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Another not-so-great weekend weather-wise and another evening spent pondering over maps, guides and forecasts, trying to find a place somewhere, where rain and strong winds won't reach. And once again, it was the far north.
We decided to go to Assynt despite a good chance of showers, hoping to spend a few hours in the moonlike landscape of weird mountain shapes and holes in the ground. We were torn between Canisp and Braebag, decided on the latter since Canisp looks like a good hill for winter. Plus I was keen to visit them Bone Caves again.
We had been in the caves several times. In 2012, I described in detail our lurking around
Bone and Trailgill Caves. We had climbed Braebag in 2009, but it's been a long time since then and we didn't mind returning to this Corbett as it is a fantastic viewpoint for not much effort.
Apologies for an error in the GPX file. For some strange reason, it starts from Bone Caves, but we began walking from the car park, of course. The report statistics above include full distance and ascent.
In the subject of stalking. The local estate displays all info about stalking days on a board at the Bone Caves car park. They stalk Mondays to Saturdays and kindly ask walkers to follow paths, ridges and streams in corries. There is no strict ban on walking when stalking is taking place, but in case of this hill, it's best to follow the straight up and down route from Bone Caves which was what we did.
Sunny morning in Assynt:
The path to the caves is well worn and very popular. On that particular Saturday, several groups/couples visited the caves but we were the only ones who continued up the mountain
The walk starts from the car park by following a small river - Allt nan Uamh:
Curiosity didn't kill the cat this time, as I poked the bottom of the spring half way up the glen:
Higher up, the river bed is dry, but don't be fooled. This area is full of potholes and the river simply found an easier flowing route underground...
On the path up to them Bone Caves:
The dry riverbed continues up the slope opposite the caves. We had a better look at this feature on the way down from the Corbett:
The caves are always fun to explore, despite not being very deep. Requires spending some time in crouching position though
Looking for cave monsters or maybe more bones?
My investigative nature took over... Kevin laughed at me when I was poking inside suspiciously-looking holes in case something was lurking in the shadow... Are you there, Moriarty?...
Nah, it's neither Moriarty nor Sherlock, but it's always nice to do something different than just march up and down a steep slope...
The caves from the outside:
Panoramic view of Beinn nan Cnaimhseag and the glen of Allt nan Uamh:
WH walk description follows the dry riverbed to the right hand side, but we turned left following another stream and soon we were out on the heathery slopes of Braebag. We stayed close to the stream all the way up as the stalking instructions suggest. We didn't see any stalkers, but encountered a small herd of deer grazing about half way up the corrie.
The only way is up... Sometimes a bit wet
Looking back down to the glen and the cliffs of Bone Caves, Canisp in the background:
The morning was cloudy and when we arrived, the tops of mountains were still hidden in thick clag, but at some point in the late morning, conditions improved and sun came out, burning off the cloud. We caught a superb moment of light on Suilven and Canisp, managed to take some photos. It only lasted about 15 minutes, then the patchy cloud was back and the world around us returned to its usual grey state
Zoomed Suilven:
Cul Beg and Ben Mor Coigach:
Cul Mor:
Cloudy weather returns!
We spotted a few distant showers passing by, one of them over Quinag. We were in a safe dry zone at the moment, but the wind was quite strong and we knew conditions might change any minute.
The main ridge of Braebag is a mess of countless rocky lumps and ridges, it could be very confusing in mist, but we had been lucky so far. Having a GPS with exact grid ref for the summit is very helpful in this labyrinth of scree and hillocks:
I was happy enough to pose for a mad panther photo:
Ben More Assynt - Conival ridge sill basking in sunshine, but it wasn't going to last long...
We went to the easternmost bump first (it has a small cairn, visible from below, but it is not the true summit) for the views in the eastern and south-eastern direction, but another band of cloud was racing towards us and the southern hills like An Teallach were not visible any more...
View east:
The summit has a stone shelter built around the site of a long gone trig point. At 815m, this is not the highest hill in the area, but views on a good day are outstanding. On the previous occasion, we were lucky enough to see south to An Teallach and the Fannichs. Here is a photo from that day in 2009:
Lucy claimed her 77th Corbett...
...but we had little time to celebrate, as the aforementioned bad weather front was now very close! We could see the band of rain racing towards us from the south-west:
We had a quick cuppa and snack, then dressed up in waterproofs to face the shower. It arrived as we were leaving the summit, gusty winds but the rain wasn't as heavy as we feared. We descended carefully down the rocky rubble first, then followed a stream down to the glen. Kevin wanted to take a look at the upper end of the dry riverbed of Allt nan Uamh, so we took a slight detour to investigate this feature.
The WH route actually goes UP this side, quoting: "a trace of a path climbs very steeply up and out the right side of the glen; it is exposed at one point and requires care."
If it requires care when climbing up in dry conditions, it is definitely a hazardous slide on the way down and in the rain
We crawled down the very steep section into the ravine, checking every step with our walking poles. I would NOT recommend descending this way, especially in wet conditions. Better to stay above the ravine and just follow the heathery slopes down to the spot just above Bone Caves.
We managed to get down and avoid breaking them bones. Once in the ravine, we discovered a waterfall gushing down and the river soon disappearing underground. We wanted to take some photos, but it was still raining plus my camera run out of juice and Kevin's was buried in his rucksack, so we gave up and followed the dry again riverbed down to the open glen. When the rain stopped again, Kevin dug up his camera and took a few snaps of the ravine:
Looking down towards Bone Caves:
Once back on the path we walked past a few other cave visitors, but none of them looked like heading up the higher ground. Most folks prefer to stay on safe low ground when weather is unsettled, only maniacs like us have to get to the summit of something pointy every time we leave house!
...........
In my next story (from last weekend) we're going back to a certain unfinished business involving twisting and shouting
