free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
This TR has been pending for almost a month. It's not a big deal, no mountain madness involved, but the scenery is lovely and I thought I could share this short stroll.
It was Boxing Day and after Big Christmas Eating it was time to burn some festive calories. Weather turned out better than predicted, nice blue sky and not much wind. I bet some crazy souls were out there, high on the hills
We had hosted the family meeting the day before (and spent the whole morning washing up dirty dishes) so serious climbing was out of question. I was actually glad we managed to catch any fresh air at all
We drove to Torridon to visit Falls of Balgie. It wasn't cold enough for water to freeze, but I counted on some spectacular photos of waterfalls in spate - and I wasn't disappointed.
There is limited parking space by Balgy Bridge, but the off-road area looked a bit dodgy so we found space to leave car just around the corner, by the track leading to Marine Harvest hatchery.
The fish farm equipment on Loch Torridon:
We walked along the road back towards the bridge, with the majestic faces of torridonian giants in plain sight:
Beinn Dearg - almost a Munro. It's the highest Scottish Corbett. Kevin once called it "that F&*%$ Corbett behind Liathach"
(excuse my language...). Impressive mountain as it is, I'm determined to conquer it sooner or later.
Liathach - even more jaw dropping. I looked up and though - damn it, and I have been up there?
Beinn Alligin, The Jewel of Torridon, graceful and charming...
From Balgy Bridge, we followed an obvious path along the river:
My wish for lots of water was granted:
The falls from the distance:
Falls of Balgie are not spectacularly big, but with the river in spate, they still looked good:
The path reaches the falls, there are even a few big rocks to sit on and watch the water plunge down... Though on that particular day, it was too cold and too wet to sit:
Close up:
A few more shots of the falls - shame I can't replicate the humming noise of water
One more photo for "me on the rock" collection, this time it was "me on the rock seen from above with a dangerous drop under my feet":
A local Titanic:
The path climbs the slopes alongside the falls...
...and then follows the river all the way to the shore of Loch Damh.
Loch Damh seen from the path. It is possible to walk along the loch shore all the way to its opposite end (or at least that's what the 1-25k map suggests), but we left that for another day:
A couple more small waterfalls on the way:
We took a short detour to the viewpoint (there is a sketchy path):
You don't have to climb very high in Torridon, to treat yourself to something spectacular-spectacular:
Beinn Alligin:
Liathach:
From the viewpoint, the best way is to retrace your steps and rejoin the original path along the shore - it will lead you to a gate in the deer fence. We decided to cut across the slope and soon came across the above mentioned obstacle. We were too lazy to return along the fence back to the gate, so we climbed over the fence
and soon found the path again. It took us to a small jetty:
From the jetty, we returned to the tarmac road along a dirt track, with great views around us all the way. I kept glancing at the pointy summit of Sgurr na Bana Mhoraire, the northernmost top of the Beinn Damh ridge. We talked about climbing Beinn Damh in winter conditions and about a month later... Bang! We did it
I would like to visit the Falls of Balgie again when they are frozen - if we get enough of big freeze this winter to actually freeze the rivers and produce some icicles
There is more to see in this area and we will certainly explore Aird Mhor peninsula next time we happen to be in this corner of Torridon. At the moment, I'm hoping for more winter climbing. IF we get the right conditions. Meow!
