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Date - Wed 09/03/2011
Title - Isle of Mull - Tobermory & Crater Lake (Lochan's Airde Beinn) [Extinct volcano]
Hills - S Airde Beinn
Route - There and back from layby on B8073 next to ruined house
Weather - Changing by the minute from sunny to snow flurries
People - Me / Michelle
Time - 1h
Distance - 2.8km
Ascent - 140m
Max Altitude - 295m
The weather was moving fast today. Looking out the B&B window it was snowing one minute
Bright the next
Tobermory
Pano-
click to view large (not well stitched together- cloud and light changing so fast!)We drove a couple of miles SW of Tobermory and parked in the small layby next to the ruined house. After waiting in the car for another snow flurry to pass over we were on our way.
Approaching S Airde Beinn (Crater Lake)
The paths a bit boggy but it's all avoidable and easy going. There's a short steep push to get up onto the hill proper.
Arriving at Crater Lake - this is an extinct volcano crater, and one of many remants from Mull's volcanic past (60 million years ago)
Zooming South to Ben More getting obscured by a passing storm. One of another couple staying at our B&B was heading up there this morning- it didn't look nice!
There's 3 tops that surround the crater. There's not much difference and you barely notice much up and down, but the W top is the summit for
S Airde Beinn. We had no idea of this at the time, but walking a circuit round the crater you go over all the tops.
Looking back at the descent from the summit
Wall at N end going right down to lochan
Looking down to Tobermory from cairn on N top
N to Ardnamurchan Point/Corrachadh Mòr - most westerly point on British mainland
Looking W, just able to make out Coll
Crater Lake
After walking round the rim of the crater the return path drops down and skirts around the E side of the hill, before rejoining the approach path and returning to the start.
Ruinded house next to road, opposite Loch Meadhoin
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Afterwards we went back into Tobermory to treat ourselves to a stash of quality hand made chocolate from the Tobermory Chocolate Shop before making our way to the ferry at Fisnish.
Stopped at Aros Park Falls as we left Tobermory
And arrived in perfect time to drive straight on the ferry and began our journey back to Inverness
More pics in
flickr set