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As I get down to my last 50-60 munros I'm increasingly finding myself having to finally get round to dealing with the single summits in my "
ugh I can't be bothered" mental file.
Beinn Sgulaird was one of those summits, being on it's own and absolutely miles away. The opportunity to get it done happily presented itself at the Munro Meanderers Xmas meet (at the magnificent Corran Bunkhouse). I'd done Beinn Challuim the day before with Mark in what seemed to be an unending bogfest, with fairly constant rain. Following this up with several gins, and probably a dram or two meant I woke up on Saturday morning feeling pretty horrific. After a bit of a rush where I tried to keep down some god-awful porridge and a couple of coffees Mark and I headed round to the start point at Drumnavuich, Mark heroically driving as quite frankly me attempting to do would have been mildly illegal.
We were first there in the small layby and soon set off on a lovely still morning. I felt surprisingly OK by now although tasting whisky every time I burped/breathed was giving me the fear. The steep track soon led to a wee cairn, which led to a steep, but very good path up to the 488 point on the grassy ridge. Glorious views were soon to be had.
Reaching this first "top" also gave fantastic views north. Beinn Fhionnlaidh and a few others were bathed in golden light. All thoughts of my hangover were banished and this walk had gone from a frankly dreadful prospect to something thoroughly enjoyable.
On the downside, there are a few descents and re-ascents on this walk, the first coming immediately after the 488 point, with a good path zig-zagging down to cross a fence before steeply climbing back up the ridge. Again the gradient eases as the path meanders slowly upwards. We must have missed a turn somewhere as we ended up on a traverse path which wasn't gaining height at around 774m. We decided to head steeply up to the crest of the ridge, a good decision as we were rewarded with some terrific views. The sun's rays were breaking through the cloud onto Loch Etive.
Further up Glen Etive, Ben Starav was capped in cloud but looked very atmospheric as shafts of golden light appeared here and there. What a day
By now I'd completely forgotten I was feeling rough, and wasn't even that annoyed by what, on any other day would be a seethe-inducing series of false tops and height-losses. This was fast becoming a brilliant hill day. Mark and I were making good time, despite stopping for loads of photos
The Buachailles appeared as the views further north opened out.
The final pull to the summit from the final bealach is about 180m but is over decent ground and over pretty quickly. The clag over the summit cleared just as we got to it as well. I really should have stuck a lottery ticket on on Saturday night. I even caught a slight brocken spectre from the top.
We stopped at the top for a while, soaking in the views. It really was hard to decide what to look at, with the isles behind us and mountains literally everywhere else we looked. I attempted a panorama:
Beautiful as it was, it was starting to get a little cold, just as we were leaving another couple of walkers arrived, one of whom I know from an old job
A quick chat and we headed down. The re-ascents to the tops were actually quite enjoyable. Helped no doubt by the fantastic views.
We made the bealach under the 488 point in fairly good time, opting to take the quick descent back to the track. Once more look at the views to the north and the snow-plastered Ben Nevis though.
The grassy path back to the track was a bit better than I expected (I only fell once), compared to our hilarious efforts the day before in falling a combined 5 times, all within 50 metres of the track out
We made it back to Corran for sunset. A fitting end to an absolutely brilliant day.
As a finale I can't recommend this walk highly enough. Yes there's a lot of ascent for a 937m summit, there's false tops and the start point is a pain to get to, but save it for a good, dry day and you'll absolutely love it.
