Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich & Lurg Mhor

[Stuart Blakeley]

The plan was to tackle these remote hills on the Friday then back in on the Sat to complete the remaining three (Sgurr Choinnich, Sgurr a' Chaorachain and Maoile Lunndaidh)......

We stayed in the bunkhouse at the Ledgowan Lodge Hotel and departed the car park from nearby Craig. We took our bikes (highly recommended) along the forestry road up the Allt a' Chonais and along the track as far as the cairn heading down to the wire bridge to cross the river.

After the pull up to the Bealach Bhernais we first completed the Corbett Beinn Tharsuinn then progressed down to the Bealach an Sgoltaidh. A break in the cloud showed us the approach to Bidein a' Choire Sheashgaich which looked extremely daunting but if you follow the stone wall a path becomes obvious up to the the summit.

About an hour took us along the ridge to the summit of Lurg Mhor. The weather was typical of our great Scottish unpredictable mixed bag and we were by now as wet as we could be! The wind was picking up and we were blown about quite a bit as well.

Some say it's best to go back the way you came to the Bealach Bhernais but we did not fancy decending the rocky cliffs in the wet and wind so we headed for an alternative exit which was to drop down to the head of Loch Monar then made for the Bealach. From here it was a simple decent back to the rope bridge and here's where the benefit of the bikes comes in, it took us approx 20 mins to get back the the car park at Craig as opposed the the 1 hour plus to cycle in.

Early to bed on Friday and up at 6am on Sat to look at the remaining three. Only 2 out the 7 of us were keen to go back out but a combination of sore joints, BBC high level wind warnings and the psychological thought of another 12-14 hour day made us decide to leave them for another day.

As an alternative we walked from Torridon to Inveralligan and there was a fundraising day going on with Fire and Rescue training sessions, the RAF Rescue helicopter arrived and was open for people to get in and investigate. There was the obligatory beer tent and various stalls like the coconut shy and a space hopper race!

[mgmt!]

well done stuart, great stuff getting out there with forcasts being what they were, pity about the sunday but i think you made the right decission, i was just north of you this weekend doing 3 munros from the bothy at coulags on the saturday and fionn beinn on the sunday, well done again for getting out and completing something.

[Stuart Blakeley]

Thanks mgmt and well done to you for getting out as well! It was not pleasureable at all when such a long day in those conditions but when you are back at the hotel with the coal fire and a cold pint of Guinness in your hand it makes it all worth it.............

[mgmt!]

HOTEL !!! i wish, it was back to coulags bothy for us, got a good fire going and i did take some of scotlands amber nectar (medicinal purposses), so i do no were you are coming from.

[LeithySuburbs]

Can't wait to get to these two hills and will probably use Bendronaig bothy as I'm not much of a cyclist . Cheers for the report and good effort on such a route in those conditions .

[Border Reiver]

Can't wait to get to these two hills and will probably use Bendronaig bothy as I'm not much of a cyclist . Cheers for the report and good effort on such a route in those conditions .

This Bidein was my 100th Munro and as we were in a cottage on the Attadale estate near the end of the tarmac road, I biked in from there and did both Munros in a fairly easy day out. The climb to the top of the pass is tough and I pushed the bike a lot of it, but it's almost all downhill from there to Bendronaig Lodge. There's a walkers car park next to the estate road, just off the main road and you've got about a mile of easy riding on tarmac before hitting the gravel road.