After the cancellation of the 5 sisters of Kintail walk (all talk nae walk
) I wasn't about to stay in so decided to head to Beinn a Ghlo where another 3 munros were up for grabs. I was on the road by 5am and pulled up at Loch Moraig at 7am, the first car here. Cloud base was above the summits for now at least, which was a first for me for a while.- Carn Liath
I headed through the gate and along the path towards Carn Liath when in front of me, blocking my way, was a herd of cows. I am never sure what the protocol is - pass through them or give them a wide berth? They all turned to look at me as if to say "come on then, make your move"
A couple of them snorted and stamped a wee bit - sod this I thought, and i jumped over the nearby fence and skirted round them (cluck, cluck ) When I had got far enough away from them I jumped back over the fence, back on to the path until I came to the hut which signalled time to leave the path and begin to head up the steep incline towards the summit of Carn Liath.- Heading up to the summit
- Lovely thistle on the path
The path up is steep in places - no scrambling, just loose scree and an incline to get the heart pumping
- Eroded steep path
As I neared the summit, I suddenly caught sight of a yellow ptarmigan chick running for its life. Then, camouflaged against the ground the mother lifted her wing and five other chicks bolted. The mum ran towards me and off to the side clearly trying to focus my attention on her and not her bairns
I backed off and circled round them and saw her scurry back. I hope she got them back all ok. I was gutted I didn't get a photo but I wanted to move away quickly before I caused them any more stress. Up ahead I reached the trig point and cairn of the first munro of the day.- summit of Carn Liath
From here I could see the rest of the route to come. In the below photo the lovely ridge walk and the second munro are on the left with the final summit of Carn nan Gabhar at the back on the right hand side.
- Rest of Beinn a' Ghlo
The ridge walk was a delight - no real exposure but a lovely airy stroll. It was so good to be out here with great views not wandering around in the clag seeing heehaw which has been the case of late.
Once the ridge was done I descended down to the foot of the second munro, Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain (roughly translated as "hill where lowlanders have nae chance of pronouncing where they are"
)The pull up was fine, a nice wee stretch of the legs, but just before I headed along the ridge to the summit, heavy clag rolled in and brought rain with it. I retreated to the nearby rock and got my waterproofs on before it got too heavy. I hunkered down in the shelter of the large rocks and waited for the rain to pass and the clag to clear. After 15 mins or so, I had a small window of clear ridge and went for it. By the time I reached the summit the clag was back and I lost the view.
- Looking back to Carn Liath and the ridge
- The ridge ahead and the rocks where I sheltered from the rain
- Clag rolls in
- summit of Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain
The descent of the second munro was supposed to be the trickiest part of the day but the route down was just below the cloud base so it was easy to pick a route down and join the path.
- Heading along the ridge towards munro number 3
As i picked up the path I spotted a herd of deer in the glen below, who then caught sight of me and began to leg it
I just managed to capture a grainy picture of them as they fled
The pull up to the final munro has often been described as tough after the previous two but I felt good and made short work up onto the broad ridge. Unfortunately, the clag was getting thicker and so I struggled to get a view as I came up to the first cairn, then onto the trig point and finally the summit cairn.
- A look back at the first two munros
- Partial view from trig point
- summit cairn of Carn nan Gabhar
From the top of the final munro I knew it was a long walk out. The first half was quite fun surfing the sides of the eroded Airgiod Bheinn along the slippy stalkers path before finally crossing the burn. The second half was less fun as the feet began to tire and the ground became more unstable.
- The long route home
- Nice spot for a sun bathe
Reaching the main path back was a relief, as was the fact that the cattle had disappeared too
Seeing the car was a sight for sore eyes (and feet) after a fairly brutal walk back. A great day though and another three done
I loved the story of the maternal Ptarmigan.. Love them at this time of year, will do anything to distract your attention, even acting like eejits! 
