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An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day


Postby DaveSan » Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:32 pm

Corbetts included on this walk: An Ruadh-stac

Date walked: 01/07/2021

Time taken: 5 hours

Distance: 15 km

Ascent: 960m

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After five excellent days walking in the fabulous NW, I was homeward bound. As per usual, I was hoping to take in a hill on the way back and An Ruadh-stac fitted the bill perfectly as it was only a short drive from Kinlochewe and would only take a morning's effort.
I parked at Coulags in the car park just west of the bridge over the Fionn-abhainn and set off in bright sunshine at 7:45am up the track heading north. I followed the track on the east bank of the river for a while then crossed over to the west side, past a bothy and at a path junction, turned left and made my way up the uncomfortably stony path up to the Bealach a' Choire Ghairbh. I had walked this path before when climbing the Munro, Maol Chean-dearg way back in December 1998 when I was a member of the Reading Mountaineering Club. At the bealach, got my first view of the dramatic east face of An Ruadh-stac.
IMG_20210701_092423122.jpg

I took the path that contoured to the left to a small saddle and then to the right up a rocky ridge and down to the saddle at the foot of the east face. This had looked intimidating and steep from a distance, but close up was not too bad. From the bottom I headed up the centre on large quartzite slabs that were nice and grippy (probably less so in the wet!). Higher up, the going was more broken and required a bit of careful scrambling over and around large boulders. Finally, at 10:40am I made it to the large summit cairn and sat down to enjoy the solitude and cracking views and tucking into my last remaining snack bars.
IMG_20210701_104044866_HDR.jpg
Summit cairn, Maol Chean-dearg behind

IMG_20210701_104117669.jpg
The craggy north face of the Graham, Sgurr a' Gharaidh to the south

Beinn Damh.jpg
Beinn Damh with Beinn Alligin in the distance on the right

Reluctantly, I set off back down, looking for the most stable rocks and outcrops and being guided by a few small cairns. Lower down I was back on the large quartzite slabs and zigzagged my way down to the saddle at the bottom of the face. Instead of traversing over the rocky ridge, I contoured around to the left just above the two lochans and joined the main path at the large bealach.
IMG_20210701_113157057_HDR.jpg
Looking back up the east face

IMG_20210701_115640476.jpg
One last view before heading down

On the way down, I stopped several times to chat with people coming up - nearly all were going for the Munro (the easier and less interesting option!). If I'd had the time and energy, I would have detoured to take in the Munro as it was only another 340m of height gain from the bealach. On hindsight I wished I had, as since that day, I've decided to officially start on my second round of Munros!
I ambled down the stony track to the river and then jogged/walked on the main track back to the car. A few miles down the road, I detoured a few miles to Lochcarron for diet cokes - it was going to be a warm drive back.
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DaveSan
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby past my sell by date » Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:20 pm

Great photos - but surely An Ruadh-stac must look red from somewhere - or did whoever named it have problems with colour blindness :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby DaveSan » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:34 pm

past my sell by date wrote:Great photos - but surely An Ruadh-stac must look red from somewhere - or did whoever named it have problems with colour blindness :lol: :lol: :lol:

Maybe only if you look at it through rose-tinted spectacles :lol:
Brian Johnson in his Corbetts guide book suggests that there might have been a misunderstanding between the OS surveyor and a local shepherd when he first named the peak - possibly confusing it with its close neighbour Maol Chean-dearg which definitely does have red coloration due to sandstone boulders on its summit.
DaveSan
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby past my sell by date » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:39 pm

DaveSan wrote:
past my sell by date wrote:Great photos - but surely An Ruadh-stac must look red from somewhere - or did whoever named it have problems with colour blindness :lol: :lol: :lol:

Maybe only if you look at it through rose-tinted spectacles :lol:
Brian Johnson in his Corbetts guide book suggests that there might have been a misunderstanding between the OS surveyor and a local shepherd when he first named the peak - possibly confusing it with its close neighbour Maol Chean-dearg which definitely does have red coloration due to sandstone boulders on its summit.

Yes Maol Chean Dearg is definitely red,
I have thoughts about the OS surveyor going round to one valley writing down a whole load of peak names and then in the adjacent valley being told that it was all a load of bollox :lol: :lol: :lol:
past my sell by date
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby jmarkb » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:34 pm

Nice report Dave! We were also up there last summer.

DaveSan wrote:Brian Johnson in his Corbetts guide book suggests that there might have been a misunderstanding between the OS surveyor and a local shepherd when he first named the peak - possibly confusing it with its close neighbour Maol Chean-dearg which definitely does have red coloration due to sandstone boulders on its summit.


Yes, it's an odd one - on Beinn Eighe both Ruadh-stac Mor and Ruadh-stac Beag are similarly quartzitey and not very red, and nor is Sgurr Dubh in Glen Torridon very black!
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby prog99 » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:45 pm

Might be a record here https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ just stick a hill name into the search box,
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby jmarkb » Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:09 pm

Peter Drummond's book "Scottish Hill Names" doesn't shed a great deal of light on this. Ruadh is more of a reddish-brown / ginger colour, compared to Dearg which is more bright red/scarlet. Ruadh hill names are mostly confined to the north-west, whereas Dearg is more widespread. He even gets it a bit wrong about Ruadh-stac Mor (Beinn Eighe), saying it rises above the sandstone pillars of the coire (the top above the triple buttresses in Coinneach Mhor).

A summary of a talk he gave on this topic does say: "The reasons for naming locations with colour terms, however, are not always obvious." (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A3=ind1202&L=COLOURSTUDIES&E=quoted-printable&P=13302&B=------%3D_NextPart_000_000E_01CCE335.1F5E0910&T=text%2Fhtml;%20charset=utf-8)
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jmarkb
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby past my sell by date » Sat Jan 29, 2022 12:56 am

While wondering about the colour of An Ruadh Stac, I completely failed to notice that none of your photos show a single speck of snow - In mid January - amazing. :shock: I fear global warming is approaching must faster than predicted - but at least there doesn't appear to be any sign of the Gulf Stream inverting :) :lol:
past my sell by date
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Re: An Ruadh-stac - an entertaining half-day

Postby dav2930 » Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:57 am

past my sell by date wrote:While wondering about the colour of An Ruadh Stac, I completely failed to notice that none of your photos show a single speck of snow - In mid January - amazing. :shock: I fear global warming is approaching must faster than predicted - but at least there doesn't appear to be any sign of the Gulf Stream inverting :) :lol:

You'd think those photos were taken in July rather than January, wouldn't you Tony? :lol:
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