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This is another historic report from Sottishhills
Those who don’t want to read the Whys and Wherefores, scroll down to the hill, below.
We had been wondering when to attempt the third Pap of Jura and Realsquiz’s final Graham for some time. Islay and Jura are expensive and almost fully booked over the summer months, and even in September things didn’t seem any easier. The midges are still probably around, for us excluding camping. By the previous Monday, all the B & Bs were booked up except for one that quoted £130 per room per night. Still, it was R’s last Graham, so only marginally less expensively, we booked into what was claimed to be the last room in Port Askaig Hotel, postponed two dental appointments (only check-ups) and sat back to wait for the weather forecast to deteriorate. At the time of booking it was white cloud and sunshine. Hmm. Heard that one before. I followed the BBC forecast for Craighouse and Bowmore obsessively. By Wednesday, it had turned to black cloud plus two drops of rain plus sunshine for Saturday and black cloud plus one drop of rain for Sunday. A glance at the map showed a wave of blue washing over during the day on Saturday. By Thursday, it was simply two drops of rain for Saturday. Sunday, the same, but the sunshine had reappeared. By Thursday night, two drops with sunshine on Saturday, and white cloud (hooray) for Sunday. Though Bowmore, as opposed to Craighouse was still showing rain (one drop) and sunshine. By Friday, we had done the complete roller-coaster for Sunday, with both Bowmore and Craighouse back to white cloud with sunshine, while Saturday was still two drops of rain.
One of the local shops offer cardboard cut-outs of celebrities to take to your party. Presumably people pose hilariously with them. It struck me that appropriately weather-proofed one could accompany us up the hill, so went to enquire.
“Who are your celebrities,” I asked, “Do you have any mountaineers?”
“Mountaineers?!!! No, I don’t think so, would you like to name some, and I could find out.”
“Edmund Hillary?”
Look of blank incomprehension.
“Or Tensing Norgay?”
Even worse
“Could you spell that?”
“How about Reinhold Messner, first person to climb all the 8,000 footers without oxygen?”
“Could you spell that?”
“Chris Bonington?”
“I’ll ask.”
“How about the C list celebs, what about Cameron McNeish?”
“We could look for Cameron Diaz. And we can definitely do David Cameron”
I left, not expecting the promised return phone call, which didn’t come. Anyway, my first question should have been “How much are your cut-outs?” Sister-in-law found some on ebay. Marilyn Munroe might have been a laugh for his Munro completion….but not on the In Pin, and not at that price. No Ronnie Corbetts at all: he obviously hovers in cutout limbo with Tensing Norgay et al.
None of those below ended up coming
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My next try was the new “Celebrations” shop “For All Your Celebrations.”
“Do you have one of those helium balloons with just ‘Congratulations’ on it?”
She showed me it.
“Doesn’t it have a little pack of compressed helium to blow it up?”
“No, we have to do that for you.”
I rapidly went off the idea, as it would only be a surprise if I could hide it in my rucksack, and doing that would have the same effect as on Eeyore’s birthday present from piglet
It would have to be a cake…..again.
We know what happens if you HAVE to climb a hill on a given day….it rains, so we had picked Saturday and Sunday, and given that they probably stalk on a Saturday had acquired the phone numbers of both estates (Forest of Jura for the eastern ascent, and Inver for the southern ascent) from the wonderful
Who Owns Scotland website.
When we arrived in Port Askaig on Friday evening, our hill was looking good.
By Saturday, the forecast was for rain all day with white cloud on Sunday, so we set out to tour the island, and found an excellent RSPB reserve.
Driving back, the rain had gone, and our hill appeared, all ready for the white cloud day that was to come
What? Beinn a’ Chaolais
When? Sunday, September 8th 2013
Who? Squiz and Realsquiz
Weather? Cloudy with drizzle and rain to start, followed by bright sunshine
Distance? Cycling: 5.4 miles, Walking: 6.5 miles
Ascent? Cycling: Not much, Walking: 2375 feet.
We woke up and found cloud almost down to sea level, and drizzle. We decided that having thrown money at this hill, we would set out anyway, and see what happened. Luckily the hotel's wi-fi was working and we could check that it was supposed to be black cloud until mid-day, when the black cloud would be joined by rain and sunshine, and would be followed at 1 p.m. by brilliant sunshine. Definitely worth setting out.
We caught the first (8.30 a.m.) Sunday ferry together with our bikes
Set out from Feolin 2.7 miles along the track northwards to Cnocbreac.
We dumped the bikes, although it was still a good and cycleable track, because Realsquiz’s knee does not like cycling uphill. We then walked another 1.8 miles along the track, before turning and making across the moor land towards the hill. It was raining, but the sun was trying to make an appearance
The cloud was still low.
Realsquiz managed to find little tracks, made by deer or people running along the sides of the groups of stones
It was quite steep
It got steeper. And it was clearing behind us
By the time the grass and heather ran out, it was possible to find some places where either people or deer had walked, and it wasn’t so difficult as the rest of the stones
Nearly at the top
We found a shelter near the top, but the co-ordinates didn’t match those of Dawson in
Relative Hills of Britain, so we walked along until we found the top (we covered all areas that could be, and in the mist, think this is it.)
I presented R with a home made cerificate, and a miniature of Jura that I had grabbed in The Green Welly (Tyndrum) en-route. He seemed quite pleased
We set off down, and soon the mist began to clear. A shame that we had no photos from the summit
Looking across to Islay
I thought I could remember the way down, but any slope of scree looks like any other, now which way round this lump did we come? It was different in the clag
and I ended up taking us a more vertiginous route than we had ascended,
Finally finding a grassy slope where we hit the track about ½ a mile further north than our route of ascent.
We did mange to see some deer on our descent, (Jura after all is the Isle of Deer) but they ran off, and my photo is worse than even my average. Luckily the bullocks that were obstructing the path back to our bikes took the same notion and scarpered before we could wonder whether to brave them out or walk round them.
Looking back the cloud had cleared, but still lingered on Beinn an Oir, which looks smaller from this angle, but is a Corbett
We biked slowly back to the ferry,
We arrived half an hour before the last one at 6.30 p.m. Scree slows us down even more than usual.
By the time we got back to the hotel, the cloud had returned
I had left the
GRAHAMIST cake at home, but managed to find another while we were getting petrol at Lochgilpead without R realising what I was up to, and some writing icing at Bowmore Co-op on the Saturday while we were hanging around waiting for the papers to arrive.
The next day we caught the ferry from Port Ellen, and as we went past could see our hill from a different angle
A ferry sailed past, and it was only au revoir to Jura and Islay, since there were still many Marilyns to do there
