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- The path to the coire from Bridge of Orchy
After taking the Citylink into Bridge of Orchy, me and my friend Theo begun our walk walk for Beinn Dòrain and Beinn an Dòthaidh at 12:22. We immediately missed the left turn onto the path to the munros by walking down the West Highland Way for a few minutes, quickly amending the mistake when we checked the map properly. Once on the main path, we traversed a relatively dry route up to the coire between our two targets. Weather was relatively sunny, with patches of high clouds and some fairly nice wind levels.
- Theo's Strava for the walk
Walking up the coire, the path was more unstable at parts with stones that slid under my foot. We reached the cairn at the top of the coire at about 13:35, where we had lunch. Afterwards, we made our ascent up Beinn an Dòthaidh, making the summit at some point around 14:30. The ascent was fairly boggy, but soon saw a layer of soft snow. The visibility also meant we could see across to the Dalmally hills, Crianlarich hills, Glen Etive, the Lawers range, and the Lochabers, the latter of which was being slowly engulfed by clouds.
- Us at the Beinn Dòrain summit
Making our way back down to the middle cairn, Theo and I began the longer ascent up Beinn Dòrain. The first part was fairly rocky, with a layer of frozen stream featured with icicles. Climbing further, we came across the soft snow again, only it was in larger quantities on this munro, with the sun periodically out, it made for nice scenery. We reached the first cairn in good time, and the high visibility meant that could see the real summit was still ahead. We reached the Beinn Dòrain summit at circa 16:00, taking a little time to admire the views again before we turned back.
Going back to the middle cairn was as fun as it was going up, as there was just as much soft snow to walk through. Fresh snow also began fallen, as more clouds were moving above the mountains. We made our descent back down the coire at roughly 16:50, making for brisk walk back to Bridge of Orchy, which we reached at about 17:50. With out bus back not arriving until 20:18, we staked out at the Bridge of Orchy hotel with the local IPA to celebrate. Weather ultimately served us well, and the snow was soft enough that we did not use our crampons, and not prominent enough for us to need to get the ice axes out at any point either. General conditions made it one of my favourite munro walks so far.
