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Time for one last hill on our last day based in Ullapool. MWIS was pessimistic about the chances of any sunshine today, but the mainstream forecasts suggested blue skies until early afternoon, so we opted for a shorter walk up Cul Beag. We'd admired the hill's western face from the road into Coigach earlier in the week:
This side was clearly very steep, so we followed the WH route up from the A-road on the east side instead - this also tied in better with our plans for afterwards.
The route's a standard out-and-back route pretty much in a straight line to the summit, but it's mostly pathless and underfoot conditions were awkward in places, even after our dry summer this year - not so much due to bog (though there was some of that), but more due to long vegetation and tussocks. At first you can follow the old road and then a track across the moor, so enjoy it while you can...
The track passes around the foot of Lochan Fada (or through it even, but we didn't follow that part!
)...
Several hundred metres later, the track turns right and a path heads straight on towards Cul Beag.
The path soon fades at the foot of the small crag in the centre of the photo above. The next section along the fence is very boggy, so it's easier to stick to the top of the crag at first, then descend to cross the fence where it turns a corner. It's mostly pathless from here onwards, but thankfully the boggiest bits are soon behind. Odd areas of rock can be threaded together in places to make progress easier. There are a few faint sections of path, but you can't really see them from below - we had more success in following them on return.
After what seemed like ages (though was probably only an hour after leaving the path) we reached the foot of Meall Dearg, where the gradient steepens considerably. There's still no path
but there were great views north to Cul Mor:
The summit of Meall Dearg at 657 metres has fantastic views into Assynt, though Suilven was hidden behind Cul Mor for now.
Cul Beag itself ahead, Stac Pollaidh sitting pretty behind it:
Descent and reascent via Lochan Uaine:
Looking south to (I think) Ben More Coigach:
Getting up to Cul Mor is helped by natural steps in the slope. Looking back from near the top:
Summit at last!
On the way down we contoured the southern slopes of Meall Dearg instead of going back over it. This was a bit awkward and probably didn't save any time, though we did see a couple of lizards and lots of frogs.
Skies turned largely cloudy from this point onwards, but we were only retracing our steps by now anyway. Back to the car in 4.5 hours, though it felt longer. Tougher than expected this morning, but well worth it
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