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I had decided that Blà Bheinn would be my 282nd Munro as it is a very fine mountain to finish on. It is also not too long or difficult a walk, as my wife was insisting on accompanying me on the compleation climb and she is somewhat out of practice with regards to hill walking.
If it was me on my own, I would have probably day tripped from Aberdeenshire, or maybe camped at Glen Shiel, but on this occasion a 4am start was out of the question and some luxury was called for. Accommodation on Skye is either unavailable or absurdly expensive, so we found a nice self-catering apartment in Fort Augustus for a couple of nights. Not exactly close to the start of the walk but less than 2 hours drive away, so it would not be a particularly long day.
It was cold and showery on the drive across on Wednesday, with a fair bit of snow on the Cairngorms, but we were looking at a decent forecast for Skye on the Thursday. Still cold and windy, but dry with plenty of sun, which turned out to be accurate. We left the apartment just after 7am and rocked up at the car park by Loch Slapin by 9am which was surprisingly quiet for Skye in September. And so began the climb,
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- On our way
I haven’t bothered with a route map in this report as we just followed the tourist route as described in the Walk Highlands guide. This was a slight shame as there are more interesting ways up Blà Bheinn, but these generally require some serious scrambling so I thought best not to traumatise my companion. I can always return to Clach Glas and Blà Bheinn on my own in the future.
There’s not much to add to the route description in WH – the John Muir Trust have done a great job on the approach path, this would likely have been a boggy mess in days gone by.
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- Blà Bheinn and Clach Glas from below Coire Uaigneich
The path becomes a bit eroded on the climb up into Coire Uaigneich but it's still easy going and not that steep. There was a bitter north easterly wind blowing up the Coire, certainly the windiest part of the walk but at least it was at our backs. I think my wife was wondering why she had volunteered to come along at this stage although thankfully she perked up later..
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- Very windy here
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- View over Loch Fionna-coire
We stopped for a break once up in Fionna-choire before setting off on the relatively steep slog up the southern flank of the south east ridge of Blà Bheinn through the scree filled gully. I think it is actually easier to stick to the bare gabbro on the left for much of the way, as it is not too steep and very grippy. We were in a much more sheltered location here at least and it was quite pleasant in the sun, so not too bad a plod up. Soon we were up on the ridge with spectacular views over the eastern cliffs through various clefts to Clach Glas.
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- Clach Glas
Then it is just a walk up with one small step which hardly counts as a scramble and on to the summit.
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- Arriving on Munro 282!
I can’t say I felt any greater sense of achievement reaching this summit having compleated the Munros and we didn’t really celebrate or take selfies. It was just nice to enjoy the views which must be as good as any in Scotland with the whole of the main Cuillin Ridge laid out to the west and a vista of mountains, sea and islands all around.
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- The Ridge
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- Sgurr nan Gillean - maybe the finest peak of them all
Surprisingly, it was less windy up here than down in the coire.
There were a couple of guys who had come up from Camasunary bothy, so we got chatting to them for a while. I left my wife chatting and nipped over to the South Top. That was a fun little scramble up and down, although easy and not particularly exposed.
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- Blà Bheinn summit from South Top
Back on the main summit there were a few more walkers now arriving via the tourist route. We headed down the way we had come up, meeting a few more folk en route. I suppose as it is a fairly short walk, most are happy to set off later. We had another extended break for lunch in a sheltered spot a couple of hundred metres below the summit, and then continued down, arriving back at the car by 2:30 pm.
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- A final view back from beside the gorge on Allt na Dunaiche
Then it was back to Fort Augustus and a celebratory meal at the Inch Hotel.
My wife coped well on her first biggish walk for a while given that our pace, although not as brisk as I usually set, was not sluggish either. The last Munros we had climbed together were on the traverse of Aonach Eagach back in 1993! Shortly after this, our first child became due, so that put paid to our hillwalking exploits for a while.
For me, compleation has taken 45 years, a handful in my teens prior to 1979, then 107 with my wife between 1989 and 1993, and a more intensive campaign after a 28 year sabbatical (the joys of retirement) from 2021 to bag all remaining Munro summits. I won’t be stopping any time soon. There are a number of fine hills to revisit using more interesting scrambling routes, compleation of the Tops no longer seems like an impossible task and I can’t ignore the Corbetts……
