Summer's out on School House Ridge

[Cairngorm creeper]

My eyes are invariably drawn to the magnificent curves of Beinn a Bheithir whenever we travel past Ballacuillish and the campsite at Invercoe on the banks of Loch Leven is an excellent spot to admire it from and consider possible ascents . Having consulted the maps and books we decided we wanted to go up Sgorr Dheag by School House Ridge and save Sgorr Dhonuill for a separate ascent of its North East Ridge.

The Route

It was an unusual start for a walk in the Highlands, parking outside the tourist information centre and local Coop and then walking through a residential area, but we were on our way by 08:00 and it was not long before we had past the School and heading towards open country.

The road to the school

We stayed on the path as it passed below the steep heathery slopes leading up to Beinn Ban. After the next gate we turned right, initially following the fence up but then traversing across the grassy slopes towards School House Ridge. As so often happens, we met up with a unexpected, good path going in our direction but I have no idea where it started .

School House Ridge

It was a beautiful day, if a little on the warm side for slogging up steep hills, so frequent admiring of the splendid views was required (you'd be foolish not too).

A good excuse to admire the view

Looking across across Loch Leven

But the the ridge ahead beckoned us forward.

Further up the path traversed the side of the ridge before rising up to deposit you at the start of the rock. It then gave way to sections of rocky scrambling. There were good holds and the sections of scrambling were quite short so it never felt overly exposed but there were harder options for the brave and foolish (not me ).

Start of the scramble

lots of this

And if you fancy this

Sadly it was over all too quickly

Top of the ridge

and we had reached Sgorr Ban

Sgorr Bhan

We stopped for a drink and a break, enjoying the sunshine before continuing on to Sgorr Dhearg. The Shapley undulating curves of Bheinn a Bheithir, clear blue skies, a gentle cooling breeze and mountain views in all direction, I was close to hill walking heaven .

Ridge to Sgorr Dhearg

12:40 and we had reached the summit. Time for another a stop and proper brew.

Conjuring up a drink on the summit

Spectacular view point

We considered going on too Sgorr Dhonuill but decided that if did we may never come back, so decided to go with our original plan.
Up until this point we had not planned our descent Every time we had thought about it we we're put of by the forestry stretching up the slopes and imagined ourselves struggling through felled trees unable to locate the paths . We almost retraced our steps to decend from Beinn Ban, and I am so glad we didn't, as the reality of descending from the bealach between the two Munro's couldn't have differred more widely from our gloomy vision.

Leaving the Sgorr Dhearg

As we were making our way down Sgorr Dhearg we were distressed to see smoke rising from Glen Etive. It was awful to think of the destruction a fire could be causing and worrying to think that walkers may be caught up in the blaze.

Distressed to see smoke from Glen Etive

Once we reached the bealach we followed the line of the fence into the coire. We soon joined up with a rough and muddy path which was hard to follow at times but there were good views and it was interesting terrain to walk through.

The route down the coire

We linked up with the correct path to take us through the forestry without any effort on our part. An excellent woodland walk, good paths, all where they should be , and no need to negotiate the felling, , we didn't even get lost :lol.

Good paths through the forest

An incredibly pleasant descent

Once out of the woods there was a bit of a stroll up the road and we were back at the car at 16:30.
I had high expectations of Beinn of Bheithir but it exceeded them all, so a return trip for Sgorr Dhonuill is high on the to do list.

[HalfManHalfTitanium]

Thanks for a great report - I loved the scramble on that ridge. You did a lot better than I did finding the right way down through the forest though!

[Cairngorm creeper]

Thanks for a great report - I loved the scramble on that ridge. You did a lot better than I did finding the right way down through the forest though!

Thank you. It was a really fun scramble, but I bet it was hard to keep your sense of humour if you lost the path in the forestry. The path we followed was well constructed and seemed quite new, we passed the old one that was hard to distinguish from the forest rides .

[litljortindan]

Been down the wrong way and can confirm that there was half an hour of hillwalking hell to balance that, as you say, hillwalking heaven along the ridge.

[Jaxter]

Aww wonderful! I loved that hill! I fancied schoolhouse but it was very windy and very snowy and I was lacking in balls that day Looks like a return trip is definitely on the cards for me too. And soon

[Cairngorm creeper]

Been down the wrong way and can confirm that there was half an hour of hillwalking hell to balance that, as you say, hillwalking heaven along the ridge.

Only half an hour of hell We expected to be lost in forestry, falling into bogs, ditches and so on for at least a week I am so pleased they built that new path for us

Aww wonderful! I loved that hill! I fancied schoolhouse but it was very windy and very snowy and I was lacking in balls that day Looks like a return trip is definitely on the cards for me too. And soon

I am sure you would love schoolhouse it was great .We want to go back to Beinn a Bheithir in winter but not sure if we will be brave to do the ridge in snow, it had some steepish sections which looked like they might be tricky.

[Sunset tripper]

Nice route. Think I will be up that way this year sometime. Cheers

[Cairngorm creeper]

Nice route. Think I will be up that way this year sometime. Cheers

Than your It was, and very likely far nicer than a grassy slog up the side. Hope you get a nice sunny day.

[Jaxter]

Aww wonderful! I loved that hill! I fancied schoolhouse but it was very windy and very snowy and I was lacking in balls that day Looks like a return trip is definitely on the cards for me too. And soon

I am sure you would love schoolhouse it was great .We want to go back to Beinn a Bheithir in winter but not sure if we will be brave to do the ridge in snow, it had some steepish sections which looked like they might be tricky.

I'm not sure about Schoolhouse in the snow, the guys I met said they'd used a rope, but the way I went the only thing that made it dodgy that day was the 60mph winds