From the car park at the end of the Glen Lochay road (not where it's marked on my 1:25000 map, but a little further down the valley) up, through pleasant bird-filled reinstated natural woodland to the high point (883m) on the eastern shoulder of Sgiath Chuil. I'd sort of hoped to do the whole length of this shoulder, the two Munros, and Beinn nan Imirean as well, but starting at 11am didn't really give me much opportunity to do this much. I was also feeling a bit more shattered than usual at the start. Still, taking in this wee top gave Sgiath Chuil more of a feeling of a well-walked hill rather than simply a ticked-off top. From this top, I headed west over to the top of Meall a' Churain and then south to the actual top of Sgiath Chuil.
- The way up to the 883m top and to Meall a' Churain
- Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasgarnich
- The crags to the NE of the 883m top
The 883m top had a lot of, sometimes quite large patches, of this beautiful pink flower which I've not tracked down yet. Any ideas?
- Unidentified small pink flower
- Meall a' Churain and Sgiath Chuil, with Beinn Cheathaich and Meall Glas in the background from the 883m top
- Back to the 883m top from Meall a' Churain
- Ben More, the boggy southern approaches to these hills, and haze over Crianlarich from Sgiath Chuil
I expected the steepness of the slope down to the bealach between here and the next top, Beinn Cheathaich, to be tricky as the route descriptions suggest doubling back on yourself to the north before heading down, but that didn't seem to make any difference to the steepness. I avoided the worst of it by heading SW from the top of Sgiath Chuill and then NW across the slop to just south of the high point of the bealach. This seemed to work well, and gave a perfectly reasonable gradient the whole way. A young golden eagle soared through the Lairig a' Churain as I went down, too quick for the camera. There's not really any avoiding the steepness of the hill up to the top of Beinn Cheathaich, which also gets more rocky the higher you get. Good fun.
- Sgiath Chuil from Beinn Cheathaich
From there, in the clear weather I had at least, it's an easy stroll across the tops to Meall Glas. I decided that I didn't really have time to do Beinn nan Imirean as planned, especially as I couldn't get any mobile phone signal at the top to let my girlfriend know how late that would make me, so instead, after doddering around on the top for a while, I opted for a cross country route back into the corrie on the N side of the ridge and round the northern spur of Beinn Cheathaich to Lubchurran, across the ford and back onto the track to the car. I have to say that this seemed a long way back and I was congratulating myself on not making it a 12km route back from Beinn nan Imirean as well. A beautiful walk over good, not simple, terrain.
- The elusive Beinn nan Imirean
- Ben Challum from Meall Glas
- Cam Chreag, Stob nan Clach, and Creag Mhor from Meall Glas
- A last view up upper Glen Lochay
