A great report from a fine day! I loved doing this ridge...it's a long day with a lot of distance, but otherwise good going on the ground. Everyone has a preference but I'd say going E to W is best - if only for the views (which are hardly awful looking the other way either!).
You did well conserving water! I didn't see mention of a refill. From what I saw and have heard it's very hard to find water up on the ridge. We met some runners (doing your route in reverse) who had almost run out and they still had a long way to go so we donated them a litre. Glad we had a car at both ends. Some folk we passed on the hill were walking it back!
Only mistake we made was taking a "shortcut" to descend. Instead of going along further and using the path down we descended right down where you looked in this shot (I shuddered upon seeing this image again!)....
rockhopper wrote:View towards Shiel Bridge
Looked okay 'til we got down (to the point of just bashing on regardless!)