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Having experienced the changeable, cloudy weather on Strathcarron Grahams on Saturday, we grabbed the chance to add a new Corbett to our collection on Sunday. And there is no better place to spend a sunny day than the wild landscape of Ardgour.
The Corbett of our choice was Beinn na h-Uamha. We haven't been to Glen Gour before so it was a good opportunity to explore it. It is possible to add the neighbouring Graham (Sgurr a'Chaorainn) to the walk and make a bigger circuit, but we were saving our strength for Ben Starav on Monday, so we decided to climb Beinn na h-Uamha only. Nothing lost here. Glen Gour turned out such a fantastic experience, that we will be more than happy to return here and climb the Graham on a separate trip.
Beinn na h-Uamha is one of the less known Ardgour Corbetts, tucked behind Garbh Bheinn and regarded as rather boring compare to, let's say, Sgurr Dhomhnuill, but as we soon discovered, even when climbed on its own, it's a superb hill, quite rough and demanding. We used the suggested WH route, climbing via the southeast ridge, descending along the gorge of Allt Daraich. River Gour could be problematic in spate, so this is not a route for wet days. We used flipflops to cross
We parked carefully near the entrance to Sallachan, just to the north of the bridge over the River Gour. Views were loveley even on low levels, with River Gour reflecting the surrounding landscape like a mirror:
On the bridge over River Gour. The access gate to the Glen Gour track is located among the trees to the right:
Our target hill on the western horizon:
A strange agricultural building at the start of the walk:
Panoramic view over Loch nan Gabhar:
From the very start we were impressed by this beautiful glen and how much wildlife we spotted. Countless colorful flowers and insects, not to mention many different birds, including a heron:
It was the middle of foxglove season:
The track into Glen Gour is good to start with, later is becomes a bit stony. Good enough for walking but I'm not sure I'd fancy cycling it, a bit too rough for my taste. When we come back to climb the Graham, we will definitely walk it again. Not much of a problem really, as the glen is so lovely we won't mind spending more time here
WH instruction suggests leaving the track about 1km past the ruined cottage of Tigh Ghlinneghabhar. We hopped over the grassy terrain to the banks of River Gour, only to discover that the water level was low enough that we could probably cross without taking our boots off, but since it was quite hot now, we decided to wade across in our flipflops, just for the pleasure of cooling our feet in cold water
Panther's first reaction to the cold stream
2019-07-07 beinn na h uamha 035 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
On the other side, we quickly prepared for climbing tougher ground. From below, the first stage didn't look too bad:
According to the WH route, the first stage of the ascent "is best tackled by following a shallow grassy gully to the left of the obvious deeper gully filled with trees". We had a good look at the slope and saw a good line of ascent, avoiding most of the crags:
Views were getting better with every meter we gained. Looking back east, we could see the hills of Glencoe, with Bidean nam Bian a dominant feature:
At some point we located a faint path, climbing the steep slopes. There is no real scrambling involved, just a few steep, rocky steps:
View east - panoramic:
After about 100m of ascent, the ground becomes less steep but the summit is still hidden from view:
The second stage of ascent goes up this steep, craggy slope. Again, no real scrambling but in wet weather care should be taken here:
We took our time climbing, enjoying the beauty of Ardgour:
The eastern view is dominated by Druim na Sgriodain, accidentally it was our half-way Graham only a month earlier:
On the steeper section of Stob an Uillt Dharaich, views don into Glen Gour behind me:
My pathetic attempts at finding scrambling where there wasn't any
From the top of Stob an Uillt Dharaich, we saw the summit at last, it was still another 250m above us, but the terrain looked easy from now on:
Upper Glen Gour and Garbh Bheinn:
I was utterly gobsmacked by the beautiful landscape of Ardgour and simply can't wait for the day I'm coming back here to do the Garbh Bheinn horseshoe...
The final 150m is steeper again but mostly grassy, and it didn't really feel like the tough day described in guide books! Or maybe I'm more difficult to please after a decade of climbing in Scotland
Only when we reached the summit, I remembered it was Lucy's 100th Corbett! What a fantastic way to celebrate her first ton!
She's eyeing Garbh Bheinn with determination known only to true mountain lambs
We spent about half an hour on the summit, enjoying the views and taking pictures. Kevin couldn't miss the opportunity. How often do you catch a bright, sunny day in the wild west of Scotland? Most times it's either rain or low cloud
2019-07-07 beinn na h uamha 167 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
A few snaps from the summit. Enjoy the beauty of the wild west!
Glen Gour and Loch Linnhe, with the mainland mountains on the horizon:
Garbh Bheinn in its full glory:
Glen Scaddle, a possible approach for Stob Mhic Bheathain:
Sgurr Dhomhnuill to the west:
Zoom to Ben Nevis:
Somebody up there is happy
For descent, we followed the obvious line to the left of the ravine of Allt Daraich:
On the way down, we stopped frequently to photograph the abundant wildlife...
Pearl bordered fritillary:
A little lizard hiding in the grass:
We still fancied a long walk back along Glen Gour, but we didn't mind it at all:
Looking back at the descent route (the ridge to the left of the ravine):
Re-crossing River Gour higher up was easier than we expected, no flipflops needed this time
We located the upper end of the track in the glen:
... and spend the final hours of our walk enjoying an afternoon stroll in lovely surroundings. The glen was bursting with wildlife, simply a stunning place to explore in summer months!
This four spotted chaser accompanied us for some time:
Before returning to the car, we stopped for a few minutes by the wonderfully quiet Loch nan Ghabhar:
2019-07-07 beinn na h uamha 153 by
Ewa Dalziel, on Flickr
I knew that Ardgour was a nice area of Scotland, but today's walk exceeded all my expectation. From biologists point of view, no better place to be
..........................
Weather forecast gave us one more sunny day before it became unsettled again, so on Monday we took the chance to finally climb the mighty Ben Starav. We enjoyed it to the full - it's such a fantastic mountain. TR to come soon.
