. The day finished well, firstly the Glencanisp estate has spring water on offer for walkers from an outside tap. Then,
Lochinver has a very nice pie shop which does take-aways. The perfect way to conclude an exhausting day.
Tomorrow I head for Torridon.

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Kirkaig Falls.

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16C, fewer showers, lighter sky.
Morning, climbed the cliffs near Achmelvich in fresher sky with sun attempting to break to break through. I heard Shearwaters before I saw them skimming the wave tops. Still no sign of the Divers. Shearwaters are charming enough, the sound they make is so odd.
Afternoon, walked up from Inverkirkaig to The Falls Of Kirkaig. This walk had a dual purpose: one to see the falls and the other, to check the last part of the route for tomorrow.
The last quarter could be one walked in the dark if this went wrong. It’s good to get some familiarity. There was a problem though. On the north-west shore of Fionn Loch there is a gap by Loch Uidh na Ceardaich where the path runs. Except it didn’t.

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The water was so deep that the path was under 2 or 3 feet of water. I tried to wade in after stripping off to my underwear. Its was strange to look down and see my legs an orange colour. The water had so much peat that it looked like beer.
I backed off as I was not happy to try this in bare feet. I have to decide whether I make two crossings or carry my load all in one. Two crossings means three if you count the return to collect the second load. What if I take the lot in one, and I fall in- my camera and phone would be destroyed.
Sleep on it.

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Lochinver.

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13C, frequent rain showers. Not too heavy.
Visit the harbour, for food, coffee and get a weather forecast. Steadily improving, Thursday will be the best day.
There is a good cross-country route to the village and I decided to find another route north back to base. Wandering off tracks does not really work here. I found myself by a remote Loch then tried to turn west in the general direction of the camp. There was no way around the deer fences though. They are so high and gates were few.
I am used to waist height fences in Wales for the sheep, but these were over 8ft and wire. No way to cross those.
Later. A group of young Germans arrived and pitched next to my tent. It seemed strange since this is quite a large site and most of it is empty. Their tents were soon up and cooking organised. Then one of the guys climbed the rocks I had chosen to offer some shelter. What made them choose my corner was the rocks, but for a different reason. One of the boys pulled on climbing shoes and chalked up. Then he was all over the rocks. Such is life for the young. The group are friendly and speak good English. They didn’t keep me awake at night.

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Camp- Achmelvich

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19C sunny white, low cloud.NW wind.
After the storm, a respite. The sun is out and wind, dropped. A chance to dry out. I did laundry this morning so all is fresh (including me).
The journey brightened up in Assynt and some spectacular views revealed themselves.

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This picture was taken on kid northern shore of Loch Assynt. The plaque told an interesting story of the building, wildlife and geology.
North of Assynt, is limestone topped with quartzite. South is Lewisian gneiss topped with sandstone. Geologically, that is interesting because the gneiss is 2,000 million years old. On top is sandstone of only 480my old. That is a huge gap between, a discontinuity. Which brings me to..

It was not long after that Sulvain appeared on the left. The top just scratched into the cloudbase. There it was, set quite a distance from the road; this is a remote mountain. The walk-in is 3+ hours in any direction.
The ground between carries a huge volume of water in rivers and streams in spate, and flooding. All that from last night’s tempest.

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This camp in in a rocky inlet with a small white beach. The water is clear and greenish.
The ground is strangely empty. Later, a frequent visitor told me how the storm hit campers here. Of sixteen tents pitched, only one stood the night. Most left by four in the morning leaving broken, flat patches of coloured fabric in the puddles.
I thought to myself: would mine pass this test? Probably, I would say. It’s the big family tents that fared badly. That would not be a good night, the noise from buffeting.
Also, I am nervous about the high waterline. It seems rather close to my pitch.
Wish me luck.

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Tried too much?

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19C, showers, some heavy.
Break camp at Oban and head towards Glen Coe. The road along Glen Orchy is single-track through Caledonian temperate rainforest. Each tree is decorated with feathery lichens, any rocks were coated in thick velvety moss. These places are rare now, but still, the magic is there.

I was looking for a hike, the rain wasn’t so bad, more drizzle by now. But I failed after making friends with some pigs. So, drove on to The Bridge Of Orchy and decided on the climb on the opposite side- Beinn Dorian. At 1076m, it is about the same height as Snowdon. The top was in cloud and so was the approach along a ridge. It’s a shame because the view would get been stunning.

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You have to watch out for the false summit. The real one is at the second cairn.
Rain has been the big problem today, I took the tent down is rain and later, put it back up in an even heavier downpour, and it was dark.
Everything ran too late today, I got back to the car at about 8.45.
That screwed the plan to have a pub meal near the campsite, view stopped serving at 9.00.
So I cooked in rain too.

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Lille Ecosse

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19C sunny, SW2.
Arrived in Scotland, after a drive of 300 miles. The last 50 with a couple of young hitchhikers I picked up near Loch Lomond. They were delightful companions to share the journey with. Originally, they wanted Fort William, but later decided to travel with me to Oban.
I called this post Lille Ecosse because their guide book gave that name to Arran.

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Loch Lomond

There may be heavy rain showers tomorrow but I can’t check now with no signal in the tent. It it supposed to be the remnants of hurricane Berthe. But then it may veer away.

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Planning Suilvan

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Bought a map of Assynt in the far north west Scotland. In the contours and other symbols, there promises a strange landscape with that one steep hump dominating.
The remoteness means a long walk in, probably totalling 25 miles for the day.
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At least this week’s walk in the Carneddeau proves that my stamina is adequate.
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