Beinn nan Eun - a long walk in from Glen Glass

[gld73]

Weather forecasts were varying, but NE looked the best direction to head. A half idea to go to Glen Loth changed when I was stuck behind a long line of slow moving traffic up the A9, so I turned off at Evanton and headed to Glenglass instead for the graham I hadn't done yet, Beinn nan Eun. Most people seem to use a bike to access it, but as I've still never got round to attaching my bike rack to the car, let alone motivating myself to cycle, I decided just to do it all on foot.

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Lovely weather for the first half, I walked along the good track for several miles, alongside Loch Glass, past impressive Wyvis Lodge, and onwards up the glen to the hydro dam, all in t-shirt, shorts and trainers.

Loch Glass pano. By the time I was back here a few hours later on the walk back, most of this was obscured by rain and low cloud.

Typical photo of the pink house (never used, as it didn't get planning permission apparently?), Loch Glass and Meall Mor ...though maybe with a bit more exposed shoreline than normal

...and another. Managed to miss the wind turbines out of the picture, they're to the right of Meall Mor (another graham)

Wyvis Lodge. Spectacular location and looks really well kept (sleeps 13 or 14 and can be hired if you have a spare £5k). Not sure if it always has such a big sandy beach area in front of it as it did today, but I suspect not, water levels are low just now

Past the lodge, the river (Abhainn Beinn nan Eun) and hydro track continue up the glen

Beinn nan Eun now properly in sight. Track heads upwards now, still alongside the river but over this bridge

Most of the hillsides I'd passed on the way were deep in bracken, so with the way ticks are this year, I wasn't looking forward to wading through deep vegetation - but it wasn't as bad from the dam to the summit fortunately. I changed to proper socks and boots and zipped on the rest of the trousers for the hill. Pathless but vegetation was okay, mainly low-ish heather.

Track ends at the dam. Quick lunch stop and footwear change and then I set off again. Not really sure what line to take, but just sort of headed there fairly directly?! Seemed to work out okay anyway.

The dam is just about visible on the right (Ben Wyvis top left)

Very steep ascent up the final part of the hill, then a nice easy walk once that slog was done to just go the short distance on the summit area to the cairn. Best of the weather definitely was to the north east.

Summit cairn. Beyond Carn Chuinneag, it was still looking sunny to the north east

Darker clouds were coming in from the west, Ben Wyvis already in their shadow

Clouds but still bright directly north, good visibility

Carn Loch Nan Amhaichean is the graham lying to the west. These 2 hills can be done together, but I did that one from the A835, down Strath Rannoch from near Inchbae Lodge

Unlike the slog up the hill, the descent back down was a breeze, but as I got back to the track at the dam, the first big drops of rain hit. I didn't bother changing back in to trainers, just added the showerproof jacket from my bag on to what I'd worn for the hill. Unfortunately it wasn't just a shower, it was heavy rain all the way back to the far end of Loch Glass, so had a couple of hours getting utterly drenched. Good motivation to do a brisk walk at least. I reached the end of the rain a couple of km before getting back to the car, but in that section saw the fenced area with the 'wild' boars. Thought there were just a handful of them, but then suddenly there was an influx of another few adults and about 20 boarlets. Made for a nice end to the walk! Stripped off back at the car to get out of the sodden clothing, fortunately no-one about and the midges at the car park weren't as bad as they'd been a few minutes earlier. Despite the rain, a good walk - but I can see why most people would choose to cycle it...