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I must have changed the plan about 6 times in the three days running up to the weekend. I spent my mornings in the office repeatedly refreshing the met office forecasts for various hills and then impatiently waiting for the next update on MWIS. Neither agreed with each other, both were yoyoing between 70% chance of cloud free and 30%. One minute rain was forecast, the next minute dry for both days. On Thursday evening I finally settled on Skye and a long distance coastal walk round Duirinish as Dean was setting off on the Friday morning and wanted a decision. He’d meet me on Saturday morning at Orbost where we’d leave his car, taking mine up to Glendale to the start of the walk. On Friday morning I looked at MWIS again and panicked. Skye was now forecast to be in low cloud and drizzle all day on the Saturday. I frantically called Dean who had already got to the Cluanie Inn and asked very nicely if he minded me changing the plan again and thankfully because he is a very patient man who puts up with a lot from me (sorry again Dean) he agreed to turn round and head back to Fort William where he’d meet me in the evening, plan to be confirmed when I arrived. I rushed through the rest of my day at work and sped off up the A9 to our pal’s outside the Fort where Dean was waiting. A few glasses of wine later we had agreed on a final final plan. We’d head to Kinloch Hourn where we would do a big loop of Sgurr nan Eugallt and Sgurr a Choire Bheithe. I’d read a report by @Weaselmaster (
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=51680) where they’d done the ridge of Sgurr a Choire Bheithe in the opposite direction with a lovely looking camping spot and although we planned to combine with Sgurr nan Eugallt rathe than Ben Aden, it would still work for us.
The following morning we had a fairly leisurely start, on the road by 8.30am down the very long single track road to Kinloch Hourn. It wasn’t too stowed out with camper vans which was great and we didn’t really meet much other traffic at all. It still took an age to drive mind, so was about 10.30 by the time we set off walking from the car. Neither me or Dean have been out with overnight packs for a wee while, both of us have been fairly busy over winter, and the uphill was a nasty shock for me. I forget sometimes that I am not a professional athlete and it’s always an unpleasant surprise when I am reminded of this. The path itself however was a delight. Gentle gradient while gaining height quickly and not too boggy underfoot, so despite the lack of fitness we sped uphill and were on the top in under an hour and a half. Lulled into a false sense of security by our quick ascent we then spent an hour and half sat on top of the hill, wandering down to the far end of the ridge, chatting and eating sandwiches before realising we probably ought to get a move on given the distance we still had to walk.
We headed back eastwards along the ridge towards loch Quoich which turned out to be not such an easy walk. Endless knobbles and bobbles on the ridge made for slow going and each time we reached another ascent the complaints started coming thick and fast. However Dean’s tired legs were put to the back of his mind once we discovered a line of elderly fence posts. Dean loves an old fence post and was in his element, telling me at length (not that I’ve not heard any of this before) about the angles, what a great design, these must have been hand forged, they don’t make them like this anymore, and look – they’ve even drilled these holes at an angle to help keep the wire tighter!. This wasn’t quite enough for me to forget my tiredness and I was glad when we descended off the side of the hill towards the loch. Until we got to the loch and had to trudge through miles of boggy track towards our chosen campsite, come back knobbles of Sgurr nan Eugallt, all was forgiven! We reached the 2 damns at the head of the loch, with a further km at least to our campsite but the cloud was lowering and it looked like rain might be on the way so we ditched our plan and just camped at the head of Loch Quoich. There was enough grass that wasn’t completely sodden or covered in rock and so tents up, we got stuck into the vodka and I sat around drinking while Dean made dinner. Just as we finished the heavens opened and so early to bed, we both just bunked down for the night. Neither of us had any problem going to sleep at 7.30pm.
Dean with fence post
The next day we awoke to patches of blue sky and after a breakfast of leftover pasta from dinner, we set off straight up the side of Meall an Spardain. We gained height quickly, and with much huffing and puffing we reached the ridge at the Bealach an Fhuarain. Weaselmaster’s report mentioned more than once the knobbly qualities of this ridge, so I was fully prepared for another day of both of us raging about the number of summits and ups and downs, however doing it in reverse made for enjoyable walking, with the views increasing as we got further up, and the more interesting scrambly ridge sections coming up ahead to look forward to. It was still fairly tough going with heavy packs but all the scrambling was easy stuff, the snow had all gone so no complications on that front and we made the summit in good time. Then as per the day before we sat around chatting, enjoying the view and smoking for 2 hours. This was not the most sensible decision given the distance of the walk from Barrisdale back out along the path to Kinloch Hourn so at 2.45pm we had a small panic when we realised the time and set off at speed down to Barrisdale bay. There was fairly little path, probably due both to the standard lack of traffic on the Corbetts and the location, but this meant it was also slower going and took us quite a while to get down to the bottom. It then took longer than expected to get to the coastline from the back of the bay.
At 4.30pm we finally set off along the path to Kinloch Hourn and then we got a nasty shock. Neither of us had really looked at the map properly and both of us had just presumed it would be a gentle flat coastal path. It is not. It is surprisingly hilly with a lot of ups and downs, and although the path is good for the most, there are still some boggy sections. It was certainly not as quick and easy going as we had hoped but nevertheless it was a beautiful walk. Loch Hourn is stunning and the walk gives you fantastic views over the loch and takes you through some beautiful sections of woodland. Towards the end both of us had stopped appreciating the views, stopped speaking and were trudging silently along the last section of track which takes you though some thick rhododendron thickets. We were both glad to see the car when we finally got back and sped off back to Fort William, making plans for our next outing and enjoying the sensation of clean dry socks.
