Hands, shoulders and knees are sore

[tomyboy73]

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I fancied a solo trip to Arran so looked for a new walk and came across this one. It looked like a beast of a walk and climb but I was happy to go for the first part up Cioch na h-Oighe to Goatfell and back down again in time for an early boat home. Trying to prepare for a walk while caught up in the excitement of the Scotland Ireland game was a bit difficult. In doing so I ended up leaving without a map and sufficient food for the day. I grabbed some grub in town before catching the train to Ardrossan and using Scotrail`s free wifi I saved some maps and walk info to my phone from Walkhighlands. Sorted. I knew the rain would be staying off and the winds were weak so it was just a matter of keeping my fingers crossed that the clouds would stay high.

on the way over

The whole island had a low cloud hung over it on approach, but it wasn`t too bad when you got there, although Goatfell summit could still not be seen , but otherwise it was a decent day for november. The cheery bus driver dropped me off right at the start of the walk and i was off. You follow the path around past a graveyard, then towards some old beech trees on the right of the path and past the sign off to the right for Glen Sannox.

Caisteal Abhail ahead

Cioch na h-Oighe & Devil`s punchbowl

I could see the tops of Caisteal Abhail and the ridge that i was climbing up to, but I knew that it could be very changeable. I reached a burn which i crossed over before remembering that the path led off here somewhere. I check the walk description and realised the path runs up the left side of the burn and retreated to find a vague path amongst the dieing bracken.

take the path here

As I had wore my winter, lined trousers and was already roastin, I decided against wearing my gaiters and marched through the grass growing over the path. It wasn`t too wet anyway and the path wasn`t too muddy. I found a suitable place to cross the burn, which at times as you gain height forms a deep ravine. It was probably a little too early, but i walked up alongside it a bit more before finding another faint path off to my right, which i followed towards the bottom of the hill. As i walked towards it I thought to myself , how the hell am i going to get up that ? Some deer crossed ahead of me, but got out of sight quickly , they must have smelled me. It was quite boggy and I jumped from rock to rock , mound to mound as i neared the hill. The trick now was to find the path. I had quickly read a couple of people`s experience of the climb which they described as quite an easy scramble but not much else about the start other than there was a huge slab section at the start which was marked with an arrow pointing up on it. I could n`t find it and made my way along another very faint path through the heather. probably more likely a deer path. I knew to make my way towards the ridge overlooking Glen Sannox. I passed a few plausible starts to going up but i carried on going around until i decided enough was enough. I tested out some slabs that i passed for grip. The ones that were completely dry and moss free were fine to walk on , but any sign of moss meant they were really slippy and not to be taken lightly.

Up there ? .. No

I looked at this way up , but didn`t fancy the crag it was heading to.

caisteal abhail

I picked out some rocks to head to and waded through the heather, ocasionally having to get down low and taking a firm grip to hoist myself up. This was to be the position i was in for much of the way until i eventually found the path. Carefully going up the sides of some rocks always looking ahead to find a safe route. There was no exposure here and at the most i would only have fallen down a few feet into the heather, but it was all about getting up higher not falling down.

what much of the route looked like

looking along glen sannox to the sea

It was quite difficult in my heavy trousers and my winter boots but i was enjoying the workout, I could do with losing the love handles and the beer belly.
I was hauling myself up onto rocks, carefully walking along ridges in the rock and finding handgrips and footholds more easily as my confidence grew. Then I found a path. Yes. I was able to breathe easier now and i jogged along when the terrain would allow. I came to a point where a cairn marked a central part of two adjoining paths, I had come from the right, so i followed left to find it went nowhere safe. So it only meant one thing , the cairn was saying "climb up over that big slab, son" . I sat here for a bit resting in the rocks and looking out to the sea and across to the mainland which was beginning to disappear under a blanket of grey cloud. Aw naw, no rain ? I sat for about five minutes. I made my mind up that if it did rain i was going to head back down the path. There was a hell of alot more rock to be scrambled over and I didn`t fancy it in the wet. As it was, the cloud didn`t come off the water and i dusted myself down and decided to carry on.

looking over to Suidhe Fhearghas (the seat of Fergus?)

I tried to find the best grip, changing my body shape to fit. But once that first hold is in and you hoist yourself up your away again. Easy peasy.

find the path

i was loving it now and the path became more frequent between scrambles and i opened up viewranger to check my gps position. I was near the top and on the right path. As i got closer to Cioch na h-Oihge it was getting cloudier and i could only see just around me. I was now on a narrow ridge and it was great. There were a few pinnacles to walk/scramble over and the summit was reached easily and it was now about getting up onto the north goatfell ridge and back down again.

pinnacle

ridge

There were another couple of tricky climbs to negotiate before getting onto Mullach Buidhe( yellow crest) and look down the gully into the Devil`s Punchbowl.

Devil`s punchbowl

i had hoped to reach the summit of goatfell but because of the claggy conditions i decided to head down asap. I contented myself with making funny shapes out of the rocks and tors that appeared out of the grey. I love the Arran hills for the rocks and boulders , they`re strewn all over the place and come in all shapes and sizes. As i looked for the marker cairn to take me down into Coire Lan to take me down to Corrie, i met 3 guys on the way up. They told me the marker cairn was just meters away and i found it , checked my compass for direction and headed down. It was a long walk out and my knees were feeling the strain of the descent, my hands were roughed up a bit and my shoulders were beginning to seize up after all the scrambling . But you know I loved it.

low cloud in coire

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