by decvalts » Mon May 21, 2018 10:23 am
Date walked: 21/05/2018
Time taken: 9 hours
Distance: 35 km
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Low-level walk through the pass between Corrour and Fort William
Originally I had set aside this weekend to do a traverse of the Mamores. Delays at work on the Friday evening meant I was too late for the last train up to Corrour, I was hesitant to call the whole weekend off so turned it into an extended 'evening + day' walk on the Saturday night and Sunday.
Saturday would have been ideal weather, unfortunately the forecast for Sunday was disappointingly claggy on the tops with strong winds forecast.
I arrived at Corrour station at twenty past nine that evening, only one other walker got off here, who was heading towards the youth hostel at Loch Ossian. I crossed the tracks and followed the track and boggy path along the railway line towards Loch Treig, where it rejoins a better track to Creaguanich Lodge. There was enough dusk light to get me to the bridge before the lodge, at which point I donned the headtorch and set off alongside the Abhainn Rath to find Staoineag Bothy.
The dusk light faded quickly (it was around 10:20pm now) and although this was probably a straightforward route to pick out in daylight, under headtorch light it was not so easily followed. The first section is boggy in places and the path indistinct for a lot of the route. There are ups and downs as small burns are crossed, including one particularly steep drop over the Allt Carn na Aigheann. The rough terrain made this path feel longer than expected and I began to wonder if I had walked past the bothy at one point, even considering just bivvying somewhere on the high ground above the river as it was now fully dark and the bothy nowhere to be seen. Pressing on a few hundred metres though I finally caught the shape of the gable-end of the bothy in my headtorch. Miraculously I had arrived with quite dry boots, despite the bog and general lack of sight beyond a few paces ahead. There was no light on that I could see inside, though perhaps everyone had gone to bed (it was just after 11pm).
The door was bolted however and Staoineag was empty. I creaked open the door to find the whole place to myself. Often I'm quite happy to have a bothy to myself, but tonight I wouldn't have said no to a quick nightcap or brew before bed with anyone who had been there. Instead, I crept upstairs to the pleasantly warm attic space and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Day 2: Staoineag to Fort William
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our_route.gpx
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