Canisp

[Euan McIntosh]

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I had planned to climb Ben Klibreck on this day, but the heavy rain a few days past and the warnings of relatives that it could be boggy at the best of times put us off. Instead we decided to go for something longer if not quite as steep as Ben Hope. Canisp was selected for the wonderful view it gives over the rest of Assynt and especially over to Suilven. The drive into Assynt has got to be the most nerve racking thing a person can do. To swing round that corner before Ledmore and see if the clouds are above the tops and you will get a view. Once there all that nonsense about loch Lomond being the most beautiful place in Scotland as voted for by the public turns to abject absurdity in a heartbeat. To see the clouds crazing the tops of Cul Mor, Suilven looking pillar like with impossibly sheer sides and Breabag with its intricate rock swirls and tonal colours, it sets the heart beating at the thought that you will soon be among these ancient mountains. For a time you will be in perhaps the most beautiful place on earth.

The parking for Canisp is not the fist after Ledmor but the second. The view up towards Canisp is already picture worthy and it rocky slopes look rather more intimidating than they turn out to be. The cloud was covering the top; I feared I would miss out on my view of Suilven and the rest of Assynt I had chosen Canisp for.

Canisp from the Roadside

The path for the Car park (enlarged lay-by) is narrow and faint but fairly obvious through the low heather and grass. It was a little damp for the first kilometre, but not in a muddy way simple the type of wetness where is squelches under your feet and leaves your boots cleaner than when you set off. After twenty minutes the path joins the side of a delightful burn that flows down from Canisp into Loch Awe. It is the most marvelous stream I have seen, it pours over great slabs of stark while rock and round boulders of the same colour. In places it has cut twenty feet down with sheer cliffs on either side of a darker rock.

The Allt Mhic Mhur Chaidh Gheir

A waterfall in the Allt Mhic Mhur Chaidh Gheir

The path keeps to the right hand side of the burn for a while, becoming faint to nonexistent at times. It crosses once you can see the burn splitting in two further up Canisp’s slopes. From there the path sticks close to the other back slowly gaining height with marvelous compacted peat and gravel walking. You have gained little height by this point and the summit of Canisp appears to have come no closer for all the walking you have done.

The view back with Conival and Loch Awe

The path disappears entirely at the start of the shallow climb up a rise to the left of the stream. For a few hundred metres before the path vanishes all together you walk over what appears to be a small burn bed composed of great slabs of white rock inclined up the hillside. If you walk with poles it is probably best to carry them as having them slip and skate down the rock is unhelpful. These slabs can be twenty metres long before the next one appears on top of it. I will mention that while these are delightful to walk on dry, in the wet they will be slippy and if iced avoid them like the plague.

After these the path gives up and you must make your own way up from here. We sat for a drink in a hollow to get out the light if nippy wind. The view back down is dominated by Conival with Ben More Assynt and adjoining ridge visible, Quinag can also be seen pocking over Canisp’s slopes. The two rounded hills on Canisp’s final slopes can be climbed or bypassed in multiple ways. The path from the summit sticks to the top of the southerly one and down to the rock slabs from there. There is also the option of sticking to the right of the burn the entire way and ascending via the more northerly rise. We decided to climb some but not all of the way up the southerly one and attack the final summit cone from the low point between the two. The slopes of both are strewn with head sized and larger boulders with occasional patches of heather. Behind these two rises is a deep (six to ten foot) gully that will be a raging torrent when the snow melts. We decided to cross rather than head round higher up and then proceeded straight up to the summit.

The final summit cone

The final push up the summit cone is fairly steep from the direction we approached, straight up its northerly side beside the drop into Canisp’s corrie. The slope is almost entirely boulder and is quite a trip hazard when ascending. The way the slope is shaped you tend to want to drift off to the right which leads you off onto Canisp’s steeper to cliff like slopes. Assuming you avoid a grizzly death at the foot of the cliffs then the summit is reached after a good pull up the boulders. The final thirty metres of flat walking to one of two summit shelters is over the worst boulders of the day and take a careful look before placing your feet as many shift and look like they have twisted many an ankle. I’d love to say we came over the top and were blown away by the stunning view of Suilven and the rest of Assynt, but sadly the cloud had come down in the last five minutes and there was no view at all except back down Canisp’s slopes to loch Awe. We sat down to eat our lunch and gorge ourselves on sugar.

Suilven from Canisp Summit

The summit of Canisp

Conival from Canisp

Cul Mor and Stac Polliadh

Quinag

The cloud began to thin out and Cul Mor was glimpsed at times through the mist with Conival completely cleared and visible. Then finally Suilven came into view, and what a view it is, no picture can do it justice even so I spent a while taking them. The whole of the ridge is sprawled out before you, rising up majestically from a land of green and blue with the sea just behind. The bottom appears to rise straight up with flat land all around and no other hills for miles. The narrower tops further along the ridge are nearest to you from Canisp and they look very precipitous indeed. The flatter summit of Caisteal laith was missing the very top in a blanket of thick cloud but this did little to spoil the experience. Once you tore your eyes away from Suilven for a brief moment before diving back into that visual banquet the silhouette of Stac Polliadh and Cul Mor formed a lovely little and large duo. Quinag was beautiful with the sun playing across its sides and its massive bulk dominating the landscape all around. But inevitably your eye is drawn back to Suilven like a compass to north and you find yourself marvelling at how such a thing could exist and why anyone could ever find a day shopping or sleeping more fun than this. I marvel at how anyone could call this boring and now realize how addictive a hobby this can be.

270 degree panorama including Quinag, Suilven and Cul Mor with Conival just of the left hand end.

Conival and Ben More Assynt south top

When you have finally torn yourself away from Suilven and begin to descend there is a clear path leading of the summit and going down the southerly ridge. The start of the path down from the summit heading south was marked by a circle of stones about a metre and a half with a triangle in the middle. The path is fairly well worn over the grassy parts of the slopes but vanishes altogether on the boulders. This route joins with the other once below to two rounded hills before the final summit cone. From there the route is the same except once we reached the Allt Mhic Mhur Chaidh Gheir (the stream, to the most of us) we stuck to its south bank until it turns at right angles and heads towards Loch Awe.

This was our penultimate walk before we headed back down with the last being an attempt at Conival and Ben More Assynt. After arriving back at the car with enough time and energy to go back up again we were feeling excellent and I think it was probably my favorite when the combinations of time, view and energy expenditure are factored together.

[pollyh33]

Fantastic report- quite a scary climb! As you say, one wrong turn and you get a twisted ankle or worse.

Cracking photos too, lots of fierce looking mountains up there!!!

[JGKES]

Thank you for a detailed,comprehensive and enjoyable report with some superb pictures which revived memories of my ascent of Canisp in the middle of August 2002,during a stay at the delightfully situated Kylesku Hotel.I think I did most of your route as the parking was in a lay-by overlooking Loch Awe and I well remember the good path at the start which led to the slabby burn which in turn provided easy walking.The summit of Canisp was in full view the whole way,no false tops to worry about,which in my experience is a big bonus in Scotland.The burn gave way to rougher ground and then followed the crossing of the corrie stream,with the final pull up some pathless grassy slopes.Most annoyingly,the patchy cloud which had been clear of the summit from the outset descended just as we approached the top and turned to thick drizzle so there was no view to reward all the effort of the climb.However,as we descended the same way,the clouds lifted and we did manage a sighting of Suilven.A your pics show so well it is a magnificent view.On returning to the lay-by we diverted to visit on a muddy route a large lochan near the finish.The day after, we climbed Conival by a straightforward route (again most welcome in Scotland) alongside the Traligill burn and up the broad depression shown to the left on your photo of this peak and ending with a demandingly steep ascent to the summit where I had a snow bunting.My regret now is we didn't continue to Ben Mor Assynt.The last walk was Cul Mor,another beautiful sub-Munro peak,in sunny weather with a glorious panorama from the top.The views in this corner of of Scotland really are exceptional.We returned to Kylesku in 2008 but the weather was unkind so had to be content with just pottering around.

[soulminer]

A fantastic mountain to climb Have never climbed it on its own,only with Suilven added- and only from the Lochinver approach. One of the finest walking areas in Scotland.
Cheers.