The Magnificent 7 = Twenty 1st Century Bhoy !
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:25 amThe 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.
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.
..............congratulations to you on reaching 100 
Well done you and the boys!