Am Faochagach - the Hard Way

[go spazieren]

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Well, it wasn’t that hard, but turned out to be an interesting and enjoyable route.
Am Faochagach is put down as one of the less exciting Munros, as the WH guide says “undistinguished”, with the river crossing on the approach being the most eye-catching feature. When perusing the SMC Highland Scrambles North book, I was surprised to find there was a grade 2 scrambling route included for this most grassy and rounded of hills, so I had to give it a go.
The recent weather has been grim, but Tuesday looked like a good window between downpours, so I made a day trip of it. I was going to travel by motorbike, but there was a risk of getting very wet on the way home so opted for the car. It was very murky on Deeside when I left home at 6:30am but cleared up once over the Lecht and once up by Loch Glascarnoch there were bits of blue sky appearing. There were some roadworks going on at Torrandhu Bridge so as a result parking was slightly awkward, but I managed to find a suitable space on the verge well out of the way. There were a couple of folk heading north across the bog ahead of me, and also a few heading south towards the Fannichs.
The first kilometre or so across the head of Loch Glascarnoch is very boggy.

From the approach swamp, south-western spur of Cnoc na h-Iolaire

There is a path but a fair bit of squelching is required. Thank goodness for waterproof boots. Before too long I reached the Abhainn a’ Gharbhrain, which didn’t look too fearsome despite recent wet weather, but certainly wasn’t going to be crossed with dry feet.

Not too difficult to cross today

I had come prepared though, so off with the boots, on with the Unifly sandals and I waded through, never more than knee deep. Easy enough, the only issue being that the submerged boulders were pretty slimy and uneven, so a lot of care was required to avoid taking a tumble into the river. Walking poles are essential for this sort of activity. I’m sure a more suitable crossing point could be found either up or downstream, but I got across fine, dried up and got back into the walking boots. There is a rough path on the northern river bank that skirts the base of the moraine holding in Loch a’ Gharbhrain. This walker’s path heads up beside the Allt na h-Uidhe on the conventional route up Am Faochagach. As the path begins to climb it crosses a more ancient built path marked on the OS map, which is where I turned left to head due North. This old built path peters out after not much more than 100m, but at least got me started on the 2km pathless trek towards the south-western spur of Cnoc na h-Iolaire.

Loch a’ Gharbhrain

I stayed well above the flat ground beside Abhain Coire Lair which looked a tad boggy, and instead followed the 300m contour (approximately). The going was intermittently boggy with grass and heather and felt like a long 2 km, but I’ve seen worse. After getting this minor slog out of the way, I reached the base of the spur and climbed up steepening grass and heather to reach the crest where the first rocky outcrops are encountered.

Lower slopes of Cnoc na h-Iolaire spur

Loch Coire Lair

Lowest outcrops

There was a minor outcrop at about 350m to get started, then a grassy climb as the spur curves round to the north east to reach a more rocky section followed by more grass before the final and best bit from about 500m to 600m.

Next outcrop

Final more continuous scrambling section

Looking back down to Loch Coire Lair

The lower scrambling can all be avoided by following grassy gullies between the outcrops, although I think it is easier and certainly more satisfying to climb on easy rock like this. The final 100m vertical of scrambling can’t easily be avoided but it is very straightforward, there is a wide choice of route and as the overall slope is not severe it never feels exposed. I believe the rock is psammite and therefore nice and grippy with lots of small but secure foot and hand holds on the exposed bedding planes. Less vegetated than it looks from the photos too.
From about 600m, the slope lessened and it became a simple walk over grass and rock up to the summit of Cnoc na h-Iolaire at 705m which is unmarked by any cairn.

On Cnoc na h-Iolaire

I continued in a generally ENE direction climbing up the slopes of Am Faochagach mostly over grass and rock with a couple boulder beds to add some interest. Once up on the broad ridge of Am Faochagach I joined the standard route which left a pleasant stroll over grass and stones up to the flat summit. A group of ptarmigan were scuttling around amongst the rocks, perfectly camouflaged for this environment.

Well camouflaged birds

Coire Ghranda with Beinn Dearg in the mist

Rather featureless summit of Am Faochagach

Unfortunately, the cloud was blowing in, just skimming the top and obscuring much of the grand vista that is Beinn Dearg, Cona Mheall and Coire Ghranda. I had a quick cup of tea and headed down, stopping to take a few photos at the 845m point as the clouds over Beinn Dearg were starting to lift.

Beinn Dearg, Cona Mheall and Coire Ghranda

I followed the WH route as far as Drochaid a Ghlas Tuill then rather than head down by the Allt na h-Uidhe, I continued South on the ridge over moss and grass to the summit of Sron Liath before turning South West then West to make the descent back to the path by the moraine. The descent route was pathless and quite boggy in places over a mixture of rock, heather and grass, but once again, not too bad going. The cloud had really started breaking up by this time, and there were great views across to An Teallach as well as back to Beinn Dearg.

An Teallach in the distance

Purple heather on the descent

Once down, it was just a case of wading the Abhainn a’ Gharbhrain again and making my way across the swamp back to the car and heading home.
Despite the bogginess and sections of rough pathless walking, this was a most entertaining half-day route. Much as I like the SMC scrambling guidebooks, I have found some of their low-grade scramble routes a bit underwhelming in the past, but this one turned out to be a bit of a gem and well worth the little bit of extra effort.

[The English Alpinist]

Well done on this route, you certainly made Am Fao more interesting than it normally is, and provided a good guide for people. I would suggest the next best option is to do the normal route in winter. I did this, crossing the burn high up in my snow boots without do much as a damp toe, I just ploughed across almost knee deep and no difficulty with footing.