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Prior to any WH meet there is always plenty of electronic chatter about what hills are on the menu, once a decision has sort of been made, the final details are then agreed.
My original plan a month or two ago was to tackle the whole of the Sisters ridge, rather than split it into 2 visits. However after my recent leg problems, my physio recommended that I walk for about an hour max. After that advice I had to come up with plan B, Munro's were off the menu so I told my usual walking buddies that I was planning to scale down literally. George offered to keep me company and I bet he regretted that 20 minutes into our first walk?
Martin and Parminder were planning to tackle the South Glen Sheil Ridge on the Saturday and a Walk Report may appear before Santa arrives.
It was rather fortunate that there are 4 Marilyns on the Ratagan peninsula, so the plan was one on Friday, 2 on Saturday and the last one on the Sunday before we headed home. Next what order to tackle them, after that look at the umpteen Walk Reports on here. The latter turned out to be a bit of a waste of time, as there are no WR's for any of the hills without walking about 50km and I would get a row if I did that. Thanks to Malky C & Weaselmaster for there reports but they were far too adventurous for us.
So it was time to use my great navigational creativity, I plotted routes via the GPS page. They turned out to be kind of useful, mainly for finding a parking spot near the start of the walk and locating the summit.
I volunteered to drive and was uplifting Parminder and George at the usual uplift spots, we arranged to meet Martin at 6.30am at Broxden for our usual 'posh' breakfast so that Parminder could get fuelled up. We avoided all the rush hour traffic by leaving early and arrived at Ratagan just before 10am, I suggested we try and dump our stuff but folk were still leaving and hanging around so we binned that idea.
Parminder was Martin's co-pilot as they were planning to tackle Beinn Sgritheall, we travelled in convoy until we reached our start point for our much more difficult hill. There was a nice layby for me to park, so we said our goodbyes and they sped away. Anyone expecting a Sgritheall Walk Report may be disappointed!
Friday 12th July 2019
Beinn Mhialairigh, 2hrs 10mins
Before I start, the route up was up through the forest, from on high we planned a much easier descent - in theory.
As soon as we got out of the car we were greeted by a hungry horde of flying eating machines looking for breakfast, so we kitted up rapidly and set off along a kind of overgrown track, all was going rather well at this point and I was feeling pretty pleased with my route selection. That feeling only lasted about 5 minutes, as the route on my phone had us leaving the path and heading uphill. We paced backwards and forwards to try and find an easy way to head uphill, end result there was no obvious easy way so we picked the best of a bad bunch.
Parking spot in a layby
George striding out and loving the track
Not a well used track
Just about time to take the jungle option
This was where we decided to be adventurous
George surveying the uphill terrain
It was a matter of looking for daylight and if that wasn't there, find a route without getting scratched to bits
Hopefully the photos demonstrate how close the trees are to each other
A glimpse of the views to come
We are now clear of the worst of the forest
Looking Westish
Here we go again, much easier though
Not much more to battle through
The first of our deer fences, this one was easy as it was old and almost lying flat
Looking out over the water across the flattened deer fence
It was a matter of picking our way uphill
The next deer fence had a hole cut in the corner, George decided to squeeze through the hole with rucksack on his back I took mine off
Looking down the fence across the water
Loch Hourn looking towards Barrisdale Bay
Looking down on another deer fence
We were being watched
Looking north
One of the many random deer fences
Looking across to Canna
Loch Hourn looking towards Barrisdale Bay
Beinn Sgritheall, Parminder and Martin somewhere in the cloud
Summit video
Sgritheall during the descent
Nice boat speeding up the Sound of Sleat
George showing how to scale a deer fence
From the higher slopes our plan was to head north and avoid the forest, unfortunately due to the undulating ground it is difficult to see exactly what lies ahead
Bracken and the occasional tree
George sporting new head gear as we reached the lower slopes, we had a welcoming party who were hungry
More obstacles
Bracken was the better option than small trees
Looking back and it doesn't look inviting
Saturday 13th July 2019 morning
Glas Bheinn, 2hrs 45mins
The route up was through the forest, which is now tree debris, long grass and undulating underfoot terrain. Once we reached the path that was a rather obvious and much better way of ascending.
As we didn't have far to travel, head towards Glenelg and turn right as if going for the ferry, we were at the parking spot just before 9am. Once again things were looking good, we had a track to walk on and we could see our hill straight ahead looking pretty imposing. Looking at Glas Bheinn it looked pretty obvious that you can't reach the summit from the west, unless you have climbing gear.
Parking spot
Looking back towards Glenelg
Sign where the car was parked
We followed the track until it headed west in the wrong direction, we therefore decided as usual to opt for the direct route uphill. Not our best decision as the forest that used to be there was now like an obstacle course and within 5 minutes we were huffing and puffing and had soaking wet legs, I tightened the strap at the top of my gaiters to try and prevent water running down the inside. It was once we reached the track at the top of the deforested area that I had a great idea for what Santa can bring me in December - a DRONE. If I could work out how to operate one I would send it up a few hundred metres to scan the terrain ahead, it would have helped us on all 4 of these hills.
George pointing the way, Glas Bheinn summit waiting for us
George enjoying the walk so far
Summit zoomed, from a distance I thought there were a few trees, but as you can see - a bit of modern technology
It was now time to leave the track
The direct route, summit looks quite close
Looks easy, but the grass was soaking
Looking back
A closer look at the lovely terrain
George on a natural posing lump
Looking back over our route
George still smiling, probably because we were about to rejoin the track
The reason why George was smiling
One last look at what we have enjoyed
The end of the track, time to head west and uphill
A faint track heading up for a wee while
There were plenty of these heading up to the summit
We headed up between the debris and the trees
We followed a wall uphill too
A nice view whilst showing the angle of ascent
Not the biggest lochan
Southern end of Skye, as well as one of the many relay contraptions
Looking down to Glenelg
Local industry
Kyle of Lochalsh
Sound of Sleat
Looking NE towards Dornie
Kyle zoomed
Video from the summit of Glas Bheinn
More technical stuff
George demonstrating how prolific Mares Tail grows in the west, that's what we thought it was?
Our lunch spot, view not too shabby
Saturday 13th July 2019 afternoon
Beinn a'Chuirn, 3hrs 10mins
After a short drive where we even kept our boots on, I parked the car off the road at the top of the access to Beolary and as we got out of the car it was rather obvious where we were going to be heading - 300m straight up. Once kitted up we opened the gate and headed steeply uphill. We scanned the hillside and as usual picked a point to head to, on the lower slopes the last thing we wanted to do was wade through bracken so we tried our best to avoid. The hillside is used by livestock and as we gained height we noticed that we were being watched, there were 4 cows that we could see and they were between 200-300m up, not sure if they are milking cows, if they are we didn't envy the farmer.
Parking spot and George looking very impressed with what lies ahead
The photo doesn't do it justice, we likened the ascent to going up the middle of the 5 Sisters, albeit a tad short height wise
Car getting smaller
Looking uphill and picking a spot to head for
Not our favourite
Car getting smaller
Kind of shows the steepness
George loving it
Head down and plodding on
We kept to the left of the gorge and the fence
We are now on the large undulating plateau
Biggest lochan of the weekend
Another fence to negotiate
Here it is the summit trig
Another cracking summit view
Summit video
Skye Bridge and the Kyle
Milking the moment
Sunday 14th July 2019
Beinn a'Chaoinich, 3hrs 5mins
The route up took us across fields with a gate to open and 2 fences to climb, after we descended the steep long grassy slopes we headed north ish, which kept us to the west of the fenced area.
I parked the car off the road down the Old Military Road on the right hand side just before the bridge. Today was the warmest day of the weekend and it wasn't long before we were overheating. The livestock fields we crossed had no animals within so we were able to head directly to the corner of the fenced area.
Parking spot
Glenmore river looking east
Looking west
Our plan was to head the right of the rocky bit, looked OK but it was anything but fun
The direction we opted for turned out to be the best of a bad bunch, from a distance we had no idea how long the grass was, or that there was bracken. We descended the same way so I suppose it can't have been that bad, having said that descending is rather quicker than ascending!
Not ideal and George was standing up
Doesn't this look fun, especially when you add in no wind and lots of flying biting things
Looking back, not very often recently when I have been in front of George
It can only get better
Shows angle of ascent
Looking back down after our struggle
The end result after a tumble in the heather
Summit video, more cracking views
This is a before and after shot, there was nothing to mark the summit when we arrived
We had to hunt for stones as the majority are attached to the hill
Heading down
To explain the lack of Parminder, he opted to give this walk a miss so we dropped him off just up the road from Glenelg, heading towards the ferry. He was going to walk back and meet up with us, what could possibly go wrong? Once we were back in the car we drove back SLOWLY looking everywhere for our missing person. We drove down to the ferry - no sign, into Glenelg and round to the monument - no sign. Houston we have a problem, no phone signal, so we drove slowly back to where the car had been parked and who should appear out of nowhere just as we almost reached our spot. Parminder had seen the car parked and nipped up the road for a couple of minutes, whilst we set off in the other direction!!!!
Just to prove we went searching here is a shot looking towards Glenelg
Looking across to Skye
Walking wise, this turned out to be very satisfying, every one of the four wee hills offered fantastic views with Glas Bheinn being the smallest and defintely the star. I said to George at the time the views were the best I have had from the summit of a hill.
A huge thanks to George for keeping me company, especially as he could have 'bagged' umpteen munro's to add to his second round which starts in September.
