Fuar Tholl - everything a mountain should have

[Milo12]

Knowing that this walk would come with stunning views and tricky scree sections, I had been waiting for a dry day with the odd bit of sunshine to make it enjoyable. With exactly that in the forecast, it was time for this gem of a mountain.

To say it right away - with just a few meters short of being a munro, this was not a walk in the park. Although the stunning surrounds certainly make this one of the more memorable walks. The rocky mountain scenery throughout makes for a very special experience.

The start of the walk through the woodland section is always a treat. After that the trail heads steadily up along a little river before taking you up to a bealach. The sweeping views at Fuar Tholl, Ben Liath More and Sgurr Ruadh with a little loch thrown in for artistic purposes makes you want to stop and spend the rest of the day just there.

But on it goes across a little river (tricky in higher water) and on a very good quality trail steadily up to the buttress of Fuar Tholl. While you can see the trail in the distance and it all looks quite gentle, I was surprised how taxing this section was doing it.

A little after the buttress the I turned off the trail up towards the scree section. I was surprised that there was no actual trail visible given that this is a mountain that gets a fair bit of traffic. Up across a little outcrop, a pretty section with some lochans opens up and the zig zig up the scree becomes visible. There are some helpful cairns to help orientation up the zig zag. After the zig zag you do need to look very carefully for the cairns and the actual trail. While it is well worn when you are on it, missing it can make for some awkward and potentially dangerous climbs.

The trail gets very steep and you will definitely be needing hands and feet for a while before the trail levels out a bit towards the top. Once up however, the views are nothing short of stunning and the walking gets very easy on the grassy top. There is a little climb up to the top of the buttress and after that up to the shelter on Fuar Tholl, but that feels easy now. The top of Fuar Tholl stretches a bit and walking to all the edges makes for very different views - well worth the few extra steps.

The way down was quite quick, including the section on the scree, and with the sun now coming out just what I needed to enjoy the moment. At about 800m a little frog was a surprising little find. While this is an out and back walk the scenery never gets boring, especially when the light is constantly changing. It is a truly stunning surrounding, not something you get every day.

[SummitStupid]

Gorgeous photos of a gorgeous area. I spent four nights around the Coulin Forest last Spring, and although Fuar Tholl was the one I was looking forward to most, I actually found it to be a little underwhelming compared to the others I climbed that week! Sgorr Ruadh had better views and an amazing quartzite crag that blew me away; An Ruadh Stac looked amazing and had a brilliant ascent; Maol Chean-dearg was a fascinating, varied climb with ridiculous views (which I soaked in for two hours) and a golden eagle flypast. It was a week where each mountain was even better than the last, and Fuar Tholl I think, magnificent though it is, just suffers a bit in comparison. This report makes me want to go back though.