Arran 5: West Glen Rosa and an Islay Sunset

[Phil the Hill]

This was my final walk on the Isle of Arran in 2012. It was Friday and we had to vacate our holiday cottage above Lamlash Bay. Keith and Carol had to head off for their cottage on Skye to meet up with other friends. Andy and I had planned to head for Islay for the Whisky Festival. But I had one Corbett left to bag on Arran.

So Andy and I headed for Glen Rosa and pitched camp at the far end of the campsite. This enabled us to drive up the initial tarmac lane into Glen Rosa, though walking it would have been no hardship.


170 Campsite in Glen Rosa by prwild, on Flickr

The weather was dry, but there was low cloud on the tops, which cleared later. We headed off on foot up the Glen Rosa track.

West_Glen_Rosa.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

We bore off to the left just after the footbridge, following the path up beside the Garbh Allt.


171 Andy on the footbridge by prwild, on Flickr

We could see back to our tents over what looked like glacial moraine.


172 View back to the campsite by prwild, on Flickr

Ahead were Beinn Nuis and Beinn Tarsuinn.


173 Garbh Allt by prwild, on Flickr

I was wearing my Innov8 running shoes, and there was one boggy patch as we crossed the stream where my feet got slightly damp, but otherwise it was dry all the way and they soon dried out. We climbed up Beinn Nuis, with Coire a' Bhradian opening up below us.


174 Coire a Bhradain by prwild, on Flickr

By the time we reached the summit of Beinn Nuis the cloud had lifted, and we got slightly hazy views to Beinn Tarsuinn and the Arran Corbetts and to Beinn Bharrain.


175 Beinn Tarsuinn Panorama by prwild, on Flickr


176 Beinn Bharrain from Beinn Nuis by prwild, on Flickr


177 Phil on Beinn Nuis summit by prwild, on Flickr

It was a pleasant ridge walk from here to Beinn Tarsuinn, skirting the cliffs.


178 Beinn Tarsuinn by prwild, on Flickr

From the summit there was a good view of A'Chir and Goatfell.


179 A Chir and Goatfell Panorama by prwild, on Flickr

We descended to the bealach to have a look at the A'Chir ridge and bypass path.


180 A Chir bypass path by prwild, on Flickr

However, we intended to head back from here over Beinn a' Chliabainn (or "Ben Chilblain" as we non-Gaelic speakers affectionately called it). We were pleasantly surprised to see that the path we had chosen from the Harvey map was a ledge route.


181 Ledge path to Beinn a Chliabhain by prwild, on Flickr

On reaching the far end we found there was a direct path down from Beinn Tarsuinn, which we had missed amongst the rocks on the descent - but this was much more fun.


182 The ledge path by prwild, on Flickr


183 Andy on ledge path by prwild, on Flickr

Looking back to A'Chir we could see that someone had got to the summit.


185 A Chir by prwild, on Flickr


184 Climbers on A Chir by prwild, on Flickr

The sun was threatening to come out as we reached the ridge to Chilblain.


186 Beinn Tarsuinn and ledge path by prwild, on Flickr

The path skirted below the summit of Chilblain but I climbed up to scramble over the various rocky piles which were candidates for the summit.


188 Beinn a Chliabain summit by prwild, on Flickr


187 Bein Tarsuinn Panorama from Beinn a Chliabain by prwild, on Flickr

The descent was at an easy angle, with the cairn that was missing from the summit.


189 Andy on Beinn a Chliabain descent by prwild, on Flickr

Our campsite came back into view.


190 Campsite and ferry by prwild, on Flickr

Back in Glen Rosa, Andy explained how yesterday he had only spotted adders by not looking for them. I tried this, and missed a baby adder which Andy pointed out behind me.


191 Adder in Glen Rosa by prwild, on Flickr


192 Adder in Glen Rosa by prwild, on Flickr

No adders were harmed in taking these pictures (though a boot may have been placed to stop them slithering off).

We spent the night in the campsite.


193 Evening in Glen Rosa campsite by prwild, on Flickr


194 Glen Rosa sunset by prwild, on Flickr

The following day we headed for Islay. Having spent an extra day on Arran for me to complete the Corbetts we only had one night on Islay, so we did not manage any walking but did manage to visit the Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Bruichladdich distilleries and enjoyed the sunset behind the Rhinns of Islay as we sampled some of our recent purchases. The perfect finish to a great week in Scotland...


204 Evening Light 1 by prwild, on Flickr


205 Evening Light 2 by prwild, on Flickr


207 Islay Sunburst by prwild, on Flickr


208 Islay Sun Halo by prwild, on Flickr


210 Islay Sunset 1 by prwild, on Flickr


211 Islay Sunset 2 by prwild, on Flickr


212 Islay Sunset 3 by prwild, on Flickr


213 Islay Sunset vibrant 1 by prwild, on Flickr


214 Islay Sunset vibrant 2 by prwild, on Flickr


215 Islay Sunset vibrant 3 by prwild, on Flickr


216 Dying Light by prwild, on Flickr

I used my old EOS400D SLR for some shots and my new IXUS 240HS for others. The EOS shots were black and I had to use the RAW images to produce the final photos. The IXUS did all this in the camera. I played around with its "super-vivid" setting for some of the shots, and all of them have been Photoshopped - though not that much for the IXUS ones.

[hollyshills]

picture 214 is now on my desktop, stunning. looked like a lovely day.

[litljortindan]

Some great pictures there.