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Sub 2000k Marilyns: Cruach Lerags
Date: 20/10/2015.
Distance: 5km.
Ascent: 300m.
Time taken: 1 hour, 25 minutes.
Weather: Windy, overcast.
We had borrowed a friend's campervan to go away for the night. I say campervan but it turned out to be a full-on road-hogging 50mph-cruising motorhome in the end, so I decided that a trip over over the Bealach na Ba to Applecross may not be the best idea! Instead we chugged down to Oban on Monday afternoon and pitched up at the only caravan site left open as the rain bucketed down.
Next morning was bright in places, so Gill decided to go for a run. I thought I'd prefer some bog and bracken myself, so set off for the Marilyn of Cruach Lerags, which was little more than a mile from the caravan site as the crow flies. I went SW down the road towards the Sound of Kerrera then wandered through the farmyard of Gallanachbeag and onto the hillside. The marked path was more obvious from a distance than when actually on it, so I headed more directly for the SW end of Loch Gleann a' Bhearraidh instead.
Gallanachmore and Kerrera:
Ben Cruachan popped out of the cloud away to the NE, and the views over Kerrera, the Firth of Lorn and Mull opened up. In the other direction, Cruach Lerags appeared close by, but over a few small bumps and streams. More importantly, it was covered in conifers - my (somewhat old) map had given no indication of that! To be fair, it was obviously no recent thing - some of the trees were probably nearly as old as me.
Loch Gleann a' Bhearraidh with Cruachan on the right:
Across the Firth of Lorn to Ben Buie and Creach Beinn of Mull:
NW towards Morven and Ardgour:
A bit of traversing bracken-clad slopes, dipping into small glens and climbing steeply back out had me at the wall bounding the forest, at which point it was time to head in. Some deep conifer bashing took me to easier lines heading upwards, at which point I hit a small clearing. There didn't appear to be anything higher in the immediate vicinity, so despite feeling a little uncertain I decided to accept this as the summit. another 5 minutes had me back out in the open again.
Rubbishy supposed summit:
I took a more direct, less undulating line back towards Gallanachbeag, taking in one of the more prominent bumps along the way. Great views again across Kerrera to Mull. A short descent had me back on my outward route, this time managing to avoid going right through the farmyard by a gate to the right of the house.
Across the Sound of Kerrera and Firth of Lorn to Mull:
Oban:
Ben Cruachan:
Gallanachbeag:
Then breakfast no. 2 and a leisurely drive into town for a look around and some lunch, followed by a stop in at Port Appin for some afternoon tea and cake. Once home I had a look at the only other report I could find (by Sgurr on Scottishhills) and discovered I had missed the actual summit by about 200m. Should have got organized and gone over to Kerrera instead! I'm attaching my report to the summit anyway as it comes from a different direction to Sgurr's one and is theoretically not a bad route to the top. Pah!
