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I have to confess that I've left the Torridon giants to rather late in my list of Munros, in part because I've frankly found them something of a scary prospect
, but also because they're a fair old schlep from the cities of the Central Belt. However, I was up at Lochcarron for a whole week in a rented house with family, the sun was shining brightly, and there would surely be no better time to have a look at the easiest of Torridon's three great ridges, Beinn Alligin
. I'd had a good look at the Alligin ridge the previous day, while doing the two rather unsung but wonderful Achnashellach Munros, and with the weather set fair for one more day, I set off nice and early the following morning and got parked at the walkers' car park just west of the Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil, on the winding and potholed minor road leading west from Torridon village. (I don't think my new car has yet forgiven me for that
...)
The well-engineered path on the west side of the stream heading up into Coir nan Laogh starts just across the road from the car park, and although Alligin's two Munros were initially out of view behind all those sandstone terraces, "height was gained rapidly" (i.e. it proved to be a steep and relentless slog from the get-go
!), which at least meant that it wasn't too long before I did get a glimpse of Tom na Gruagaich, the first and lower of Alligin's two Munro summits. Although it's a relatively lowly Munro, it's still an impressively steep and pointy peak!
The steep ascent also meant that the views back south were opening up rapidly by way of distraction, with Torridon Bay just looking spectacular in today's sunshine:
It was a hot and sweaty slog up into Coir nan Laogh, nevertheless (if that isn't TMI), and regular stops were required to top up my water from the burn (well, that was the excuse for the regular stops, anyway
).
Before long, I was ascending into the upper corrie, with Tom na Gruagaich looking impressively steep on the left (although actually the good path makes for a straightforward enough ascent), and Sgurr Mhor and the ongoing ridge now coming into view on the right - queue Horn fanfare
!
Liathach's castellated ridge was looking predictably intimidating from here
:
With surprisingly little further ado, I found myself up at Tom na Gruagaich's trig point, a bit earlier than I'd expected. So far, so good, but there was a lot more ridge to go!
I got chatting to a friendly young Scottish student (I think she said this was just her tenth Munro or thereabouts; she's obviously braver than I've been, in terms of getting the Torridon ones done early on
!) and she took my photo at the trig point:
I got a good look at the ongoing challenge from Tom na Gruagaich's trig point, with Sgurr Mhor looking impressive but feasible, and with the three Horns now clearly visible too:
Liathach still looking scary:
The ongoing ridge to Sgurr Mhor is a delight, at least in good weather, with the path making light of the occasional very minor scrambling. The ridge's steep sides give a delicious sense of exposure, but it's never actually difficult, and it would actually be a short and surprisingly straightforward walk to just bag the two Munros as a there-and-back route, if one wanted to leave out the Horns.
Another fine view of Liathach, from a tiny lochan on the shoulder of Sgurr Mhor:
It gets a bit steeper, although straightforward, towards the top of Sgurr Mhor, so it was something of a relief to arrive at a Feature of Interest to provide an opportunity for a prolonged photo stop - the very impressive Eag Dubh na h-Eigheachd ("Black Gash of the Wailing", no less!). There is a pleasingly eerie legend of a group of shepherds hearing mournful wailing coming up from this rocky cleft; one of them climbed down a bit for a closer look, and he was, needless to say, never seen again...
Thankfully there were no wails today, and even if there had been, I'm not sure that I'd have cared to investigate further
! It wasn't much further from here to Sgurr Mhor's summit cairn, where I caught up again with the student I'd been chatting to earlier on Tom na Gruagaich. Once again, she kindly took a picture of me at the top:
Now, To Horn or Not to Horn, so to speak? The weather and the views were still excellent (with the Corbett Beinn Dearg being the real star of the show); the Horns themselves really didn't look that bad from this angle, and I quickly decided that I'd have to give them a go
.
The first Horn proved to be pretty straightforward on the way up (although there was a somewhat trickier down-scramble lying in wait on descent to the bealach with Horn Two). Beinn Dearg was looking steadily more impressive to the north:
The scrambling was very funsome, on the whole, and I just took my time and enjoyed it. There was a nice vista back to Sgurr Mhor from the second Horn's summit cairn:
A small flat rock platform just east of the cairn on Horn Two provided an extraordinary view across to Beinn Dearg:
Although it's the lowest of the three horns, Horn Three is probably the trickiest one, at least in terms of routefinding. The ongoing path confusingly splits into three, with the higher branch taking an unappealing directissima route that looks to be a properly hard scramble, and the lower branch becoming a very exposed and equally unappealing Bypass Path. So... presumably the middle path must the the right one - but where does it go?
I stopped to get my breath back, pondering the Conundrum of the Third Horn, and watched a couple of parties just ahead of me disappear up the middle path, and then emerge on top of the Third Horn a wee bit later. That must be the correct way, then, right enough
. I set off undaunted, and sure enough, the middle path visible in the photo above duly arrived at an easy rock chimney hidden just round a bend, which provided a straightforward and entertaining scrambling route up to the summit environs of Horn Three.
Conundrum Solved, and the reward was a very nice view back along the ridge to the other two Horns, with Sgurr Mhor in the distance:
Beinn Dearg again, as seen from the Third Horn:
A Third Horn summit selfie:
Looking back to Tom na Gruagaich and Sgurr Mhor from a bit further along the continuing ridgeline:
Horns a-Go-Go!
Beinn Dearg still looking relentlessly steep and rocky; it may be just under Munro height (by centimetres!), but this is one impressive mountain.
On the final descent eastwards from the end of the ridge, I took a nifty bit of advice provided in Peter Barton's useful "Walking in Torridon" Cicerone guide, which is to avoid a steep and loose descent directly from the easternmost end of the ridge, by cutting down pathless but grassy slopes to the southwest from a flat shoulder of the ridge, just a bit short of its steep easternmost end. Once down to flatter ground again, I then cut back eastwards to eventually re-join the main path, just before the bridge over the Allt a' Bheallaich. From here it was a straightforward walk back to the car park, along the east side of the Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil.
A final view of Beinn Dearg and Liathach, with Beinn Eighe in the distance I think:
I've called Alligin a "horny old devil", but that probably isn't fair. Horny it certainly is, and it's old all right (the Torridonian sandstone is the oldest rock in the UK, I believe), but it is really more impish than devilish - the scrambling wasn't really difficult, at least on a fine day like this, and in fact the whole ridge was an utter delight
.
