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With the whole country being washed out for the past couple of weeks, I spent Friday night scouring through the various weather apps to try find somewhere in the country which would be relatively dry for a walk the following day. I'm down to my last few munros, all of which are nestled in the North West. Therefore, with the shorter days, I have decided to start chipping away at some Corbetts until I make my final push on my remaining munros next spring/summer.
I decided to tackle Beinn Chuirn, a hill famed for its gold mine deep beneath its surface buried in its east face. I took advantage of the excellent track along the floor of Glen Cononish by taking my mountain bike as far as the second gate beyond the farm and mine entrance. Once through the second gate, I left the bike and continued up the track until I reached a small Cairn in the right and headed straight up the steep hillside.
- Picturesque Ben Lui
After about 100m of ascent, I met a rough track and followed this as it wound its way up to a plateau at 600m. I then beared west and kept to the south side of the burn before finding a place to cross. With the heavy rainfall the past few weeks, the water flow in the burn was quite considerable so I had to take care crossing. Once across, I just aimed north and reached the shoulder east of the summit without too much hassle. Unfortunately the clag had set in from 700m upwards, so I had no views from the summit.
- Summit cairn
Had a quick bite to eat on top and retraced my steps and was back on the Glen floor in no time.
- View back down Glen Cononish
The bike leg back was mainly downhill so made for fairly easy going.
- The locals
All in all, I would recommend bringing a mountain bike as it probably saved me an hour of walking. I didn't meet a soul on the hill or in the Glen which was surprising for a weekend. I think I'll have to get used to the solitude of Corbett bagging!