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This weekend we were supposed to be in Skye doing what was needed on the ridge. However our guide got in touch 10 days ago to say he was recovering from a lurgy and wasn't feeling fit enough to go. We've got another date later in June. So you could guarantee that the weather this weekend would be absolutely perfect for things Cuillin. The upside of this delay is that it gives us a bit of time to get a little bit fitter/re-acquainted with hands on stuff, which we're badly out of touch with. After a fortnight spent on the Hebridean Way (report here, if you missed it : -
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=124041 ) we were way short of walks with altitude, or attitude for that matter.
We'd nipped up Garbhbheinn on Skye and the Munro Tops on Bidean nam Bian last weekend on the way home. Rùm seemed an ideal option for us - I needed the Corbetts and Graham and it would give us a taste of a longer day with some scrambling. I was determined to go when the weather was going to be alright - our first visit was marred by clag, our second by high winds. Looking at the forecast at the start of the week, things seemed to be looking good. However, as the week drew on, after I'd booked the ferry tickets, the wind forecast started to get a bit worrisome, mostly as we had planned to camp part of the way round the circuit.
The timing of the boat to Rùm isn't ideal. You can get the early boat over on Saturday morning and come back late the same night, but that would leave anxiety about getting the circuit completed in time, especially as there's not a Sunday boat at present. We decided to go on the Friday sailing, which leaves in the early afternoon. Lots of hours potentially wasted before that! We'd used the time on our last trip to do a Marilyn in Morar, and I quite fancied the same this time. Creag Bhan can be done from just East of Lochailort and is only about 8km. A short walk in on Thursday night should hopefully get us a place to pitch and a short walk to the summit the next morning. One of the downsides about the better weather is that most our usual off-season camp spots are otherwise occupied, so one needs to be a bit more determined.
A lovely evening as we drove up to Ft William and beyond, parking in a lay-by just to the west of Arieniskill. The cottage at the bridge is vacant and up for sale. We shuffled around the fence onto the path to Meoble and headed gently up the hill. Bracken is really growing now and the midges were in evidence for the first time this year. Cuckoos too. The path is boggy in bits, but provides a useful route following the Allt na Criche. We walked for maybe 2.5km and found an acceptable campspot on a small rise. Good views as the sun sank behind the hills - it didn't really get properly dark at all.
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Al, on Flickr
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I had intended to get up early, and wakened at 6 with the intent of jumping out of bed and getting to the hill. Sadly, I thought I'd have another 5 minutes and next thing it was 7.30... Very hot in the tent with the sun beating down. We packed stuff away, walked a wee bit and left our packs on the fenceposts before heading uphill. We just followed the fence line to Loch Tri-Chriochan where I noticed a moth like creature apparently in distress about 12 feet away from shore. Looks like a job for International Moth Rescue, thought I and divested myself of boots, rolled trousers up and "rescued" the creature on the tip of my pole. We put it on a rock to dry off in the sun dn Allison noticed a larva being extruded from it. A bit of googling and we realised it had been laying its larvae in the waters. I had no idea moths could be live-bearing. So we put it back into the water, where it zoomed off at a rate of knots back to the middle of the water to presumably continue what we'd interrupted. Isn't nature great
Loch Bioraid
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Creag Bhan
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From here it was a wander up to the summit, through a maze of little lochans and tors. Great views out to the Islands and to Loch Beoraid, of Meith Bheinn and the Moral hills. Felt good to be up on a summit on such a lovely sunny morning. We tracked back to our packs and returned to the car for the short journey to Mallaig. The town was busy - we parked at the east end where parking is free for up to a week and moseyed around, noticing the Harry Potter themed shops, the noisy gulls. Sat outside the ferry terminal for a bit drying off socks til it was time to go, talking to a couple of guys from Ft William who were heading to Rùm to do a bit of scrambling over the next four days.
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The butterwort is out - midges about
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The crossing was fast and efficient, once again unaccompanied by any cetaceans. Many of the folk on board got stuck into the Isle of Eigg beers the cafe sells and we reckoned they were unlikely to be going climbing today
We landed just after 2 and set off past the houses, the very neat toilet/shower block and the bunkhouse/camping field and onwards to to castle. I don't know if there's any of the castle open to the public at present, it still looks boarded up with bits of scaffolding around.
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My original plan had been to do a bit of the circuit today and camp around Bealach an Oir. However, the forecasts were all predicting 30mph winds from the north, which would hit the bealach head on, and it's a bit committing once you are there. We thought about the bealach between Hallval and Askival which might be sheltered but I didn't know if it was capable (it would have been) so we ended up choosing a spot a little away from the path at Cnapan Breaca where there was no wind at all - and midges to prove it. This meant we were camped quite early and had time to sit and enjoy the views across to Skye and to go and explore an odd little building in the coire to the south of our pitch - it turned out to be a hut used by Shearwater researchers.
Sat and watched an eagle circling around Hallival, probably on the lookout for stray shearwaters who had ventured too far from their burrows.
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Hallival
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Saturday morning found us engulfed in clag. Thick wet stuff. Visibility was poor and I was hoping it would either lift or that we were in an inversion and could climb out of it. We heard some voices about 7am but didn't rush to make an early start ourselves in such conditions. Packed away a wet tent and set off to find the path towards Hallival - there are cairns to assist route finding. As we climbed past 600m the clag thinned and we were indeed coming out of an inversion, with gobsmacking views of teh rocky top of Askival ahead of us. Walked on the grassy ridge full of shearwater burrows - you could hear them under your feet, plotting how to get rid of these damn hillwalkers from their island. A bit of hands on stuff up to the top of Askival where there were lots of folk either sitting and enjoying the views or setting off down to Bealach an Oir. This was by far the busiest we'd ever seen Rùm, possibly due to the increased interest in Corbett bagging?
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Past shearwater burrows
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Skye
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We followed what seemed to be the path off Askival - tricky in places with a big pack on - and noticed we were being pulled too far south into Gleann Dibidil. This is possibly a route for those only doing Askival - we had to contour quite a bit to bring us back in line for Bealach an Oir. On closer inspection it didn't seem a very good camping option - lots of stony ground. Onwards towards Trollabhal - we stopped for lunch on the lower grassy slopes, watching folk go past us. The strong winds had simply not materialised.
A bit of scrambling up to the top section of Trollabhal, where we removed our packs for the shuttle out to the summit. The scrambling guys from yesterday were there, as was a party of 5 on the summit itself and another two blokes joined us before long. It's quite narrow going along to the summit, but good dry rock and good grips made it exciting rather than frightening. Just what we needed. From there we picked our way carefully to Bealach an Fhurain. The scramblers were heading straight up the north ridge - we took the more sedate path by the scree and inched our way eventually to the summit. The cloud inversion was still in place and the mountains of Skye floated in a white sea. It was really a gorgeous day.
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Ainshval
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Towards Sgurr nan Gillean
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From here we made our way around the ridge to Sgurr nan Gillean, where we met up with Ian and his dog Hamish, and walked with them for the next hour or so. Ian has 50 Corbetts remaining and was surprised by how quickly we've got through ours. All in the perseverance. The descent to Dibidil was less knee-crunching than I remembered it, from a decade ago, maybe we didn't follow the best route back then. Past Dibidil bothy, where Ian left us to have a look inside and along the return path.
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Eigg
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The coastal walk was superb - looking directly over to Eigg. My recollection was of a pretty much sea level path going round to Kinloch - clearly delusional as the path actually climbs quite a lot and is not at sea level anywhere. It's also very boggy - in fact parts of it are worse than anything we encountered on the HebWay. There are some short sections where proper track has been laid, but these are too few. Allison rated the path a 2/5 and then only 2 stars because of the views.
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It was still very hot, despite being after 7pm. My sunward arm was positively roasting - I had taken my shirt off much earlier and was walking with a T Shirt on which wasn't clever. Belatedly I changed back into my long sleeved shirt but the damage had been done. Allison was in much the same state. Eventually we saw Kinloch appear ahead of us and we got down to the terminal just after 8pm, which meant the shop had shut. We had a coffee and chatted to two of the guys we'd met earlier while we waited for the ferry to come in.
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On cue the boat sailed towards us over the blue waters and we climbed aboard - it must have been to Canna or somewhere before Rùm as there were some folk already on board, but it was a quiet crossing. I'd been hoping for a spectacular sunset as teh boat sailed for Mallaig, but it was a bit pathetic in the end. We sampled an Eigg IPA, which was very drinkable, and chatted to Ian and his dog. He was going to spend the night in his van, going over to Inverie the next day. We - on the other hand - were going to find somewhere to camp between Mallaig and Glencoe.
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It was a little weird coming off the ferry so late. We walked back to the car in a twilight, past the boats in the harbour, the harbour lights. In the past I might have considered camping at the Sands of Morar , but we knew they'd be hoaching. The roads were pretty empty as we drove south. Callops? I missed the turn. Oh well, Glencoe it is then. 1am by the time we pulled into the spot we'd earmarked and been in last weekend. Parking area stowed out. We pulled in, got the rucksacks out as=nd set off up the hill to the wee spot we use. A late pitch by moonlight. We were both pretty tired after the scrambling and the heat.
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Hopes for a long lie on Sunday morning were once again dashed by dazzling sunshine - the tent was a wee oven and we couldn't open the door cos of the midges. Allison pulled about 20 ticks off my legs and back - she had a whole 2 on her. Something unfair there...The plan for today was Sgorr a'Choise behind Ballachullich. I had a mind to go in from Glean Leac na-Muidhe rather than the usual route from Gleann na Fhiodh. We parked in a lay-by just west of the estate road and took the newly almost-completed footway that starts at the Glencoe Visitor Centre to avoid walking on the road.
Another beautiful sunny morning, the heat from the sun already biting at our sunburned arms. Past the holiday cottages - the diversion path that used to have to be taken to the SE of them is no longer signed. Along to the river crossing of the Allt na Muidhe, easy today, then following fence line for a bit before ascending Meall a'Bhuige. It was hot work for our tired legs and we were not sorry to see some clouds roll in and cover the sun as we went more steeply up towards the conical summit, following a path by the fence line at the craggy top.
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We sat having lunch, cooled intermittently by a lovely breeze, before heading back down the way we'd come. Back at the car just after 2pm, I thought the roads would be really busy, but there wasn't much of a hold up, and I was home in time to see the second half of the City game as they clinched the Championship for the fourth time in a row
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