Sgurr na Banachdich & Armadale Castle

[quagga64]

Woke up around 8:30 at the Glen Brittle camp site to another lovely sunny day and a view out over Loch Brittle to the Island of Canna and thankfully the midges had gone. Made a quick coffee then stuck camp and left the campsite without paying as I'd not used any of the facillities and had,nt wanted to stay there anyway. Drove the short distance up to the Glen Brittle youth hostel and began walking at 9:40. Followed the Allt a'Choire Ghreadaidh as it climbed steadily over the moorland towards the base of the hills. It was very hot though mercifully not quite as hot as the previous day. The path became steeper and I met an English couple in their 50s from Bury called Liam and Lorrainne who had a walkhighlands walk report the same as me and we conferred as to what was the proper route up the mountain. The path headed directly for the steep ridge of An Diallaid and petered out, from here it was a very steep scramble across scree and rocks up to the summit of the An Diallaid ridge. Kept catching up with the English couple and we chatted and compared directions most of the way up. Once on the summit of the ridge the gradient eased a bit and the views became increasingly more spectacular, at 12:45, after just over 3 hours walking, the tiny summit cairn of Sgurr na Banachdich came suddenly into view. This is apparently the easiest of the Cuillins and also right in the middle of the range so there is great views both North and South along the whole Cuillin Ridge and down Coir Uisg to Loch Coruisk and across to Bla Bheinn, also across the sea to the small Isles of Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna, and all over the Island of Skye, as Liam said when he and his wife arrived at the summit shortly after, 'It was like looking down on a map'. The next Munro to the South was Sgurr Dearg with people visible climbing up and abseiling off The Inaccessible Pinnacle and Sgurr Alasdair, the highest of the Cuillins was just beyond. Spent an hour on the summit and a few other climbers arrived during that time, all chatted away to each other and had something to eat though all I had was a couple of bananas and a peach with me. I took some photos of Liam and Lorrainne and Liam took some of me then I left and headed back down the same route I'd came up. Took an hour and 50 minutes to descend back down to car and the whole walk had taken 6 hours, I could now say I'd climbed one of the Cuillins and I was feeling well chuffed with myself. As it was only twenty to four I decided to head round the Island to Armadale and fulfill another ambition of visiting Armadale Castle and sending myself a postcard back home. Drove back up Glen Brittle to Sligachan and around the main road through Broadford and down the Sleat Peninsula arriving at the ticket office/gift shop about 5 o,clock. Unbeknown to me untill the next morning, during my drive round to Armadale Princess Kate had given birth to a baby son, George, who will one day become the King. A chubby old lady was hoovering the gift shop as I went in and asked her if it was too late to visit the castle, she said it was too late to give me a ticket for the Clan donald visitor centre as it closed at 5:30 but the gates to the castle ruins and gardens stayed open all the time and I was welcome to go up and take my photos and explore. I said this was ideal as I wasnt really bothered about the clan Donald visitor centre anyway. Bought a few postcards then went off up the driveway and took photos of Armadale Castle which is just a shell of a building now with the grandest and highest part gone completely, walked around the gardens and came upon a signpost pointing the way inland to Armadale Hill, I didnt even know there was an Armadale Hill but now that I did I just had to climb it. it was an easy stroll up through woods and I was soon on the top, which is only about 600 feet I think but as the Sleat peninsula is fairly flat there are great views across the sound of sleat to the Mallaig and the Mainland. The most interesting thing about the summit itself is 'the money tree' which is a large post where people have stuck coins into the splits in the wood all the way up and down the length of the post ! I didnt have any coins but found a five pence that had fallen out so I rejammed that into the post and made a wish which I suppose is what your supposed to do. On the walk back down saw more giant dragonflies and a giant hairy caterpillar, had another walk around the gardens then wrote my postcards out to myself, Tommy and Mum before driving down to the tiny village and posting them through the door of the information centre come shop come post office. went to Armadale Pier and explored round an Eco camp site which was all very hippy and wierd, decided this was not the overnight spot for me so drove back up to Broadford and just managed to get a fish supper fro the chippie before it closed at 9 then drove back down the Elgol road to Camas malag, the beach on the shores of Loch Slapin where my walk had passed the day before. There was only one other tent at the far end of the beach and someone sleeping in a van and it was an ideal place to camp with nice flat ground and no midges, the only problem was the ground was rock hard and I bent every tent peg I had trying to pitch but as it wasnt windy it didnt matter too much as I knew the tent wouldnt blow away. had a can of beer and 2 cans of cider as I sat looking out over the sea to the Isles of Rum and Eigg and decided to listen to Treasure Island on audio book on my ipod speekers as I lay in the tent. Probably fell asleep about midnight, a very satisfying day.