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I was lucky enough to have a few days in Arran just before the pre-Christmas rush set in, and I'd negotiated a day's hillwalking pass from my wife
... It wasn't a great week weather-wise (Storm Desmond, anyone
?) but the Thursday 3rd December looked the best of a bad lot, so I thought I'd have a look at Sail Chalmadale, a Sub2K Marilyn that's a southern outlier of the Pirnmill hills in the northwest of the island. It would also let me finish a wee side project that I've had on the go for a while to climb all the Relative Hills of Arran - an admittedly obscure and fairly meaningless achievement, but that's part of the fun of it to be honest
.
The standard up-and-down route (as described on the website) would be a good option for a half-day's walk, but I rather fancied a slightly longer circular version as described in Paddy Dillon's Cicerone 'Walking on the Isle of Arran' book, since this would give a chance for a close-up look at Arran's largest loch, Loch Tanna, which I'd heard was very scenic.
The route starts at Dougarie, where there is a rather fine Victorian hunting lodge complete with boathouse. However, the start of the Glen Iorsa track serves as Dougarie Lodge's (private) access road, so it's necessary to start just 50 metres further north, where the route is signed from the main road as 'Footpath to Glen Iorsa' - no great hardship as it's a slightly more direct route. It starts off up a farm track for 100 metres or so, but then when the track swings left, the public footpath continues straight on up a rather slippery flight of stone steps to reach a muddy path at the top.
Just before I set off, I stopped to enjoy the views from the beach across Kilbrannan Sound to Kintyre.
Off up the stone steps and onto the squelchy path. It wasn't as bad as it might have been though, considering all the rain that had fallen this week, and it did go through a nice bit of broadleaf forestry. Eventually, the path rejoins the main Glen Iorsa track just before a nice wee footbridge over the Allt na h'Airidhe.
This next section of track gives a pleasant stoat along the west bank of the Iorsa Water, Arran's biggest river no less, and I made surprisingly rapid progress (surprising by my usual standards, anyway
).
About ten minutes up the track however, I had to get my feet slightly wet for the first time, as there is a concrete ford that is the only sensible way of crossing the Allt Scaftigill at the foot of Glen Scaftigill. I'd resigned myself to wet feet on this route however, - as well as all the recent rainfall, there would be two river crossings later, so I might as well just get thoroughly drookit as soon as possible really
!
I continued to make rapid progress along the excellent Glen Iorsa track, until it came to a grinding halt at a pleasing wee stone boathouse on the west bank of Loch Iorsa:
From here, a much rougher and very muddy ATV track continued northwards, actually extending much further than shown on the OS map - probably all the way to Loch na Davie I suspect, although hopefully I wouldn't be going that far today!
Although Glen Iorsa is scenic enough, the ATV track started to pall after a while, and it was something of a relief to reach the next large western tributary of the Iorsa Water, the Allt Tigh am Shiorraim. This is a big burn, and although it might be possible to boulder-hop it dryshod after a relatively dry spell, it was certainly going to require a wade today. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained...
The Allt Tight am Shiorraim is basically Loch Tanna's exit burn, so hopefully I'd find the loch somewhere up there! Initially this section is pathless, although traces of path did develop a bit higher up on the ridge above the incised gully of the Allt. (If anyone is wondering at this point why it is necessary to cross the Allt at all, it's because the west bank is much steeper and rougher - it's well worth the wet feet to get significantly easier going on the east bank, as Paddy Dillon recommends in his book.) There was a fine vista back down across the Iorsa Water to the impressively bouldery southwestern flanks of Beinn Nuis:
A bit higher up, the cloud base had started to lift, and I got a fascinating and unfamiliar rear view of the jagged ridgeline of the Arran Corbetts, with Cir Mhor and A'Chir particularly impressive as they poked through the Clag:
One of the great features of all seven of Arran's Sub2K Marilyns is that they all, if walked in clear weather, give varying grandstand views of the main Corbetts massif from virtually all angles. Sail Chalmadale is no exception
.
Before too long, I arrived at Loch Tanna, which proved to be just as scenic as I'd heard
. The best view was probably straight north to Meall nan Damh, another Sub2K Marilyn and a particularly fine one, rising directly above the head of the loch.
Another rather unfamiliar view of Casteil Abhail, Cir Mhor and A'Chir across Loch Tanna:
Anyway, I waded the outflow burn at the south end of the loch (wet feet again, but I wasn't that bothered by this stage
!) and eventually turned my attention to Sail Chalmadale, which by now wasn't looking very far away at all. This wee hill only just makes the required 150 metres of descent and re-ascent from the neighbouring hills to qualify as a Marilyn: in fact, it isn't listed in the first edition of Alan Dawson's 'Relative Hills of Great Britain', only being added at a later stage after a detailed survey confirmed its Sub2K Marilyn status. Just as well too, because it's a grand wee hill
. When approached from Loch Tanna, there is a small northern subsidiary peak, Cnoc Breac, that has to be traversed first.
A final interesting view of Cir Mhor on the way across, with the eastern wall of Glen Iorsa looking impressively steep and bouldery from this angle:
Cnoc Breac proved to be a bouldery wee hill, and again this section was entirely pathless, but it was straighforward enough.
At this point, I discovered another one of those natural 'sculptures' which appear to be an Arran specialty (e.g the Old Man of Tarsuinn et cetera) - this one is a rock that's clearly pretending to be a grey seal, such as can frequently be spotted off the Arran coastline:
This area appears to be Arran's Lake District! As well as Loch Tanna, there is a higher loch, Dubh Loch, that nestles in the southern flanks of the Beinn Bharrain massif, and the tiny Lochan nan Cnamh just north of Sail Chalmadale. I think all three of them are just visible in this view down from Cnoc Breac (Dubh Loch is almost hidden but you can see it if you squint a bit):
From Cnoc Breac's unmarked summit, Chalmadale finally looked very close, and there was a nice view over Kintyre to the west:
For a relatively obscure wee hill, Sail Chalmadale proved to have a surprisingly large and well-built summit cairn: decidedly more impressive than some Munros I could mention! The best view was probably of the Beinn Bharrain massif, incorporating Arran's only Graham, Mullach Buidhe.
A nice view down onto Glen Iorsa's glacial scenery, with the Iorsa Water demonstrating nice meanders and ... could it be...yes, Oxbow Lakes!!! Terribly exciting
!
I'm afraid it's that man again...
Chalmadale is basically a steep-sided whaleback ridge, and the descent to the southwest was initially straightforward, following the ridgeline with a rather pleasing view down over Lochan Sail Chalmadale and its unnamed northern pal:
However, I'd forgotten from the route description that the next section gets rather steep, and that there are large hidden granite slabs, very slippery when wet, that really need to be avoided. I didn't keep quite far enough to the left on descent initially, and I had a couple of hairy moments before I managed to cut leftwards on grassy ramps between the slabs. This view back up hopefully shows what I'm talking about:
In retrospect, definitely worth keeping well left at this point, I'd say
!
From here on, however, it was a straighforward descent, picking up another ATV track at the base of the crags, that goes all the way down round the northwestern shore of Lochan Sail Chalmadale, to eventually join the Glen Iorsa track just before the concrete ford at the bottom of Glen Scaftigall, then back down along the track then the footpath back to Dougarie shore. It started to rain just as I passed Lochan Sail Chalmadale, but at least there was a last nice view back to the Marilyn itself:
It's a fine wee hill this, and if you have the time and the energy, I'd thoroughly recommend this longer circular route to take in Loch Tanna too
.