Stob Coir'An Albannaich, Meal Nan Eun height o' summer

[jwramsay]

Sunday 24th June 2018 and an area of high pressure had planked it's erse over Scotland so we were guaranteed some fantastic weather.

I picked Peter up in Glasgow at 6:30am and by 9:30am we arrived at Colleitir at the bottom of Glen Etive. Despite a "Lotus Owners Club" meet, we bagged a decent parking space and started walking at 09:40am.

Stopped off for a panoramic of The Buachaille:


Looking back at the high beallach between the Buachailles:


Here we have the Lotus owners club - one blaring out "skyfall" by Adele (part of the movie was shot in Glen Etive);


View from the road over to where we were heading, although all of our quarry is out of view:


The walk starts at a gate which you go round the side of and decend the landrover track to cross the River Etive at the Bridge:


You then continue right towards Colleitir, a private residence but you are politely asked to skirt around the back and onto the open moorland which is an absolute bogfest! [Your boots will get dirty on this climb, so just go for it!]

"Please respect our privacy":


The bogfest with Glas Bheinn Mhor (left) and mighty Ben Starav (right):


It is imperative to stick to the LEFT side of the river and try and get up high as early as possible as there is a well defined path up there. Then follow the path all the way to the beallach between Glas Bheinn Mhor and Stob Coir'an Albannaich

Stick to the path:


This impressive waterfall would make a great flume!:




Came across our first of many frogs:


I thought for a moment this was a wind turbine! By the time I got the camera out the contrail had grown a lot!


On reaching the Beallach the views over the opposite side are really impressive:


We spotted the path up through the boulders to reach the plateau which has great views back to Glas Bheinn Mhor and an amazing triangle on Ben Starav:



It is then a gentle climb up to the ridge where we turned left to get to the subtop which offers superb views over Glen Etive. This is the subtop here:


This is a photo from that subtop:


This is a view back to the summit of Stob Coir'an Albannaich from the subtop:


This is a wider view from the subtop:


The second munro Meal Nan Eun (928m) is the rounded fellow in the middle of the above shot.

We had a cup of coffee and bite to eat at the summit before dropping down the steepish dome to the small cairn which marks the start of the rake that you take down to the beallach between the two munros:


Looking back over to Stob Coir'an Albannaich:


Amazing rocky slabs between the two munros:


Peter on the summit of Meall Nan Eun (928m) celebrating munro #99. Coincidentally also my 99th munro too!


Great views of many munros from here:


Buachaille Etive Mor and the Crowberry Tower/Gap with the Essians to the right:


Careful routefinding is required (there are cliffs) to get down from Meall Nan Eun but height is dropped quickly. Again lots of mushy stuff here!


A path can be picked up to the right of the stream and it eventually meets this landrover track:


Back at the car by 9:20pm, 10hrs 40 mins!! What a great drive home, it was gloaming right until 11pm (got home at midnight!)

[Sgurr]

What a roasting day compared to the rather dreich one when we went. You are right about the careful navigation, I can remember some quite hairy down-moves around here, though perhaps we mislaid the right way. Photos seem to show tremendously lush vegetation now, though at least the bracken didn't seem to give you any problems.

Glen Etive seems to have become well and truly Bondified. People all think they are the first to have the idea of trying to find the right place to pose, and I suppose the Lotus owners club is all part of the same thing. If it's not that, it's people who have heard that you can take photos of stags in winter.

Are you planning anything special for your 100th, or just take it how it comes?