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A bit of a comedown, this outing, to be honest
. I had a couple of days off work in late November, and had the Thursday free for a walk. Plan A had been to take the early train to Corrour and tick off Beinn na Lap, which I still had to do, but for train connection reasons that didn't work out. Plan B was then to drop my wife off at her work so I had the car for the day, and do Cruach an t-Sidhean, the only one of the Luss Grahams I hadn't done yet ... but after sitting in stationary traffic between Milngavie and Clydebank for fifteen minutes, I gave up on that idea too, and headed up the A81 from Milngavie instead. However, as I didn't want to have to go back to the hoose to get a different map, I was committed to OS Landranger 56 territory, which didn't leave me many options. Now, I'd a vague recollection of having seen an intriguing walk report a while ago (by Johnny Corbett it was) where he'd done Cruinn a'Bheinn with a couple of nearby S2K Marilyns, Beinn Uamha and Beinn Dubh. I didn't think there was any way I'd get round all three with a late start at this time of year, but I thought I could at least have a look at Beinn Uamha and maybe Cruinn a'Bheinn too if I was making good time.
In the end, needless to say, I only ended up with the S2K Marilyn Beinn Uamha in the bag, which was a bit of a let-down after Plan A of a Munro
- ah well, best laid plans and that.
I've had my eye on this wee hill for a while, however, given the walkhighlands website's irresistible description of it as "steep, rough but undistinguished"
! I'd have to say that it didn't disappoint on any of these three counts.
I started from the B829 just a bit east of Stronachlachar, where there is an off-road parking area just at the bottom of the line of pylons that runs south from the road towards the Beinn Uamha / Beinn Dubh bealach. Beinn Uamha was looking a craggy and fairly well defined wee brute from the car park - more "distinguished" than I'd expected!
There was a good view west to the Alps, too.
From the parking area, a very squelchy ATV track led up to the south, broadly following the line of the pylons. It was fairly steep alright, but not as rough as I'd feared. There was a nice cloud inversion looking back down north into Glen Arklet.
Loch Arklet itself was just a bit further over to the west.
Eventually, the ATV track petered out around the bealach with Mhaim na Carn, a rounded hump to the east, which is just north of Lochan Mhaim na Carn. From here, a line of fencing cut up onto Beinn Uamha's rather steep and rough east ridge, providing an obvious line of ascent. There were even traces of a path to the right of the fence.
The going remained fairly steep and rough - no surprises there - although there were not entirely undistinguished views across Glen Arklet towards the hills around Loch Katrine and the Crianlarich Munros to the north.
There was also a nice outlook over Lochan Mhaim nan Carn immediately below.
A bit higher again, the summit environs came into view - but the Clag was clearly chasing me up Uamha's slopes, and it was touch and go who was going to make it to the top first.
I pressed on up the east ridge of what had by now morphed in my mind into "Beinn Whammer" (although I think the true Gaelic pronunciation is something more like "Beinn Guava"
). The final summit environs are flattish, and the true summit is a bit to the east of the line of fencing, which I therefore had to climb in a not very gainly manner
. However, I did make it to the summit just before the Clag got there. The Whammer has a surprisingly fine summit panorama. Ben Lomond looked impressive to the south-west, its summit roiling in cloud, continually appearing and then disappearing again.
Another pleasing vista towards the Crianlarich hills to the north.
Ben Lomond's summit just breaking free of the clouds now:
And a view westwards towards the Arrochar Alps:
So far, I had done not too bad for time, and I wondered if I might just manage to include Cruinn a'Bheinn too. On the map, the best route to combine the two appeared to be a long trek westwards along the Whammer's undulating west ridge, to cut down southwards just west of Maol a'Chapuill to reach the Uamha/Cruinn bealach. Well, that looked fine on the map, but I hadn't realised that the Whammer was about to show its truly undistinguished side
... That long undulating west ridge featured a variety of rough and unpleasant terrain. Firstly, there were some fairly substantial crags to be negotiated by means of steep grassy ramps in the vicinity of GR378072 - this would have been straightforward in clear weather but was altogether more "entertaining" given that the Clag had now arrived with a vengeance. Next, once I got down onto the Whammer's west ridge proper, it turned out to not to be the merry romp that I'd anticipated, but really nothing more than a prolonged elevated Peat Bog. This was a particularly funsome bit:
As was this...
I made slow going of it, and it was a relief to finally reach the top of the burn at GR357075 that should hopefully give me an easy line southwards through the Clag towards the track running east-to-west down Gleann Gaoithe.
As I emerged through the Clag, the lower slopes of Cruinn a'Bheinn were hazily visible through the cloud. It really didn't look that much further from here, and if I'd had more daylight available this would have been a perfectly feasible approach, but given my late start and slow progress along the Whammer's west ridge, I was clearly out of time today
.
Gleann Gaoithe isn't entirely unscenic, all the same, and I did get some nice hazy views on the trudge back eastwards along the track.
Eventually the line of pylons (the southwards continuation of the ones at the start of my route) became visible through the Clag, so I left the track to head northwards towards them.
Yet more rough, boggy, undistinguished terrain - it was a bit of a trudge, to be honest, although there were some impressive views of the Whammer's surprisingly craggy eastern face.
"The name's Beinn Uamha, Ladies & Gentlemen - thank you and good night."
After what seemed like quite a while, I arrived back at Uamha's "Halfway Lochan", the Lochan Mhaim nan Carn.
From here on, it was a straightforward stoat back down the line of pylons on that squelchy ATV track to arrive back at the car park, with some views over Loch Arklet and Loch Katrine on descent.
I can't deny that Beinn na Lap or even Cruach an t-Sidhein would have been much more satisfying ticks, but the Whammer proved to be a surprisingly worthy adversary all the same: steep, tick - rough, tick - undistinguished, tick - but rather good fun nevertheless
.
