Seana Bhràigh from Inverlael, definitely one for a clear day

[gld73]

There have been several times I've vaguely planned to do Sean Bhraigh, but non ideal weather or my inability to get up early had put paid to those plans. Perfect weather on this day, and not a weekend so a better chance of parking too. (As a car driver, a good thing about the parking at Inverlael is the low barrier stopping motorhomes and campervans from filling it..! A blessing given how many vans are in the Highlands just now!).

I'd always imagined the route would be quite tough and route finding difficult, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of it was on a clear path, leaving me to relax and enjoy the views. (Haven't done a route map here as it was the same as the one on the WH route description, other than one bit where I took a more direct route that I chose not to repeat on the return!).

Bluebells at Glensguaib

From the track heading steeply uphill - view back down to Inverlael with An Teallach coming in to view

No difficulty crossing the Allt Gleann a'Mhadaidh in this weather

Looking back at An Teallach again ... this shows how clear the path is for much of the way! It magically disappears a bit later though

Brief view of Seana Bhraigh poking up on the left there

Continuing along near the small lochans, still following a visible path at this stage

The bit where the path fades out, as I've seen from previous walk reports, is notorious for leaving people wandering around to try and find the best way to re-join the trodden path which re-emerges later. I was no different! Despite having the instruction plus map and compass, I was still drawn to heading more directly to Seana Bhraigh as I could see it clearly, rather than following the instructions to headed ENE first to descend down a more gradual slope. I ended up further north and west, zig zagging down ledges next to the cliffs. Never really felt lost though, visibility was too good for that, I could clearly see where I was aiming for.

Once the path had petered out, I should have continued in roughly the same direction for a gentler short descent (to the right in this photo). But I couldn't stop myself from veering more directly towards Sean Bhraigh, the summit on the left here...

...so I walked in that direction and found myself at the top of the steep crags. Still didn't go right though to find the more gradual slope, I went even further left again and zig zagged down grassy bits to get down to the flatter area below and headed over to the worn path I'd spotted

Looking back at the crags, the WH route (and the way I went on the way back) is just off to the left. I came down near the right side of this photo.

I stopped for a snack break at Cadha Dearg on both the way out and the way back as the views down the glen were so stunning, and I could see it wasn't far to the summit from there.

Reaching the top of the headwall of Cadha Dearg, Seana Bhraigh's summit is set back on the left of shot

View NW down the glen from Cadha Dearg

Pano of the view

Took the slight detour to see down into the similarly impressive Luchd Choire before continuing onwards up to Sean Bhraigh's summit. My solitary walk came to a temporary end at this point, as a group of 4 guys came up from the Oykel Bridge side and we all got to the summit at more or less the same time. I didn't stay for long as they were all settling in for an extended stay at the summit shelter, so headed back down to my dramatic and quiet lunch spot again before the long walk out.

Starting the walk up to the summit plateau area, this view back shows that it's terrain not ideal for navigating in bad conditions

Final ascent up to Seana Bhraigh's summit ahead

Luchd Choire

Summit shelter

Not too far from Ben More Coigach, Stac Pollaidh and friends

Brilliant day, wouldn't fancy doing it in anything less than excellent conditions, but today the conditions certainly were excellent

[BlackPanther]

For me Seana Braigh will forever be associated with Kevin's hayfever, he nearly sneezed his nose off on the way to the summit

Fantastic hill with superb views, we must go back sometime. I considered the Strathmulzie approach as well, doing the full horseshoe traverse of Seana. I think it is possible to cycle to Loch Coire Mhoir. Another route on the long list of "alternative repeats".