free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Gorgeous weather and I thought I take a gamble and do Maol Cheann-dearg. I had tried to do it earlier in the year, but on such a busy day that I did not fancy walking up there with some 30 people on the trail. I therefore decided to do that loop around the munro instead.
Only a few cars were at the parking - I might be just in luck. The walk starts along a forestry road that gently leads uphill. Having done it a couple of times now - this section will never get a thumbs up from me. Once you reach the bridge and the trail changes into a stalker path through the wide open valley, the walk really starts to turn nice. You quickly reach the bothy - as it is situated right beside the river it is a brilliant place to stop on the way back.
Not long after the bothy a cairn indicates the turn left up the hill. The trail is very rocky and steep in places. it must have gotten a recent makeover as it is much better to walk on then when I was there earlier in the year. Once the trail levels out a bit, it starts to follow the hillside a bit more until it reaches the saddle. While the views from there are great, do walk over to the saddle to your left as you then get fantastic views into the valley and onto Maol Cheann-dearg (which doesn't look that hard from there...what a cheat!). The trail is level over to the viewpoint, so well worth the short detour.
The climb up from the saddle is very steep and the loose scree does not make it easier. Even the people I met coming down mentioned how surprised they were just how long it took them from the saddle up to the top. After this first steep section, the trail levels out a bit, just to get really rocky before it starts to climb up a boulder field to the top. You may want to keep to the trail that is leading up slightly to the left along the hillside, hugging the mountain and connecting grassy patches with easy to cross boulder fields. It is a bit hard to spot in the beginning, but then leads up very clearly to the top. A few cairns helpfully show the way, even if they are not most obvious of structures. Finding the trail and the cairns on the way down is the real challenge
.
The views from the top are nothing short of gorgeous. With blue sky and sunshine I had the perfect 360 views across Torridon and back over to Kintail. There is quite a big cairn that helpfully comes with nicely created seating areas into various directions, making it easy to stay out of the wind if need be.
The way down was as expected tricky and I don't think the way back to the saddle was much quicker than the way up. Once you reach the second steep section down to the saddle, to take care to follow the ridge and don't take the well-trodden, but very tricky path that leads down just before you can actually see the saddle. Do follow the option straight ahead which looks less trodden, but takes you to the much easier way down that you also came up from the saddle.
From the saddle it is easy going though and you quickly reach the bothy again. From there the walk back is a bit nicer than the walk in as the views ahead are more interesting.
Altogether, I had a great day out. Not sure anybody would get me up there on a shitty day with no views though - just not worth it given what you miss out on.
