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Grahams: Meall Odhar, Fiarach.
Date: 09/11/2014.
Distance: 20km.
Ascent: 1065m.
Time taken: 5 hours, 50 minutes.
Weather: Sunshine, inversions, layered cloud. Cool and calm.
Not hungover this morning, but a serious lack of sleep over the weekend would probably be paid for later
. With the bunkhouse kicking us out at 10 and my bus not due until almost 5, I had plenty of time to fill. Nathan was planning a short walk up Meall Odhar to work off the last of the whisky fumes, so I decided to join him with a view to carrying on to Fiarach afterwards. At one tome I had hoped to do these hills as part of a long Cononish round, but that was definitely for a summer's day and they were just too convenient as a shorter Sunday walk.
We headed off shortly after 9 into sunshine and atmospheric cloud, following the path up through the old lead mine spoil tips.
Path through the woods from Tyndrum:
Spoil tips from lead mine:
The path zigzagged up, making the steep start less difficult, then continued on to Sron nan Colan. Good views from here, with the way on to Meall Odhar looking a little rougher.
Back to Tyndrum:
Beinn Odhar:
Loch na Bi:
At the next col we passed the second tiny reservoir, probably built for the lead mines, then followed a distinctive quartz rib to the summit of Meall Odhar. This was similar to the one on the neighbouring Beinn Udlaidh, although much shorter. It was a pleasant walk to the summit, much nicer than I thought it would be. That was probably based on it looking rather miserable a couple of years earlier when we had missed it out after a hard day on Beinn a' Chuirn.
Ben Oss, Ben Lui and Beinn a’ Chuirn:
Ben More and Stob Binnein:
Quartz rib leading to the summit of Meall Odhar:
North to Beinn Dorain:
Beinn a’ Chuirn from Meall Odhar:
North from the summit of Meall Odhar:
Ben Lui:
Alan Mountainstar had explained a route through the conifers into Glen Cononish in great detail the previous night and I even remembered most of it. Unfortunately it didn't help much, as we were going down, not up. We retraced our steps to the dammed lochan, where a faint path dropped into the trees.
The route down into Glen Cononish:
The path followed the bank of the burn down - a little muddy in places but not too bad initially. Then it got worse and there was a bit of a crash through bog and trees to meet the track following the Cononish. We also met a big deer fence right at the end. Pretty sure this wasn't the route Alan described?
Ben Lui up the Cononish:
Beinn a’ Chuirn:
Nathan headed back to Tyndrum at this point and I carried on down the track towards Fiarach. Great views back up the glen. The dry route involved a walk back to Dalrigh, but I could see a potential shortcut.
Cloud settling over Fiarach:
The Cononish looked crossable so I went for it. The boulders on the bed were annoyingly slippy, but it was a fairly quick crossing. Wet feet of course.
Crossing the Cononish:
After this, crossing the Allt Gleann Auchreoch was easy as I was already wet. I had heard mention of a sign at Dalrigh mentioning a bridge was out - I saw it later and it didn't look that old - but the bridge didn't look like it had had a deck in years. I was last here in 2004 and have no recollection whether the bridge was usable then or not.
Meeting of the Cononish and the Allt Gleann Auchreoch:
When was this bridge last in?
Once over I decided to make the most of the forestry track up the side of Fiarach...until I hit a locked gate. I could have climbed over, but it looked easier to follow the edge of the forest up onto the hill.
North towards Tyndrum:
Locked gate in Gleann Auchreoch:
Typical Graham country round here - heathery moorland, lochans and no discernable ridgelines - until I reached the summit, which is a very uncharacteristic transverse ridge with a miniature line of crags along one side. A nice spot, although the hills to the south were a bit clagged in.
Lochan Fiarach:
Summit of Fiarach:
I took a slightly different line back, dropping down to the track just before the railway bridge. Not really much in the way of paths on Fiarach, although the odd trace of one higher up.
Auchtertyre:
Ben Lui:
Strath Fillan:
Then it was down to the loop of old road where I picked up the West Highland Way back to Tyndrum. A pleasant wander back into town, although the noise of the A82 was never far away.
Cononish at Dalrigh:
West Highland Way back to Tyndrum:
Looking back to Fiarach:
I picked up my bag from the bunkhouse and wandered over to the Good Food cafe for a very large plate of fish and chips to fill up the last 90 minutes or so before the bus. I also bumped into Paul and Helen in here
.
The bus journey home was the shortest ever as I slept for most of it, not to mention a bit at work the next day
.
Cheers to Barrie and Colleen for organising a fantastic meet, and pulling out the stops to alter the weather from the rubbish forecast
.