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The Mighty Clisham

The Mighty Clisham


Postby Craiging619 » Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:33 pm

Route description: Clisham (An Cliseam) direct route

Corbetts included on this walk: Clisham

Date walked: 05/03/2019

Time taken: 3.75 hours

Distance: 5.25 km

Ascent: 630m

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In March 2019 I suddenly had some rare free time, as my wife and daughter headed off to Indonesia three weeks before I joined up with them. I am sometimes dispatched on site visits for my work, and there was some landscape photography that needed taken in and around Stornoway. After hinting to my boss that I would like to take the opportunity to go on a site visit without any childcare worries, I arrived at the office on Monday morning to find an audacious plan being put together. There was a weather window of just one sunny day (we need sunshine for the photos to be usable). Would I like to *fly* to Stornoway and hire a car for a day of site photography ... tomorrow? :crazy:

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Not a normal start to a site visit!

The weather was actually very driech when I took off (the traditional Glasgow Airport weather), but the forecast was spectacular for Lewis and Harris.

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Yeah, still not looking great tbh!

If it was cloudy in Stornoway the photos might be usable...maybe...just about? But it wouldn't be ideal. If it was raining, or if there was any low cloud, the photos would essentially be thrown in the bin. I was starting to wonder if I would even be able to claim my expenses for the hire car... (thankfully the flight was pre-booked!) :shock:

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Aha! Starting to clear at last, looking down towards Glenelg.

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The Skye Bridge! I'd recognise that anywhere.

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Glamaig had randomly caught a load of snow.

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The Storr, looking totally unrecognisable from this angle.

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Here we go! The Eye Peninsula, bathed in sunshine. It looks like the forecast was spot on...

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Had forgotten how many lochs Lewis has. It's the North Uist of the...North.

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That looks like some beach. Except I have work to do, and it's about 5 degrees.

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Woah!!! We're going to Ibiza! 8)

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My chariot awaits. They had left the keys in a specific part of the car (they emailed me the details beforehand). They're very trusting up here. I remember in 2005 I stayed in a B&B with my mother, and there was an unlocked door leading straight through to another room. The owner was relaxed about it: "oh, we don't really get any crime up here." Ok, I'll believe you on that one! :o

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I had a lot of photos to take in and around Newmarket and Newvalley, before working my South through Stornoway towards Creed Enterprise Park. I met a dog in Newmarket that scared the life out of me, and ended up having to retreat to an embankment on the other side of a stream and sprint away. The owner came out and and pleaded with the dog to stand down, which they eventually did after a tense stand-off. Luckily I didn't bring the tripod for this trip, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to run... :shock:

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I raced through the pictures in Stornoway and, after a pit stop for a snack at the Cameron Terrace garage, I approached the final pictures in Baile Ailean / Ballalan, which appears to be the longest village in the world.

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It was still only 11:45. I was done already, and the flight home was at 7pm. And...there was Clisham...... :wink:

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I climbed a small nearby hill (in Lewis there are always small hills nearby at 20m height), to get a signal to call my boss. The signal was still patchy, but I managed to establish that I was finished the photography and had seven hours to kill. Technically we could be doing with a new photo from An Cliseam, as our old photo was very cloudy. My boss said it wasn't really a requirement for this project, but if I wanted to use the spare time I could climb it and take a photo anyway. :D

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Well I didn't need to ask twice.

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My life goal is to climb every Munro, Corbett and Graham, but I have a child and with each passing year that goal seems more and more unlikely. Failing that, I want to climb as many Munros as possible with a few other select hills on the list, and Clisham was very, very high on the bucketlist. I figured it would have to wait until later in life, simply because it's so difficult to get to. The idea of climbing it in a day trip from Glasgow seemed impossible. One of the rare perks of the job today!

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There's a big car park and a trace of a path at first, but it seems to dissipate quite quickly. After heading over quite a lumpy moor the climb steepens, heading straight up towards the cone of An Cliseam.

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And when it steepens, it really steepens. The conditions were perfect though. The whole day was perfect, really.

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The views started to open up to the North, towards Stornoway. The sun was behind me so it would be ideal for a proper photo for work.

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Really quite steep now. Hopefully this is the brow of the hill before reaching the final ridge.

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There were still patches of ice, but if anything it was warmer than in Stornoway (some kind of temperature inversion due to the high pressure maybe?)

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Yes! Nearly there.

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Best hill ever. Best view ever. Best day ever.

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GPS spot on (for once).

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There are three Grahams on Harris (and of course Beinn Mhor on South Uist, which I've often wondered about for a 'Final Hill' if I ever climbed them all). Maybe one day. But this'll do for today.

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"And the man from St. Kilda
Went over the cliff on a winter's day,
On the edge of the world..."

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Finally, reluctantly, it was time to descend.

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Oh, a bit of a path. Where was that on the way up? :o

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When in Rome, see the view. When passing a fast-running stream in Scotland, pick up some water.

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Back across the boggy moor, a lot more tired than at lunchtime, but a lot happier.

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I returned North to Baile Aliean to find a litany of missed calls and messages from my boss. He was worried there was no response, but that's the nature of the beast when there's no signal. There were still a couple of hours left, so he asked me to head out to Pentland Road and re-take some old photos that were still a bit rubbish. It would be a bit of an odd light with sunset approaching, but with the great sunshine it would still be a vast improvement on the old photos.

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Looking back towards the mighty Clisham.

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Beinn Ghrideag Community Wind Farm.

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Yeah, not THE Maryhill.

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Some sheep watch the sun set behind Stornoway.

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In the end I ran out of time for dinner in Stornoway, because of the extra trip out to Pentland Road. It was worth it for this day though.

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A Highland village. I can;t remember which one now, but I'm sure I worked it out at the time (maybe Plockton? Robert Carlyle would know).

It was a magical day all round, the kind of day that ends up feeling stolen from somewhere else. By Wednesday morning I was back in the office trying to fight with 400 photos to turn them into something usable for the project, and it was raining again. But there was always Tuesday. There was always An Cliseam. 8)
User avatar
Craiging619
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 308
Munros:70   Corbetts:33
Fionas:40   Donalds:39+9
Sub 2000:22   
Islands:21
Joined: Jul 21, 2009
Location: Glasgow
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