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Many years ago when we were students, we spent a week in Glenbrittle Youth Hostel (we planned to camp but the rain got the better of us) and there met a man who was going from there to the Fannaichs for a few days. It sounded like a place of mystery and wonderment at the time, and so here we are now in our child-free week having dropped CWH at her residential course and setting off for the very place.
Due to some cyclists riding around Yorkshire on Sunday we were not able to get away till after seven o'clock, so we hot-footed it up the road as far as Perth where there is a Travelodge which gives an adequate bed in a nice clean room for not much money. Maybe you pay extra for eye contact from the staff, and a packed breakfast is a complete rip-off, but we took our own so that was OK.
Monday morning saw us up bright and early, and we got to the layby just before Grudie power station and set off on our bikes just before noon.
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- lovely woodland by the road
it was overcast and we were cycling with heavy packs against a headwind. I never expected this to be so hard; it took us an hour and forty minutes to reach Fannich Lodge by which time we were very grateful to get the weight off our bottoms!
We locked our bikes to the fence and set off along the track by the lochside to tackle the two Western munros first. It's a long way. There were alternate heavy showers and shafts of sunlight, but it never rained long enough to need to crack out the full waterproofs.
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- the track meanders through more lovely woods
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- looking back across the loch
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- Lonely house near the top of Loch Fannich
Now Stephen Fallon on his website suggests going up the Nest of Fannich (boggy and pathless) and heading uphill to the bealach between Toman Coinnich and a'Chailleach (steep) which we thought was a no go. It looked rough and steep. What's more there is a nice stalker's path which goes up to the bealach at about 550metres alongside the lovely allt Leac a'bhealaich. Although it is boggy in places, it has been well built at some time and is easy to follow.
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- Path up by the burn
By the time we reached the bealach it was about five o'clock and we decided to have a brew, pitch the tent and leave as much stuff as possible in the tent while climbing the western two Munros.
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- the Happy Cups at the campspot
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- not a bad view from the bedroom
It was straight up the shoulder to Sgurr Breac, whose cairn is barely worthy of the name. We cheated by skirting round the south side of the Top of Toman Coinnich to reach A'Chailleach just about ten minutes after a cloud.
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- Rudolph on Sgurr Bhreac with an Teallach behind
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- that's where we are going.
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- top of A'Chailleach looking at Scotland's Favourite View
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- lovely evening sunshine on the way back
On the return to our tent, we did the contouring thing again and by the time we reached the path again were feeling it in our ankles from walking on the side of the slope. Back down steeply to the tent by about 9.20pm and we were glad of a hot meal and a comfy sleeping bag.
It is interesting to see that the shape of Loch Fannich at the western end is quite different from that on the map. the remains of the settlement at Nedd is shown at the waters edge, but in fact is several hundred metres away.
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- |Looking down to the head of Loch Fannich from the shoulder of Sgurr Bhreac
We were up bright and early and Rudolph tucked into his muesli with concentrated grapefruit juice. He makes it at home, it's a lovely plouter involving freezing and thawing and removing ice crystals. I always struggle with breakfast when backpacking as I prefer my muesli with milk. I usually manage oatcakes cheese and Eccles cakes but today I was not feeling particularly hungry.
Anyway we got ourselves packed up and away by before nine o'clockand headed straight up the slope to the east to the bealach.
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- Beinn Eighe appearing
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- deer watching us from the col
Dumping the packs there (and the GPS so the track misses it out!) we headed south to the first summit of the day, Sgurr nan Each. It was promising to be a lovely day and we reached this summit in good time at 10.20.
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- View to Beinn Eighe on the left, Slioch on the right
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- me on Sgurr nan Each, with sgurr Mor behind
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- more An Teallach
Another hour and ten minutes took us to the top of Sgurr nan Clach Geala, which has a cairn and a broken trig pillar. We met a lady and her dog up here, she was doing the three middle Munros and planning to be home for lunch!
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- Yesterday's hills
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- Looking up sgurr nan Clach Geala where we just came down
We then made our way to the last place we knew we could find water before the end of the ridge. There is a lochan on the ridge at 189721 and a stream is marked on the map a short distance northeast of it. At this point there is a handy boulder which is easily visible - it is even named on the 1:25,000 map - and we found running water about twenty metres downhill of this. We left our bags here while we did the out-and-back to Meall a'Chrasgaidh, which has smashing views over to An Teallach and the Fisherfields.
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- the big boulder with Meall a'Chrasgaidh behind
Returning to our bags we enjoyed a lunch of high quality Fairtrade beverages and Costa Chocolate Tiffin. At this point we had to decide whether to fill up with enough water to last the day only, or to have another night on the ridge but carry extra water for the camp. Three Munros down and four left to go, we made the decision to take our time, make the most of the daylight and go for the full set!
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- Lunch
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- the happy cups enjoy Fairtrade in them.
As we made our way up the steep side of Sgurr Mor, we noticed the cloud start to close in, and by the time we reached the summit, we were well into clag. No hanging about on this one, we came down out of the cloud and dumped our bags by the path for the out and back to Beinn Liath Mor Fannaich, this time taking the full waterproofs and some snacks with us.
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- the ridge to Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich appears out of the mist
There is a good built path which skirts the 944m top and passes Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich summit on the west. Funnily enough it disappears entirely for a while coming down the ridge, but reappears at the bealach. At the point at which we reckoned it had stopped going uphill again, we turned right over boulders and rough vegetation to reach the summit. it was reassuring to see occasional evidence of other people having been there. By the time we reached the top it was raining heavily and the only summit picture is a selfie which is terrible so you are not getting to see it!
As we retraced our steps along the stalker's path we bumped into none other than Bod and Valerie of this very website and had a great chat for about ten minutes. Although it was a bit chilly standing in the rain, it cheered us up no end so thanks Bod and Valerie for your craic and encouragement.
So retracing our steps in the rain and clag to go and pick up the bags, we were thinking this was a great chance to practise our navigation skills, do a bit of pacing and timing and so on. We were however to be disappointed, because all of a sudden the clag lifted and we were treated to some views again.
We were getting pretty tired by the time we reached Meall Gorm more than nine hours after leaving camp, so we had a good stop here for a brew and some food. I was feeling pretty exhausted really and struggling to eat anything, but found that chilli and lime cashews peanuts and corn hit the spot quite well. (Fairtrade too!)
Another very pleasant hour got us to the final Munro of the day, an Coileachan, which has a rather unexpected rock formation on the summit. It was turning into a pleasant evening, and we got a phone signal at the top and sent a text to friends to boast a little (ok, a lot!)
The descent down to Fannaich Lodge again was rather brutal, mostly because we were completely cream crackered by this time. At one point Rudolph took a wee fall and nearly turned his ankle (thankfully he was unhurt) which led to a conversation about what we would do if he had actually been unable to walk any further. At the bottom of the slopes there is a new plantation ringed by deer fences where little birch and pine trees are doing very well. The evening scent of the heather and myrtle was lovely and the smidge was effective!
We unhitched our bikes and rode a km or so down the road to where there was a water supply just outside the plantation. We had just enough energy left to pitch our tents, cook a quick blow-up meal to share, and roll into bed.
Next morning we packed up and cycled out, what a difference with the wind behind us and downhill, it took us no more than 40 minutes!
more photos further on, I have reached my maximum 25!
