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An Eiggstraordinary ascent of An Sgurr

An Eiggstraordinary ascent of An Sgurr


Postby malky_c » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:03 pm

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: An Sgùrr (Eigg)

Date walked: 31/07/2018

Time taken: 4.5 hours

Distance: 21 km

Ascent: 745m

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Sub 2k Marilyns: An Sgurr.
Date: 30 and 31/07/2018.
Distance: 15.5km + 5.5km.
Ascent: 700m + 45m.
Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes + 1 hour.
Weather: Clear and sunny with a slight breeze, stiffening overnight. Rain by the time the ferry came in.

Link to previous days on Rum
The ferry over from Rum to Eigg was a little choppy, but the weather was clearing up nicely, and if the forecast was to be believed, the wind would drop off nicely for the evening. We reached the island shortly after 4pm - a bit early to find a camp spot, so decided to take a stroll over to the Bay of Laig, Eigg's main beach. We had been looking directly over to it from Dibidil for the last couple of days, so it was nice to see it from the other side.


Day 3 Eigg.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts


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Rounding the N end of Eigg

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An Sgurr from Galmisdale

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Looking towards Sgorr an Fharaidh

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Ferry leaving Eigg

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Ferry terminal

Having dumped our heavy packs in the bar/café/shop/general hanging around area in Galmisdale, the walk was straightforward enough along the only real road on the island. Despite some cloud still hanging around, Rum looked fantastic from the bay. There wasn't really time to explore the northern end of the island properly in the 20 or so hours we had available, but it certainly made a return visit very appealing.

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Standing stone next to THE road

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Cleadale

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Rum and Bay of Laig

ImageTraigh Chlithe

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Rum

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Sgorr an Fharaidh from the bay

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Rum from the Cleadale road

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An Sgurr

Back at Galmisdale, it was time to pick up the heavy packs and head for the piece de resistance of the trip - An Sgurr. Despite forecasts changing endlessly over the last few days, it now looked like we would manage pretty much perfect summit camp weather for the evening - how lucky was that? The walk up through farmland and over the moor took little more than an hour.

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Ardnamurchan

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Beinn Hiant

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Approaching An Sgurr

It was hard to fully appreciate the massive lump of An Sgurr as we walked beneath the prow due to the sun shining directly in our faces, but it was clearly a pretty unique lump of rock. Once on the spine of the ridge, the footpath led us a little beneath the crest on the south side. Scrambling along the crest may have added some additional interest but wasn't so appealing with heavy packs. I was convinced that there was more ascent ahead, but suddenly the summit and trig point were right there ahead of us - wow 8) .

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Spine of An Sgurr

Due to An Sgurr being in the Corbetts book, it was somewhere I had wanted to visit for a very long time, but I hadn't expected to get the chance to camp on top of it. Eigg is definitely positioned in the right place for viewing both Skye, Rum, Mull and the mainland - certainly up there in the top 3 or 4 viewpoints in the country.

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Rum beginning to appear behind Cora-bheinn

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South across Muck

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On An Sgurr

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Galmisdale from An Sgurr

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Rum from An Sgurr

Once the tents were up, it was time to wander around and cook dinner. The wind had dropped and the sun was beginning to set behind Rum.

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Summit camp

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What a spot

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Sun starting to set

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Skye

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Mainland

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Ben More of Mull across Ardnamurchan

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Sun going down...

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...and down...

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Towards Moidart

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Getting there....

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Almost...

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Some red in the sky to the east

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Muck

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Looking good

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...better....

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Skye again

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Gone now

Even after the sun had set, it was benign enough to sit out until pretty late watching the boats and lighthouses glow and flash. Unfortunately we knew that the wind was due to get up in the morning, and eventually the rain would come in.

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Rum in the last light

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Skye

Sleep wasn't the best as I had failed to find a sufficiently flat patch and was continually sliding down to the bottom of the tent. The wind was a little annoying but not as bad as feared, and when I stuck my head out, I was pleased to see some sunshine, even though it appeared that it would be fairly fleeting. Despite opting for an early departure, neither of us could be bothered getting up immediately, and we tried to catch a bit more of a nap until 7am.


Day 4 Eigg.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts


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Sunrise....well a bit after it

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Rum not looking so spectacular in the morning

It was a bit of a fight to get the tents down, but it didn't take much effort to drop out of the wind a bit. We didn't bother with breakfast here as we had a whole morning of deteriorating weather to kill in the café before the ferry was due.

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West along the spine of An Sgurr

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Rum from An Sgurr

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Mainland

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An Sgurr from below

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Leaving An Sgurr

Other than a minor diversion lower down, we descended the same way, happy to leave further exploration of the island for another visit. Sometimes you can end up cramming far too much into too short a time and we felt that we had already gone way over our quota of luck and highlights on this trip. So a leisurely breakfast and many cups of tea were enjoyed while the rain began and the wind whipped around Galmisdale.

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Weather closing in on An Sgurr

The ferry was running, but instead of taking us back via Muck, we went straight back to Mallaig due to the worsening weather - more luck there, as despite the service being reduced, we ended up back in Mallaig earlier than scheduled 8) .

The weather was now pretty unpleasant compared to the last couple of days, but we re-stocked in the co-op and went for one last bothy night somewhere on the road back to Fort William - a great way to cap off an unbelievably lucky and enjoyable trip.

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Somewhere good on the way home...

A big thanks to Jackie for persuading me that this would definitely be a good idea, despite all of the forecasts suggesting otherwise - it was brilliant :D .
User avatar
malky_c
 
Posts: 6342
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Re: An Eiggstraordinary ascent of An Sgurr

Postby Alteknacker » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:26 pm

What an awesome set of pics - the sunset series featuring Rum are especially fine :clap: :clap: :clap: . I could definitely fancy trying to search out a scrambling route or two around the "prow" of An Sgurr. Hard to believe that there is so much Eiggstraordinary photo subject material on such a small island.
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Alteknacker
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Re: An Eiggstraordinary ascent of An Sgurr

Postby iangpark » Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:19 am

Ooft! Some excellent pictures Malky - I am really getting tired of not paying Eigg a visit myself :lol:
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iangpark
Mountain Walker
 
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Re: An Eiggstraordinary ascent of An Sgurr

Postby larry groo » Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:11 am

Cracking pics there Malky. Nice to get the wee weather window too.

:clap:
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larry groo
 
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