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I did this hill last year from Glen Creran but as we were in Glencoe for a few days and it was on my daughter’s to do list we decided to have a go at it from Glen Etive. Although this route does involve walking through a forestry plantation it is nowhere near as bad as some people make out – in fact of the two routes I preferred it. The walk in from Elleric was incredibly boggy and nowhere near as scenic. There is about 3km of forestry to walk through before you get to the open hillside but it only takes about half an hour or so.
Then it is downhill to cross a burn by two very dodgy corrugated iron bridges.
There is a reasonable path leading up the hill to the right of a gorge
and onto the bealach between Meall nan Gobhar and Beinn Fhionnlaidh.
Behind there are brilliant views of Ben Starav, Glas Bheinn Mhor and Stob Coir an Albannaich and as we gained height we could see Ben Cruachan as well.
Once at the bealach the climb to the ridge was quite steep in soft snow. We didn’t go to the spot height at 841 but arrived at the ridge to its west.
From there it was a pleasant walk along to the summit
with Sgor na h-Ulaidh to our right and Beinn a’Bheithir in the distance.
There was an ice covered rocky step to negotiate before we reached the summit after about 2 ¾ hours.
From there we looked across to Fraochaidh which we had done a couple of days earlier.
We could see some nasty weather approaching so we left the ridge at its midpoint on the return journey
and followed some fence posts for a few hundred meters before contouring round the bealach again and making our way back to the bridge and the forest in a snow storm.
The weather cleared up as we drove back to Glencoe and we had to stop for some photos.