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An unplanned outing led to an afternoon trip to A' Mharconaich and Geal Chàrn. If things had gone to plan, I would have been doing the White Mounth round, but alas, things don’t always go to plan
. A lack of sleep the night before, and the night before that, meant that I didn’t fancy the 3-hour (middle of the night) drive followed by an 18-mile walk, part of which I was sure would be in the dark. So, with plan A abandoned, I checked weather reports, etc. and headed for these two instead
.
This time, Meg (the fast) came with me
. The car park was virtually full when we arrived, but we did find a spot and started walking at 13:15.
There is a level crossing at the start with a gate on either side and I did consider (briefly) letting Meg off of the lead on the other side of the far gate, but three things stopped me: 1) I couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t a way back through the fence onto the railway line, 2) there were quite a few people around and she does have a tendency to want to follow "the leader", and 3) the last time she was with me, on Meall na Teanga, she disappeared for 4½ hours! So, I decided against it and was pleased that I did because shortly after that we came across a couple of random sheep on the hillside!
- A look back towards the car park and the A9
The track up to Geal-charn is straightforward – mostly grassy and a little boggy in parts. There is a cairn at 840m, which proved to be a false summit – the proper summit isn’t visible until reaching the first cairn. On the way up, the path forks right, but not the first right hand fork! I nearly followed that by mistake, and I wasn’t the only one as I met a guy near the summit who had followed it, but continued and ended up taking a longer, and perhaps steeper, route.
The weather was good, the sun was shining, and it was quite warm
. We reached the summit at about 15:00 and sat down at the cairn for some sandwiches (Meg had dog treats
) and enjoyed the sunshine for a little while.
- A view south-west from the summit of Geal-charn
- Looking across at A’Mharconaich from Geal-charn
No sooner had I packed up and we started moving, then the clouds darkened, and it started to rain, so it was off with the rucksack and on with the waterproofs – in that few minutes, the wind picked up to an icy blast and the rain was cold enough to be sleet!
All the way up, Meg had been really interested in the traffic below on the A9 – so she stayed on the lead!
After the summit, the track dips down to a low point at about 740m before ascending A’Mharconaich. By then it was late in the afternoon and I hadn’t seen anyone else for a while, the A9 was out of sight, so I considered letting Meg off of the lead for a bit. Whilst I was considering it, she suddenly lurched after something she’d seen, and it took me a few moments to spot what she had – rabbits! So, that was the end of any idea I had about releasing her
.
- Looking west on the route up to A’Mharconaich
- Meg surveying the view and wondering why, with all that space, she had to stay on the lead! 🤣
After about 30 minutes the rain stopped and the sun came out again, but the clouds were lower, and it wasn’t as warm as it had been earlier.
- Looking north-east with the A9 and the start just visible in the centre ground
The path between Geall-charn and A’Mharconaich was easy going and straight-forward to follow. We reached the summit of A’Mharconaich at 17:15.
- Looking back at Geall-charn – the summit now covered in clag
- Looking across at the route between Geall-charn and A’Mharconaich
It’s always more tricky going downhill with Meg on a lead – she can go a lot faster and doesn’t see why she shouldn't just nip off to the side to investigate something really interesting!
- A look back up at A’Mharconaich
We plodded on down the hillside (much to Meg’s annoyance
) and by now the light was fading fast. Some parts were boggy, and I managed to step in quite a big patch of bog before deciding that it was time to get the headtorch out!
Once again, I was tempted to let Meg off of the lead, to make the descent a bit easier, but once again, I was glad I didn’t as we came across a few more sheep in the dark!
The river at the end was only ankle deep and I didn’t try keeping to the stepping stones, so got two wet feet, but as we were almost at the van, I wasn’t bothered (had spare shoes to drive home in
).
When we arrived at the car park ours was the only vehicle left – it was about 19:15 (6 hours).
It was a good day and Meg slept for the whole journey home – shame I couldn’t have done the same!
Bye for now!
