Meall Horn Winners.. Well 3 of us

[mountain thyme]

Climbed this Corbett as part of the WH Durness Meet. Between the pub and the bunkhouse on the Friday night seen us discussing this walk. Weather didn’t look the best at all for the Saturday with most weather forecast sites saying only dry between 8 and 9 am!! I was keen to keep Arkle for a better day and therefore happy to go for Meall Horn on the Saturday.
With four of us setting out Fife Flyer (Martin), Trekker53 (Charlie) Rodmiester (Rod) and myself only one car was required. We parked at the end of Loch Stack on the A838.

The team

There are quite a few spaces available for cars here. Once leaving the carpark we headed left and onto the track.

Heading along the good track

Loch Stack

Towards Arkle

Loch Stack

Followed the private road towards Airdachuilinn and crossing over two bridges. Once over the 2nd bridge the track splits. At this point we took the left hand split.
The track continues, passing through the huge boulders, through a small forest and then climbs quite steeply uphill.

The boulders

Ben Stack

The track passes a cairn marking the spot for arkle on the left. The track from now on was good going but stony and not one I would be cycling on once over the bridge. A good cycle can be made up to the bridge over mainly a tarmac road.

Over to Fionaven

Towards Arkle

Martins dead sheep on the track - Oh deer

We initially planned to leave the track sooner and cut across to take a direct approach to Meall Horn, but once we headed onto the grass we came across huge peat hags, which were made worse with the snow melt and recent rain. I would not recommend going over the peat hags.

Towards Meall Horn. Time to let Rod lead for a wee change today.

Therefore we cut back up onto the track and followed the Allt Horn to the top of it and then left the track, heading east and skirting underneath the crags of the 731 top of Creaggan Meall Horn.

We stopped after leaving the track to put on waterproofs and just as we did the hailstones and rain came on so wise decision was made. We headed east up towards the summit of Meall Horn. The wind picked up as we headed to the summit. So a quick summit pic was taken and we then retraced our steps back the way we came.

Summit Pic

Blurry summit pic. Was a big tad windy

On the way down for at least 20 minutes we were hit by the sorest/ painful-est hailstones ever, making the descent hellish.

Once back on the track the sun was back out. We stopped for lunch and then made our way back down the track towards the car. Back to the car in under 5 hours. The weather was much better than expected.
We then headed to Smoo Caves for a wee wander. Lovely place to visit. Theres a £4 boat ride into the caves if interested. We had a wee nosey and then made our way to the Pub for ONE DRINK as it closes for a couple hours in the afternoon.

Smoo Caves

Smoo Caves

Caves

Seeing as the pub was closing we headed back to the bunkhouse for a few SMALL vinos and later to the pub for the Quiz. Martin you picked the wrong team to be in A great day and evening had by the all.

The Quiz Winners. Dont know how

So long, farewell. End of the April WH meet

[The Rodmiester]

All in all a fabulous meet, many Happy faces especially from the Winning Team. Just goes to show when relative like minded strangers meet up they all have a Funtime at a WH Meet, roll on the next one, with who knows many more new faces And yes Martin you did say dead Sheep Arkle looks so good from all directions, that is a must the next time i'm up there

[trekker53]

Hi Theresa, a mostly good day out except for those sharp hailstones.
Thanks for suppling wine to myself and Rodmeister and better still, making our dinner.
Maybe we can hire you at Aultguish.
A very sociable meet and let the next one be just as good.

[Fife Flyer]

Nice one Theresa, always good see some different pictures

Not sure about the dead sheep being mine It was pronounced dead the day before by a couple of doctors Makes me sound like a murderer