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No reason for the music choice this week other than it was going around in my head during the walk...(so was "I'm a Barbie girl" but we won't go there...)
This was another weekend where we had Skye "pencilled in". our guide had Sunday and Monday free for us to do the Tops along the Cuillin Ridge ut a decision would have to be made on Wednesday so that, if we weren't going Allison could cancel her requested leave for the Monday. What did the forecast predict on Wednesday? Thunderstorms and big winds. So Skye was off the menu. I had a look around at other places and noted that the Far North looked alright - dry, some sunshine. Whilst on the one hand reluctant to drive away back up to Sutherland again, having been up that way just 10 days ago, there was also the matter of making the long light nights count when it comes to long drives. The hills had to be done at some point, so why not now?
We had the trio of Northern Corbetts: Foinaven, Cranstackie and Spionnaidh to do, plus Leoid and associated Grahams. Foinaven is my most favourite mountain and I had a wee think about how to do it. The best way is the long traverse over its back, from Bealach Horn, but we'd done that and it didn't lend itself to doing the other two Corbetts there. The WH circular route has the drawback of a hideous return over bogs to reach Gualin House - we'd done that too and would not choose to repeat it. And if we did Foinaven as a stand alone, it would mean that we'd be going up Cranstackie & Spionnaidh the usual way. For the third time. So I came up with a plan to do Foinaven then continue down Srath Dionard and do a full traverse of the long back of Cranstackie, something I've wanted to do for many years.
We headed up on Thursday evening - I confess I made Allison listen to the cricket commentary until close of play. She told me it was a lot of gobbledegook: I did attempt to explain what some of the terms meant but could tell she wasn't really invested in finding out
The roads weren't bad: we stopped as usual at Ralia to have our food then continued northwards. I decided to camp in the spot we'd used recently when climbing Glas Bheinn - far enough from the road to have privacy and not too far from Rhiconich to leave us a lot of driving on Friday morning. When we'd camped at the start of June everything had been dry as a bone, but the recent rains made our spot a little marshy. We did manage to get pitched between one shower and the next; the rain was quite heavy overnight. We were off about 9 and ready to go just before 10.
Now a word of advice if you are approaching Foinaven by the Gualin House route: there's new construction work going on - a fancy low level building is is being put up - which means that walking through the grounds of Gualin House isn't possible. We were stopped by an estate worker who told us we should go back to the road and use the little wooden gate just north of the main entrance (this is the description in WH actually, but wasn't there when we did this route 10 years ago). As no workmen had arrived yet, he then offered to walk us through the "construction site" until we reached the track, which was good of him. I'd also suggest that you might find it quicker to park in a deep passing place on your left as you drive past Gualin House - it will hold 3 cars without impeding the passing place function.
It was that kind of day - Srath Diolard from the roadside
59EFFCC2-024C-4898-A567-0E0C8093BBF9_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
5D34D2B0-4056-44A1-B798-7CD37F525949_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Anyway, back to our adventure. Be prepared to drop almost 100m eight as you walk along the first section of the track. And it's busy! The estate - or at least part of it - was bought a few years back by a Dr Modi, who intends to beautify it and not permit "hunting/shooting/fishing" according to the press I could find. Well there's certainly lots of fishing going on. We came to a part of the track where there were several Range Rovers trying to "rescue" one that had slipped a wheel over the side of the road. This might have been a "team building" exercise, as one of the chaps told us, or it might not. They were friendly and we reciprocated by standing to the side of the track every time a vehicle went by. At last we reached the spot, marked by a small cairn, where one can ascend firstly to Cnoc a'Mhadaidh then up to Ceann Garbh. We dumped most of our kit behind a boulder, covered it with our rucksack covers and set off.
Looking up at Cnoc a'Mhadidh
E9A0EEE6-0F07-40E5-BB71-03D93D937036_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
A boggy first section then onto rock slabs as we went up Cnoc a'Mhadaidh. The last 100m or so of the main summit were under clag, which tenaciously remained there the whole day. Looking into Glas-Choire Granda I therefore couldn't see the terrible scree route I'd chosen on our first ascent. Not to be recommended! There's almost 100m drop from Cnoc a'Mhadaidh to Bealach nan Carn, so you might want to head up by teh Allt Coire Duail if you are economising on metres of ascent; though it's probably drier going up a'Mhadaidh. Then some boulder hopping up Ceann Garbh. Eventually we picked up a path but it's quite laborious. The top of Ceann Garbh reached we continued on round the rim of the coire to Ganu Mor. No views today, sadly, no snow buntings either.
8D42D7C1-C403-4308-B9F5-3BB743F122E4_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
6CC27310-C8AD-420D-BDC8-711AAF886F5F_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Clag sitting on Ceann Garbh and Ganu Mor
45401661-FDC0-4430-A7D8-3929A3FEB6B2_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
D14D2AB9-5622-4FD8-88E7-3A41B3D4BDA5_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
60E259AD-23B0-41D4-8619-7ACA388FE808_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
From here it was a matter of retracing our steps down Ceann Garbh, this time contouring round a'Mhadaidh and ending back at the spot we'd left our kit. I was surprised that it took so long: 3 and a half hours to the summit from the track; 2 hours back down. Allison wasn't entirely fit after her lurgy then week off the hills but even so... We packed our rucksacks again and continued down the track. I hoped we'd find a suitable place to camp near Loch Dionard and thought we should probably try and get the river crossing done today rather than leave this for the morning. Most of the terrain is tussocks and bog, even alongside the river, making finding a pitch difficult. We reached almost the end of the track - there's a boat house or fishing hut at the very end - and headed over towards some ruins that Allison had spotted, hoping there might be some useable dry land there. The river was quite wide here and up to mid-thigh in places but not a strong current and we crossed without incident. The ruins had one small piece of grass, with a stony fundament, but we managed to get pitched and enjoyed gazing over to the intricate might of Foinaven as we ate our Huel. I was very impressed with the idea of living in a house made from the same stone as my favourite mountain.
The long back of Cranstackie
137BC1FF-3982-40D6-B18F-BD77E6080179_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
11DAE4AC-596F-41B3-AFF6-CB05E65129A0_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
FB194664-12B3-4CDD-A218-D9CDBB6AA4E2_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
77AFDED4-2A5A-4F2B-AC91-22381B3F7957_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Ruin and Foinaven
A8A132DD-8D6F-49A3-B7A5-F1E84F92F814_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Cranstackie in backdrop
1DB9E250-1B8C-429A-9A47-EA0E4B5E0061_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Looking north
29573306-7644-4C1A-B68F-145922B65408_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
I want a house made of Foinaven...
94C0127F-C9AE-447D-8E72-9B5453FEA963_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Brief spells of rain overnight but a bright morning, some clouds but also patches of blue sky. We packed up and set off following deer paths and an old fence line which took us up to Bealach na h-Imrich. From here the ascent of Cranstackie was just a joy - so much more fulfilling than the steep standard route by Rhigloter Farm. A pavement of shattered quartzite, then pipe rock, then sandstone slabs, with an incremental gain in height which made the whole process effortless. To our left we could study the changing forms of Foinaven which kept us company as we walked mile after mile towards the summit. A final boulderfield then the summit cairn and views!! Twice before we've stood at the top of Cranstackie and not seen a thing - today it was lovely to look north to the Parph peninsula; east to Loch Eriboll, Hope and Loyal.
Foinaven
9792C652-A80C-4029-9E99-0D3BDAD73741_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Clearing at last
2F129427-53BA-435A-94DB-4AC098CB1F81_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
6D166CFF-9F86-47D6-82A8-F10C490A449C_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Cranstackie
F4A5C15A-9225-430C-A7F7-18CBEED38307_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Longitudinal view of Foinaven
780021D5-12A1-420F-AD6E-055F86DA9AE0_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Continuing up Cranstackie
78ADA59A-F8AA-47DD-AAC9-17A85F0C1055_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Loch Eriboll
4FCCD02B-0125-4E5D-AB76-6CFBC8B2C447_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Getting near the top now
8A36E14E-2C4E-4F6F-8C54-939AEB3F83C9_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
2C513C2A-93D0-4ECE-B0DB-08E97D6F7D4F_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
68AE8289-1D61-4278-B417-859B04278723_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
08D6643B-10B3-41F1-9031-FA671C01F511_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
We scuttled off across the boulders to take the standard route over to Spionnaidh. A group of three women were coming up as we descended the narrow shoulder then to the grassy bealach. A steady gradient up to Spionnaidh, with another boulder walk over the summit plateau to reach the trig column which has been encircled by a stone wall, leaving little room to sit inside the "shelter" In fact it' really a shelter for the trig column
From here we took the descent line over the Big Breast (Cioch Mhor) and then cut down towards the farm track. Quite a long walk to reach the road, then uphill (gently) all the way til we reached the car, about 3k away. The road wasn't particularly busy, it being tea time, so we weren't harassed by large vehicles.
Looking back at Cranstackie from the bealach
768695BA-303D-438D-BE4B-76A5927DDFFA_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
25BAED4D-78E3-4B10-8FE3-A4FB42A9976A_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Spionnaidh
2C5DDC0E-2C9C-4F2D-9F9F-0AF9A6235D20_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Thanks for the water
F59DA549-4447-4E81-91E5-F67C870FECF0_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
It was gone 6 when we reached the car. Plans for Sunday involved Beinn Leoid, along the Laxford Bridge - Lairg road. I wasn't sure where we'd spend the night - for one crazy moment I considered heading north to Durness and finding something there. But that would involve delay in getting started tomorrow and with the long drive back home at the end of the walk that wouldn't be sensible. So we headed along past Loch Stack and managed to find somewhere off the road. Not easy along that road - the "usual" places had already been snapped up by Cape Wrathers, who, we conceded, deserved tent space more than us. Enough breeze to sit outside and have our tea before the midges started to congregate and we ducked indoors. At 11pm another car drew into where we were parked and we could hear various muffled comings and goings. A bit close for comfort really, but we sank into an uneasy slumber. More rain overnight, not forecasted. We awoke to find a couple of climbers - one had slept in the car, the other had a covered bivvy. They were apologetic for having camped near us but said they were too knackered last night to look elsewhere.
The morning looked overcast - the forecast was to stay dry and brighten later in the morning. We hoped so, as Leoid was another hill we'd never seen clag-free. I had considered doing another route, taking the track in from half-way down Loch More, but that was a longer walk, not ideal for today's requirements. So we went via the same route we've used twice before. There's parking either before or after the footbridge that skirts the forestry plantation - currently cleared but soon to be re-planted y the looks of the new fencing going up. There's a fine stalkers path that takes you easily up the first 300m and the first Graham, Meall an Fheur Loch, is simply a wander up a grassy slope from the track. Good views east along Loch Shin and SW to the next two hills from the summit. A gentle descent along a grassy shoulder to the head of Loch Cul a'Mhill then up the somewhat steeper shoulder of the second Graham, Meallan a'Chuail. A cap of boulders before a well vegetated summit, then descent west towards the bealach with Leoid - much easier when you can see where you are going. At Drochaid Beinn Leoid there's a path of sorts to follow that rises up gently to the summit, passing quite dramatic cliffs to the north.
2AE10083-3CDC-4C70-8F70-3F506CEF9BB8_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Top of Fheur Loch
728DFE6B-AC95-4976-9A65-5E8D36F3D82D_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Chuail & Leoid
B923C98E-95CB-445D-9379-F7543A96147A_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
CD605F48-EEC0-46AF-ABF1-36559429BB75_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Looking back at Fheur Loch
1303F777-6E89-44B0-B8F0-477D97D2A7CF_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Chuail
AED7AE65-9EA8-49A5-B2EA-F2C0C6033393_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
E26FDA66-4C9B-497E-84E4-8A8ACA0B630D_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Leoid
012B4BE8-9A4D-4A71-A8DE-6F8CBF3C0A7D_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Ben Stack & Arkle
1276CD61-0DC9-4ADF-AD42-CD90D4CBF031_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Looking to Quinaig
FBCE8DE5-C2AB-44C1-B7CB-FFB2B367B581_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Ben More Assynt
809572F8-6086-45E6-BD74-6139DAC29ED7_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
From the top (23 Corbetts left now) we retraced our steps to the Drochaid then took the stalkers path alongside Loch Dubh, which skits the western flanks of Meallan a'Chuail. This is the worst bit of the route - you have to join up the path you are on with the one you came in on, which involves traipsing over bog and tussock and re-gaining some elevation. You can either head off the path as soon as it starts to drop height (Pollagan Dubha on the map), or follow it to the waterfalls which leaves a shorter distance cross-country but more height to regain. We did the former, but probably better doing the latter...
B47DA37B-5175-4789-A7F1-BB7BD1CE664E_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Leoid from Loch Dubh
7BB46E57-CE87-419D-9439-3C84141EA8C1_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
Once the original track was regained progress was swift and we were back at the car in about 6 hours, with a 5 hour plus drive back down the road. Traffic was fairly light and there was no cricket commentary to subject Allison to, the match being abandoned because of heavy rain.
