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The Magnificent Seven or 7? aka the South Glen Shiel Ridge – it is trully Magnificent !
I`m sure many of you guessed the hills in question & that it wasn`t an old movie write up
This was my favourite outing so far & will probably remain so for a wee while.
A wonderful way to reach my 1st 100 Munros!!
I was weekend off (my wife,a nurse was working all weekend) so as long as I took Oskar with me I had free reign to go wherever.
My youngest son Lee,19 was coming too – our 4th trip on the hills together, then at the last minute his brother Marc , 21 decided to come too – this was his 1st time Munro bagging. We’d all been up Dumyat together over the years when they were wee but this would be a bit different.
The weather predicted by MWIS was for fairer weather on Sun 14/10 with Sat 13/10 being a bit wet. Undeterred by this unfabulous forecast I decided we would still go up on Saturday , wild camp overnight & give it a bash on Sunday ! Lee looked slightly worse for wear when I picked them up – Marc laughed saying Lee had been out partying with his mates & hadn`t got in till 6:15am.
Off we went stopping in Fort William for lunch , then again briefly at the Commando Memorial before continuing to Glen Shiel arriving just after 3pm.
I parked about 100 M or so on L/H side before the Cluanie Inn on the access road to Cluanie Lodge - just before the bridge at the River Cluanie is a wee flat grassy area.
Here we pitched the tent – nicely out of vision of the road & the Inn, the area had several fire scorch marks – previous campers no doubt . After setting up we drove to the Cluanie Inn, I bought the boys a pint & arranged with Andy the owner to bring me back from the walk end point at Malagan Bridge. They charge £15 for this – I was happy to pay knowing there would be no transport worries after the walk on Sunday. Once back at the pub a few pints were in order, with me buying of course. It reminded me of how my Dad seemed to buy more pints than me when we went out when I was young
– changed days indeed!
The Inn got a lot busier as walkers & passers by stopped in - a group from Dundee sitting at the table next to us. They said we’d be lucky to do the ridge in 14 hours! God no, I hoped!!
We finished our dinner then left about 7ish for the 5 minute walk to the tent – in the rain. The rain continued for most of the night, thankfully it wasn’t windy & my newish tent kept us nicely warm & dry , waking just after 6am the rain had gone off & there was no morning frost .The boys got ready & I made pasta & sausages for breakfast , after a tidy up & packing things away etc we were off about 7:15am .We left our overnight gear etc etc in the tent deciding to collect it all in the car on our back after the walk later on that day (night).
I was surprised how dark it still was as we made our way along the track towards Cluanie Lodge, there was a slight breeze & we could hear stags in the distance. Heading along Strath Cluanie towards Drochaid an Ullit Ghiubhais we gradually gained a wee bit of height & despite the low clouds the views began to open up over
Loch Cluanie. Continuing on we soon reached the cut off leading onto Creag a` Mhaim , the wind now picked up as did the cloud- but good views of Loch Loyne & beyond often blew through it.
We got to Creag a’ Mhaim at 945am,the top was clagged in after some fotos & a drink we moved on.
No 2 on the ridge is Druim Shionnach we used the bypass route on the left as visibility was very low – Lee said you`d be daft to straight up.
Whilst writing this up I discovered I’d taken nearly 200 fotos of various hills in all directions!!!!!!!!!!!
Trying to recall the route verbatim - foto by foto proved to be too much for me , so i`ve tried to put things in as best I can!
Gleouraich & Loch Quoich
Loch Quoich
To Knoydart ?
Break time looking back to Cluanie Inn & base camp.
The Five Sisters
A Centurion !!!
Marc & Lee with Loch Duich behind
Leaving the summit of Creag nan Damh we were disappointed to see a rocky clamber en route to Bealach Duibh Leac – as we were knackered!!
So up and over we went moving along, the drystane dyke on our L/H side , this was quite rough going & the track faded with no overall distinct route to follow .
So we decided to take a more direct route down towards Allt Coire Toitell which became the Allt Mhalagain, this was rough , wet & difficult, but did drop down fairly quickly.
Approaching the 1st water crossing it was getting dark - soon we would need our torches for the final walkout. Marc was loving this as a wee bit of extra adventure , Lee however was raging as the walkout was proving much more than we’d thought – it looked fairly easy from the last top, it was now dark - although not cold yet. We plodded on the sky now very clear with many stars in the dark heavens , it was beautiful. The last crossing was a bit “sporty” as the water was a wee bit high & quite noisy too, straight across 1 at a time then through a very wet field to the road.
At the gate onto the main road I went left towards Shiel Bridge thinking my car was that way.Wrong !!
The actual lay-by is the other way, having never been there before I was convinced it was left. I had parked my car well off the road into the lay by so it wasn’t easily seen . Remember & go right to the lay by when exiting this walk!!
The car was iced over so 5 minutes to heat it up whilst we changed into clean gear for the run home , stopping at the River Cluanie to de camp very quickly & head home via Glen Coe. This was interesting as the deer must have a Sunday night game of “scare the car drivers passing through”.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable trip my 2 sons and I had a ball together, a great way to reach my 100th Munro – Lee now has 17 & Marc a Magnificent 7!!
Despite the long walk out from the last summit taking longer than anticipated we managed it in under13 hours.
