Munros 100 - 103 - Beinn Dearg Group

[IamAJMiller]

I wanted my 100th Munro to be a good 'un so Decided to to An Teallach the day before to put me on 99 meaning I could do the round of 4 making Beinn Dearg for my tun! And what a day we picked for it. Rising early, but not too early as we were in a bunkhouse 400m from the start of the walk, we started out with blue skies and breathless. There were a few others about but we didn't meet many people. A few were off to the remote slopes of Sienna Briagh but we were keeping that for another day. The forestry track is wide and makes for easy walking, as does the fine, but long, path up to the Bealach an Lochain Uaine. The river was gorgeous and the cliffs high above made for a pleasant walk to this bealach. We stopped for a quick break and met some unfriendly dogs and their owner, also unfriendly!! We got up and made the final ascent to the top of Beinn Dearg, following the wall. And before long it's huge cairn was clear and I was on top of my 100th Munro! Triple figures, felt great!!

Headed back down and skirted to the right to aim for Cona Meall. Superb views down to Coire Ghranda. Ontop of Cona Meall we sat and took some lunch with another chap who was chatty enough, coming from Fife if I remember rightly. Jamie was clearly starting to flag now as he wasn't as fast as he was in the morning. This was slightly concerning as we still had a long way and two munros to go!

We returned to the bealach and up the easy slopes of Meall nan Ceapreachain and the summit. Very hot now we were feeling the heat of the sun on this gorgeous day. The 50k map indicated that the slopes down to the bealach under the last munro were smooth and crag free......they are not!! They were very very craggy and this was shown on the 25k map but not the landranger I had with me. We had to dogleg it round crags which added a lot of extra time to an already long day. Jamie was flaggin bigtime now and we made slow progress up the slopes of the last munro of the day. Finally at the top all that was left was to walk home.....which is a long way away!

Instead of descending steeply to the loch and the path I decided to take the pathless option of the high ridge/shoulder which meets up with the path from Sienna Briagh. Very glad I did as while it's pathless the ground is soft and springy heather and this was a pleasure to walk on with such sore feet!! Close to the track Jamie found a GPS sitting on the heather!! How unusual! Rejoining the track we made our way back to the forestry track and to the car. The longest day I can remember on the hills but well worth it, brilliant!!

At the bunkhouse we got showered and headed into Ullapool for some chips when I bumped into Colin Kerr from Drum! How unusual, he was working up here. The next day we were supposed to go into the Fainnichs but Jamie was shattered so we went to Inverness and then home instead. A great trip of 6 munros, 100th munro and An Teallach. Excellent!