Meallan a' Chuial

[rob munbett]

It was a bright warm morning when my friend,Chris, and I drove round from the Crask Inn to park on the A838 at NC357334 in a small space just past the stalkers' path in the gap in the forest (marked on OS map). The excellent path zig-zagged up the steep hillside and made progress relatively painless - except, that is, for the multitudinous cleggs which were biting chunks out of us! Despite these pests, it was worth a pause to admire the view over Loch More to Arkle and Foinaven.

On the stalkers' path looking over Loch More to Arkle and Foinaven

The track continued over the crest of the hillside and on to an exposed peat-hagged moorland. I commented that I would not want to be there in poor weather. Beinn Leoid and Meallan a' Chuail hove into view in the distance and we continued on until we reached the end of the track at a small cairn.

Meallan a' Chuail and Beinn Leoid across the peat-hagged moor

If you have a GPS with you, it would be a good idea to 'waymark' this point, even in good weather, because it can be a bit tricky finding it on the return trip. From here we headed over rough ground to the start of the ascent on to the broad NE ridge of the hill.

Meallan a' Chuail

Getting closer

It was a very pleasant walk up to the summit from with a few bands of bouldery outcrops to negotiate, but nothing tricky.

On the ridge

The airy summit was a great viewpoint, with the spacious vistas sweeping over to Ben More Assynt and Conival being the best.

Beinn Leoid from the summit

On the summit looking over to Meall an Fheur Loch (Graham) and Ben Hee

We sat for some time, just off the summit, enjoying the expanse and the silence.

Chris at the summit, looking over to Ben More Assynt and Conival

We headed off just as a shower came over but it didn't amount to much and we decided to visit the most NE top on the ridge and then over the best ground we could find back to the cairn at the end of the track. From here it was a pleasant stroll back to the car, the gentle zig-zags down through the gap in the woods easing the effects of the descent on weary knees.

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts