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Grahams: Beinn an Eoin.
Date: 22/06/2024.
Distance: 16.5km.
Ascent: 830m.
Time taken: 6 hours 55 minutes.
Weather: Overcast to start, drizzle at end, sunny with a stiff breeze in between.
We had driven up to Assynt on Friday night to give us a good start in the morning but we couldn't miss out going to the pie shop in Lochinver. Saturday morning was the only sure-fire time we would manage that so we went over and indulged in fruit pie and custard for breakfast (this might seem a bit odd but it's probably even better than their more usual breakfast offerings) before stopping off for a swim in Loch Assynt. By the time we reached the starting point for Beinn an Eoin on the Stac Pollaidh road it was getting on for midday and the earlier sunshine had been replaced with drizzle
.
CulBeag,Stac Pollaidh and Cul Mor from Knockan 
Loch Assynt 
Swimming in Loch Assynt I also managed to park the best part of 10 minutes from the start of the path. Never mind, we were going anyway! Fortunately the weather began to clear up after half an hour or so and the walk in along Allt Claonaidh was more straightforward than I thought it might be. I knew the thick forest shown on the newer maps didn't really exist but I thought it would all be full of the little holes where trees had been planted. There are definitely plenty of new trees along there but they are fairly spread out and the path, while rough and bouldery, is pretty obvious.
Beinn an Eoin and Sgorr Tuath from the start of the walk 
Jackie heading up Allt Claonaidh After passing some nice gorges and waterfalls Sgurr an Fhidhleir was suddenly ahead of us looking as spectacular as it does from almost any angle. Higher up the glen we left the path to pick up the ridge of Cioch Beinn an Eoin. Again this ground was less rough than I'd feared (although definitely involving some heather bashing).
Waterfall on Allt Claonaidh 
Cul Beag 
Sgurr an Fhidhleir 
Closer to Sgurr an Fhidhleir Beinn an Eoin looks pleasant enough from here but nowhere near as imposing as from the north, south and west. While more than half of the ascent is here the walking is on good ground and sandstone slabs - lovely. We reached the summit without any bother to find the wind was pretty strong. We were expecting this but it made it quite difficult to stand on the southern edge and look down into Lochan Tuath. We easily found some shelter for a break though.
Cul Beag across Loch Lurgainn 
Out to sea 
Sgurr an Fhidhleir from Beinn an Eoin 
Cul Mor and Cul Beag 
Sgurr an Fhidhleir again 
Stac Pollaidh and Suilven I decided I wanted views from the top of the crags to the west of the summit so descended the ridge north to get to these. Jackie dropped down to the large lochan in the col rather than going out to the end - I discovered that my route contouring back to meet her followed a natural terrace and was probably the easier way.
Loch Bad a Ghail and Loch Lurgainn 
Sgorr Tuath from Sgor Deas I was fairly keen that we included Sgorr Tuath in our route having missed it last time and I'm glad we did as it took us to some of the most interesting bits of the hill. First up was a swim in the lochan - this was a great one for a dip as it really had some proper depth. Then we climbed steeply up from the NE corner of the lochan to the eastern end of Sgorr Tuath. There were some excellent sculpted bits of rock on the edge of the cliffs to mirror those on Stac Pollaidh across the loch.
Sgorr Tuath and the lochan 
Swimming in the lochan 
Back to Sgorr Deas 
Loch Bad a Ghaill from Sgorr Tuath 
Stac Pollaidh 
Stac Pollaidh from the rock fingers Then it was along to the western end which had a massive cleft in it as if the western nose of the hill had detached itself from the rest (it probably will fall off eventually but not for hundreds of thousands of years!)
Suilven, Cul Mor and Cul Beag 
Panorama of Inverpollaidh 
Cul Mor and Cul Beag Cul Mor and Cul Beag A bit of dodging about here got us into the steep western corrie descending towards Lochan Dearg. For various reasons too complicated to explain, Jackie had wanted to swim in this lochan the previous night - we had planned to do this trip as an overnighter and camp near it. Although that hadn't happened she was still keen to have a look at it hence our strange choice of direction for the descent (you could easily traverse Coire Beinn an Eoin on the other side of the hill and pick up the outward route). I was happy with the choice though as it meant we would pass Lochan Tuath as well, and that is in one of the great mountain spots that barely anyone goes to - sandy lochans, big flat slabs of sandstone and Sgurr an Fhidhleir towering above.
We didn't swim in Lochan Dearg in the end - it was getting on, the sun had gone in and we were unlikely to better our swim on Sgorr Tuath. We traversed towards An Clu-nead staying a little off the floor of the corrie. This was relatively easy to do by following deer tracks. Eventually we hit the fence just before Lochan Tuath.
Sgurr an Fhidhleir 
Sgurr an Fhidhleir from Lochan Tuath We decided to stay to the north of the fence (although it had collapsed in places so was easy to cross) - there was a cruddy bit where the slopes dropped steeply into the loch but by and large it was straightforward enough. Eventually we had passed the loch - we stuck to the fence and hopped across various peat hags until we found the path back down Allt Claonaidh. It was much less obvious up here.
Passing around Sgurr an Fhidhleir The sun came out again and Jackie had to have a last dip in the burn before we did the final walk out. The sun was short lived and by the time we were dropping down to the end of Loch Lurgainn the rain had started again.
Sun catching Cul Beag before the weather moves in 
Last look at Sgurr an FhidhleirI hadn't been too sure about approaching this hill from the north as the ground looked pretty bad (I had previously dropped down to Loch Tuath via a gully next to Sgurr an Fhidhleir to get to it) but it turned out to be an extremely enjoyable day
. It wasn't really an epic either at under 7 hours but it involved a lot more effort than a glance at the map would suggest (even if most of that was self-inflicted).
