On Richard and my first visit to Arran (guessing at the date above), one day I decided to send him off on a recce up Cioch na h' Oighe as I'd been reading about it and looking at it and thought it looked fascinating. We therefore got on the bus in Brodick and I got off at the little village of Corrie for the Corrie track up Goat Fell while Richard continued on another stop or so to Glen Sannox with a verbal description in his head from me (think I had 'the' map
). It was a lovely clear and sunny day so I knew a description would suffice...I followed the road up to where the track continues up the side of waterfalls into the corrie between Goat Fell and Mullach Bhuidhe. From there I continued up the eroded track to the col between North Goatfell and Mullach Bhuidhe and decided I'd go off up the latter to meet Richard.
It was a very easy stroll up onto Mullach Bhuidhe and, as I descended the far side to see what the Cioch looked like from above, saw Richard clambering over the last of the little craggy scrambles across the narrow ridge. He looked pretty hot but not particularly 'bothered' and said he'd enjoyed it but didn't think it was for me really... (see my other report written back in Jan 2009 for when I went and did it anyway the next year
).
We strolled back over the Mullach to the col and up onto North Goatfell - a small (from the col) but very steep peak. It was exceedingly steep getting down off it to the famous Stacach Ridge - the ridge between the two Goatfells with the three large tors astride it.
I swore a bit on the way down onto the ridge, had a look at the tors and decided I didn't fancy them so we split up again. Richard went over the tors, which he thorough enjoyed, while I traversed below them. As far as I know, you can traverse below them either side of the ridge but my side certainly wasn't much fun as it was the Rosa Slabs side and was pretty loose and very steep! I met another guy avoiding the tors coming the other way and he looked even less happy than I did!
- North Goatfell on left and Mullach Bhuidhe on right and my traverse on the rubble below!
- 'My' side
I eventually met up with Richard as he climbed down off the final tor and I scrabbled up the scree to meet him. There is then an easy clamber up onto Goat Fell proper - a highly popular summit. We had a quick break and admired the stunning views in all directions then had a bit of a disagreement about which ridge to descend. I had my eye on a little ridge which went more or less straight on from the line of the Stacach whereas he just wanted to descend the normal route. I'm not sure why we didn't just split up once more but we didn't and, for once, Richard won the day and we took the normal descent route. I kept looking at my nice ridge and grumbling though!
From there we took the very long, and we thought pretty weary, route back to Brodick which ultimately comes down through the castle grounds.
- Long Walk Back!
