After the cancellation of the 5 sisters of Kintail walk (all talk nae walk

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"


The path up is steep in places - no scrambling, just loose scree and an incline to get the heart pumping
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

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.
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.
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.
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

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.
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.
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
