Liathach, Glen Torridon
TORRIDON, SHIELDAIG AND KINLOCHEWE
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1. Park in the small parking area a couple of hundred metres east of Glen Cottage. If full, use the car park near the bridge at NG958568 and walk back two kilometres down the road. Liathach looms high overhead from here, looking impossible to climb, but a clear path following the east bank of the Allt an Doire Ghairbh stream suggests things might turn out otherwise. Head up this relentlessly steep path. The photo shows Liathach from Loch Clair.
2. Once you have almost reached the great cleft in the cliffs above, the path turns to the right and has a couple of steep but simple rocky
scrambles before it reaches the ridge a little southwest of Stuc a' Choire Dhubh Bhig. It is worth detouring to this easternmost summit for the stupendous
view of Beinn Eighe across the deep trench of Coire Dubh, before returning to this point.
Photo ©Tony Kinghorn, reproduced under this Creative Commons license.
3. Continue along the main ridge on the well-worn path, crossing the two tops of Bidein Toll a'Mhuic. These are covered with quartzite scree
and boulders and the going is slow, whilst the situation is spectacular. After the second summit and descent comes the long climb up the impressive summit
cone of Spidean a'Choire Leith, whose summit at 1055 metres (or the easy to remember 3456 feet) is the highest of Liathach's two Munros. The view is spectacular
in all directions.
Photo ©David Crocker, reproduced under this Creative Commons license.
4. On the descent from Spidean a Choire Leith, take great care in misty conditions not to end up following the ridge which heads SSE to end
in a precipitous prow which projects out from the mountain – prominent in many views of Liathach. Instead the true route heads more southwest down an
initially ill-defined ridge of steep boulders, which eventually levels off. The sight ahead should set the pulses racing however, as the next section
of the ridge is riven into the famous Am Fasarinen pinnacles. If all these are traversed direct, there may be one or two moves of moderate rock-climbing
standard and by any route they are a hard, exposed scramble. There is a path which traverses a shelf beneath the pinnacles to avoid the scrambling, but
it is somewhat eroded, and sensationally exposed – you might be able to see your parked car when looking down between your feet! Great care is needed
where the path has deteriorated when crossing the back of a couple of gullies. This section continues for several hundred metres.
Photo ©Tony Kinghorn, reproduced under this Creative Commons license.
5. The path rejoins the ridge just beyond the last pinnacle; if you have used the bypass path, its worth detouring easily back up to the top
of the last pinnacle for the view. Looking down into Coire nam Caime is quite sensational. The ridge now changes character completely and leads without
further incident (albeit with huge cliffs plunging on the right) uphill to the second Munro of Mullach an Rathain. The summit is marked by a trig point
at 1023 metres, and a wonderful view of Loch Torridon backed by Skye and the Outer Hebrides on a clear day.
Photo ©Chris Eilbeck, reproduced under this Creative Commons license.
6. Continue a couple of hundred metres west from Mullach an Rathain before curving round to the left and finally descending the very steep scree slope down into Toll Ban. As a route of ascent this is very trying, but in descent you should soon be down and rjoining the path on the west side of the corrie floor. The path follows the west bank of the Allt an Tuill Bhain steeply downhill; further down it heads away from the stream to the right as it weaves and winds around to avoid the many terraces of sandstone cliffs to return to the Torridon road, two kilometres west of where you started.
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Accommodation links for this area:
Hotels in Torridon: Shieldaig to Kinlochewe
Torridon: Shieldaig to Kinlochewe Bed and Breakfasts
Self catering cottages in Torridon: Shieldaig to Kinlochewe
Torridon & Gairloch hostels
Campsites in Torridon and Gairloch region
