Meall Coire an Lochain

[McMole]

In Elphin for a Midsummer BBQ I started walking from the hut at 8:30am with two objectives. The first was to bag the Marilyn of Meall Coire an Lochain: the second to visit some of the local limestone caves and obtain more precise NGRs for their entrances. The early start was an attempt to avoid showers predicted for the afternoon. That didn't work!

My first stop was at Cold Water Cave where some of the flow of the Abhainn a'Chnocain flows through a meander along a set of crawls.

Cold Water Cave's main entrance

From there I headed south then west to join the track from Knockan. At the junction a post bore a very weather-beaten sign that with fore-knowledge and imagination could be interpreted as pointing to 'CAVES'.

The track passes a 5m deep blind shakehole on the right then a fenced off vertical shaft on the left. Seventy metres later as the track turns to the northeast a path leads off to the south.

First three posts visible on the path to Uamh Mhor

This is marked by a series of widely spaced white-topped posts and passes a large shakehole on the right to arrive at Uamh Mhor, a large open shaft.

Some 40m to the south and 20m lower the whole of the Ahhainn a'Chnocain flows into Uamh an Tartair which at 135m is the longest cave known in the Knockan area. The river can be seen flowing across the bottom of Uamh Mhor before it vanishes into more cave passage on its way to a sump.

Looking downhill at the stream flowing into Uamh an Tartair 20m below my feet

Leaving the caves behind I headed fairly directly for the summit of Meall Coire an Lochain. A few small diversions to avoid the more watery patches were needed, but most of the way was drier than expected.

As I reached 400m altitude at 10am the first shower of the day approached, a waterproof jacket was extracted from my pack, and visibility dropped markedly. At the summit trig point views were almost non-existent.

Summit, trig point and no view

Exposed to the full force of quite a strong wind I almost thought about searching my pack for a pair of gloves. One positive result of the wind was absolutely no midge or cleg problem all day. Not one single one was spotted - a rare and welcome Assynt experience!

I continued south for 150m to the lower top and there stopped in the shelter of a large boulder for a snack and a drink. With cloud still surrounding me I headed for my next stop - Betula Hole. Again the moor was dry and animal tracks helped lead me the 2.8km to the birch tree marking the cave.

A tree marks the spot

Betula Hole's entrance

Measurements completed I slid down into the entrance to take a photograph.

Looking out of Betula Hole

The continuing wet crawl leading to the main chamber did not, however, tempt me. I had been there before.

After checking another crawl entrance some 35m to the west I followed the limestone ridge northwards without seeing anything else speleological. I then headed west to walk alongside then cross a fence only to find a gate at the next corner where the track shown on the OS maps starts. I followed it to join up with my morning's route and continued along it to Knockan and thence along the main road and back to my start point.

And there was drizzle during our BBQ. Not enought to discourage us from cooking outside. It did mean all eating was done in comfort inside, and again the wind meant no midge problem.