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ANOTHER RESCUED POST FROM THE DEFUNCT SCOTTISHHILLS.COM
What? Uisgeneabhal Mor
When? May 10th 2010
How? From Gleann Mhiabhaig
Weather? Very cold for May, sunshine, wind, hail and SNOW.
Distance? 8.2 Kilometres Ascent? 2352
Time taken? Approx 5 hours
Who? Sgurr, R and M
Five of us were staying in Harris for the week, and had gone for An Cliseam on the first day T & D preferred to spend then following day doing something not so close to An Cliseam, but R and I were in bagging mode, and our friend M decided to come with us.
There is room for several cars at the entrance to Gleann Miabhaig, and we saw another park there and people setting off on mountain bikes, probably to look at the spectacular Sron Ard at the other end.
We walked back a couple of hundred yards along the road and climbed the hill initially along the edge of a sheep meadow that had been fenced off. We climbed and traversed our way up to the wide ridge.
At that point the wind rose and hail lashed our faces. Ever the pessimist, I had started off in full rain gear, but we had to stop for R and M to adjust their clothing. “Headless chickens” came into mind for some reason.
We followed the ridge along, and the hail abated after a while.
It was quite a slog in places, and looking back, I saw the only slight bit of evidence on the entire holiday that M’s training regime since he had left us after Inverie last year was not perfectly suited to adapt him to hill climbing. Living in London, between his annual jaunts north, he spends a lot of his time running up and down church towers and indulging in bell-ringing. If I had only climbed one hill since last year, I would have been in the car park still. This is always what happens. At some point in day one of a holiday he begins to flag, and we wonder why we invited him. All the rest of the holiday he patiently conceals his impatience waiting for us, and we wonder why we invited him. [Only joking, his mountain sense is a great addition to any walk]
We walked up past a false summit and into the mist.
At the top it started snowing fairly heavily
Just time to peer downwards into the mist, and then beat a hasty retreat.
We went back the same way we had come, stopping only to crouch behind some boulders for lunch, still wearing gloves.
The next day we climbed the Marilyn Todun .
What? Tiorga Mor
When? May 12th 2010
How? The route described in the new Cicerone Guide.
Weather? Sunshine a little cloud low wind.
Distance? 13.5 kilometres. Ascent? 2590 feet
Time taken? Approx 6 hours
Who? M , T, Sgurr and R,
This day provided the best weather of the entire week. We drove as far as we could along the tarmacked track to the power station on the Albhainn Eabhal. A multi padlocked gate prevented us going any further, I counted six, not as many as fatdog walks counted in his account of Houdini Hill. Having overseen the construction of many of these access tracks he was justifiably annoyed when he couldn't get past a gate such as this. We merely sighed, and parked.
A stalkers track is marked on the map, but the Cicerone guide points out that it does not really appear until it starts climbing, so it is just a case of winding through bog and heather.
We followed the track to a cairn at its summit,
Behind the cairn, we thought we could see St. Kilda.
And zoomed from higher up
We struck up towards the little Loch Braigh Beargais. We stopped somewhere along here for elevenses. Those who have read my other TRs will know that elevenses do not really feature: they are an import from Yorkshire, and according to T’s GPS add to the already substantial time that we spend reading maps, looking for birds, eating lunch, and on this occasion meant that around a third of the time we took was simply idling. I considered lobbying for elevenses in future, but partnered with R such a plan was always doomed.
We curved round to ascend the easy north west ridge of Tiorga Mor
From the top (where we had lunch) we could see the Cuillin
Along the beautiful sandy beaches of Harris
Out to the north-east
And towards Uisgeneabhal Mor and An Cliseam
We could see the ridge that was our next Graham project, Uilabhal, Oireabhal and Cleisabhal (I wish that we had had access to the internet on Harris, as we could have looked at foggieclimber’s fine report when he did both Grahams in a day. I knew he had been heading that way, but was unsure of the dates, and almost expected him to overtake us on a ridge somewhere.
On the summit, we had lunch, and the keen eyed M spotted a couple of eagles circling over the next ridge.
From Tiorga Mor, we headed towards Tiorga Beag from where we got a good view of the spectacular Sron Uladail
We traversed down to reach the stalkers path at Loch Aiseabhat
And followed it down Gleann Chliostair
When we reached a bridge we found a device attached to each side. Was someone counting deer or hillwalkers? Or measuring the flow?Someone will know.
A rather boring 2 km walk along tarmac took us back to the car.
The next day (Thursday) it was raining and blowing a 25km wind when we woke. We became tourists for the day headed for Lewis. First visiting the memorial to the men of the Pairc deer raid
The Callanish standing stones. Avoiding other tourists gave me a less than dramatic pic.
The Dun Carloway broch
The Gearrannnan black house village
Where we were given a demonstration of weaving.
M looked interested, as his Harris tweed trousers have finally had to be retired following an encounter with some Harris rock during this holiday. However, the weaver was weaving the wrong colour for a repair.
What? Oireabhal
When? May 14th 2010
How? The route partly described in the new Cicerone guide
Weather? Wind had changed and brought warmer, but cloudier weather. Sunny with clouds.
Distance? 13.6 kilometres Ascent? Approx 3490
Time taken? Nearly 8 hours.
Who? D, T, M, Sgurr and R..
We parked our car as for Tiorga Mor. The ticks had been out already, and one of us had found four previously. Which would a tick choose as a “welcome host” ?
We walked up to the dam, and then to the bealach.
We set off up the right hand side of the burn and had elevenses again.
Our England based friends wanted to know why Lewis and Harris are often referred to as separate islands, since together their area is third largest island in the UK, and largest in Scotland. Had they not formed such a coalition, Skye would probably have won the leading position? In this politically charged (but factually sparse) atmosphere, we then walked into the cloud
I though that this was to be our fate for the entire ridge, so snapped away hurriedly when the opportunity arose (looking north)
We reached the summit of Ulabhal
Sharp eyed readers will note that there is one person missing. D, with a dodgy back, had wanted to take in Sron Uladail, but alas, T had the camera, so there are no photos to rival foggieclimber’s.
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We set off towards the “optional scramble” on Cathadail an Air.
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Three of us welcomed the option
But one of us, decided against. And looking downwards was glad she had. However, R said it was easy, and he hadn’t even needed to put down his sticks.
Finally we reached the top of Oireabhal. There were a couple of cairns, but we decided that what I am standing on was probably higher.
After lunch we headed off to Bigididh
And then onwards to Cleisebal
I only looked back for a minute
Well, perhaps two or three, and discovered that they were miles away.
On top, the mist came down again, and T and I spotted an eagle that loomed up in the cloud to check on us.
We waited until the cloud lifted, and spotted it soaring away in the distance.
We headed down the SW ridge towards the road, D had been just about to head back to the cottage when she spotted us coming down the hill and decided to wait. M by now was well into his stride and reached the road a good ten minutes before us. No dodgy knees, no surplus weight. Sickening !!
We had quite a way on tarmac before D was able to see us on the road and drove towards us, saving our tired legs the last km
Take a bow, D.
ckr
Back at the cottage, we realised that the next day we would have to pack up and leave.
The cottage couldn’t be bettered for facilities, and worked out at £90 per head for the week.
Saying goodbye to Harris.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/21bcNAW]
