Beinn a Chuallaich - the kindness of strangers
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 4:03 pmBeinn a Chuallaich is a hill I've been wanting to climb for some time. I'd studied the walk reports on this site and the SMC guide and we'd decided to "start at the bend" at NN707616 as suggested in the SMC guide. We parked up in the layby and all all hell started to break loose. A retired farmer was moving some sheep about 100 metres along the road. This caused a traffic jam with ourselves acting as shepherd/shepherdess stopping the sheep from running along the road. We got chatting to the farmer who asked us what we were doing and it turned out that he used to run up Beinn a Chuallaich when he was younger. He thought we were mad that we were planning to ascend the hill the way we were thinking; especially as the bracken had recently been sprayed. He insisted that we should take a path starting at 698588 which would save us a lot of time. As the weather forecast predicted rain for early afternoon, we took his advice. He took us down to the start of the walk and told us how to get round the house that was on the route. So off we set.
Just after we got to the house, my other half realized he had left a vital piece of equipment in the car! So off he trudged back to the car. Whilst I was waiting for him, a lady came out of the house to ask if we were alright. What is it about these parts that make people so nice?
The farmer was absolutely right - the path was easy going right up to the bealach from where we crossed a few peat hags to reach the huge summit cairn. Great views from the top. We passed a number of strange things that are shown in one of the photos - two pieces of rectangular peat had been cut out of the ground and a shallow wooden box placed on teh to; these were filled with a grain like substance. I'd love to know what they were for.
And of course, it was so easy going on the way down right until we got back to the road when the heavens opened. A nice easy walk.
Just after we got to the house, my other half realized he had left a vital piece of equipment in the car! So off he trudged back to the car. Whilst I was waiting for him, a lady came out of the house to ask if we were alright. What is it about these parts that make people so nice?
The farmer was absolutely right - the path was easy going right up to the bealach from where we crossed a few peat hags to reach the huge summit cairn. Great views from the top. We passed a number of strange things that are shown in one of the photos - two pieces of rectangular peat had been cut out of the ground and a shallow wooden box placed on teh to; these were filled with a grain like substance. I'd love to know what they were for.
And of course, it was so easy going on the way down right until we got back to the road when the heavens opened. A nice easy walk.