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Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas from Glen Lochay

Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas from Glen Lochay


Postby Paula Hubens » Tue Oct 09, 2012 6:59 pm

Route description: Meall Glas and Sgiath Chuil from Glen Dochart

Munros included on this walk: Meall Glas, Sgiath Chùil

Date walked: 08/06/2012

Time taken: 8.3 hours

Distance: 21.8 km

Ascent: 1310m

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Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts


In the morning I woke up to a loud mooing of cows in the distance. It sounded distressed. Had one of them lost their calf? Were they in mortal peril? I didn’t pay any further attention to it, instead I got up, had breakfast, and started packing. I dismantled the tent from the inside, as it was still raining. Went out for a wash. The cows were further down on the track looking in my direction. When I got back, the cows had started coming up the track. I still didn’t think anything of this and began to take down the outer shell of the tent.

1 Tent with Beinn Challum.JPG
Tent and Ben Challum

Until the cows in front left the track, sauntered towards me and stopped to watch. O dear, the rules of herd behaviour say: if one stops to watch, the rest will do so too. It didn’t take long before I was the centre of the tent-packing-show and the cows were my appreciative audience, gathered around me. They were very inquisitive (as cows are) and slowly edged forward. Generally speaking, cows are friendly, and these sisters certainly looked placid. But considering a. there was at least 10 of them, b. they had encircled me, c. they were bigger and heavier than me, d. the rules of herd behaviour, I didn’t feel very comfortable. Pretending to be calm I stuffed the tent and the last bits and bobs in my pack, swung it on my back and ‘confidently’ marched towards a cow, which luckily let me go past. Phew!
When I looked back, they had all continued their way to the river. It dawned on me that my tent had been in the way of their intended route and that this had been the cause of the dismayed mooing in the morning.

After this little adventure, the walk back was welcomingly uneventful.
Yesterday the river Lochay had looked not too bad. And indeed, it was easily crossed at the ford near Lubchurran. I found a spot behind a wall to hide my big rucksack. After transferring some bits to a smaller pack I was on my way. I followed the track past the cottage uphill. Ignored the ford and crossed the Lubchurran burn just above the dam.

2 Looking back towards Lubchurran cottage.JPG
Looking back towards Lubchurran cottage

From there my route went east, first on gentle then steeper slopes, aiming for the bealach between spot height 577 and 580. It looked straightforward on the map, but it took surprisingly long to cover less than a kilometer. Once on the ridge the wind was there to accompany me. The cloud was waiting a bit higher up. At least I could see a bit more of Beinn Heasgarnich than I did yesterday.

3 Beinn Heasgarnich coming out of the clouds.JPG
Beinn Heasgarnich coming out of the clouds

The ridge was rather knobbly, but that improved the nearer I got to Meall a’ Churain. What didn’t improve was the wind. It got very gusty and nearly threw me off balance on a few occasions. Feeling a bit peckish I stopped at Meall a’ Churain for an early lunch out of the wind.
Coming down from Meall a’ Churain I made a point of paying attention to the surroundings for later, as my descent route to Lairig a’ Churain would start here somewhere. There weren’t many features and in the mist all looked pretty much the same. I hoped I would recognise at least something. But first there was a munro to be bagged.
It wasn’t far to Sgiath Chuil, which has got a tiny cairn.

4 Summit Sgiath Chuil.JPG
Summit Sgiath Chuil

Took a summit pic and was off again, back to the bealach. Didn’t recognise a thing, but had been navigating on the map, so knew I was in the right place.
The descent gets steep pretty quickly and a few bum shuffles were needed to get down the most sharp decline. After this it was just a matter of getting on with it until the bealach. Good to see the cloud was lifting!

5 View towards Beinn Cheathaich.JPG
View towards Beinn Cheathaich

The bog at the bealach was dry and a big peat hag provided the perfect spot for a snack and sussing out the ascent route.

8 Sussing out my ascent route.JPG
Sussing out the ascent route along the spur on the left

I walked west to Coire na Saobhaidhe, then south west to reach the spur. Followed the spur, which brought me up to the flats of Coire nam Moine, with views! :D

10 Meall Glas coming into view.JPG
Meall Glas coming into view

11 Beinn nan Imirean.JPG
Beinn nan Imirean

12 View towards Sgiath Chuil and Sgiath Chrom.JPG
View towards Sgiath Chuil and Sgiath Chrom

From there it was only 20 minutes to the summit of Meall Glas.

13 Summit Meall Glas.JPG
Summit Meall Glas, Ben Challum in the background

What a difference views make to a walk! I could now see Ben Challum, Creag Mhor and the knobbly silhouette of Sgiath Chuil.

14 View towards Beinn Cheathaich left and Sgiath Chuil ahead.JPG
Beinn Cheathaich left and Sgiath Chuil right

15 View towards Creag Mhor.JPG
Creag Mhor

With a spring in my step I continued onwards to Beinn Cheathaich, on a good path along the easy angled ridge.

18 On Beinn Cheathaich looking towards Meall Glas.JPG
On Beinn Cheathaich looking back towards Meall Glas

The views to the south west from this top were stunning with layers of hill in different shades of blue-gray stacked behind each other. :D I followed the NNE ridge down, heading straight for the track, which brought me back to Lubchurran, where I retrieved my rucksack, then crossed the river and walked back to the car. At Kenknock farm there was a welcoming committee of heifers waiting for me. What a fitting end to the day! :lol:

19 Welcoming committee at Kenknock.JPG
Welcome!
Last edited by Paula Hubens on Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Paula Hubens
 
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Re: Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas from Glen Lochay

Postby mrssanta » Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:50 pm

that reminds me of the encounter we had with hill cattle (a bull and his harem) camping in Glen Kinglass. we couldnt see any when we chose our camping spot but by the time we had pitched the tent and I had started to cook the tea they came to watch and suss us out. it was quite nerve wracking as they came within about 6 feet of the tent. We ignored them and they went away after a while
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mrssanta
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Re: Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas from Glen Lochay

Postby Paula Hubens » Tue Oct 09, 2012 11:31 pm

Hi mrssanta, I can imagine that was nerve wracking! But yes, cattle is usually OK when you ignore them.
I had a few encounters with horses (not in Scotland) where it was more challenging to hold my nerve. One I remember very well: horses on a moor galloping towards me and stopping just short of me. It required every inch of determination to stay rooted to the ground!
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