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Suardalan - Wednesday 16th October 20197.58km
281m ascent
1 hour 38 mins
What looked like a horrible wet day and some friends were planning a bothy night on their way to Skye – seemed a good enough reason to join them, and to take along our friend Ross who wanted to experience his first bothy!
The forecast actually improved during the day and by the time we left Inverness at 4 we were only getting showers, and the views from the top of the Ratagan Pass were pretty awesome. I was annoyed I hadn’t brought a camera :angry:
Although it’s sometimes possible to drive further up the road, we decided to do it properly. Ross couldn’t say he’d been to his first bothy properly if we cheated
It was a nice easy walk along the track and before long some impressive hills started coming into view
Beinn Sgritheall
Once off the track we crossed the burn (Malky had promised me a bridge…but fortunately there wasn’t enough water in it to cause a problem
) and just about managed to dodge a swamp
And then we were there! A nice easy walk – only took 45 minutes which was less than Malky’s estimate (first time for everything
)
We got the fire going, made tea and then got dinner on. It got dark and still the others weren’t there yet…. Eventually they did arrive – they’d all been up the Forcan Ridge and had got a bit delayed starting
It was a great night – good mates, good chat and a lovely warm bothy. Outside was lovely too – an almost full moon made me yet again regret not having a proper camera
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Thursday 17th October 2019
Despite being a late night we all had a decent sleep, and although there were a few sore heads in the morning, it was a beautiful day and we were good to go
Back at the car Malky had to run off into the woods for a backside-related emergency and while he was gone, Ross and I formulated a plan
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Beinn Mhialairigh9.37km
435m ascent
2 hours 46 mins
We drove a few miles around the coast and parked up in a layby just past Upper Sandaig. We could see Torridon in the distance…
…and Eigg the other way
We still had our boots on so we grabbed water and headed off up the track towards Beinn Mhialairigh
The track made for easy walking and we gained height relatively painlessly too. At the end of the track we popped out of the forest – the map had suggested this but often tracks like this dump you in the middle of a jungle
There was a truck parked up suggesting there may be folk out stalking but it looked like they were up the other side of the glen so we headed off across the open ground.
Beinn Sgritheall was looking impressive
Malky and Ross on their way up
And then…. We could see all the way down to Barrisdale
Looking down the Sound of Sleat and out to Eigg
Skye
The Kylerhea hills
Summit of Beinn Mhialairigh
It was such a nice day but we were all starving – time to head down and see if the Glenelg Inn had any food
Sgritheall again
Back at the track there was a man asleep in the truck with some spiky venison in the back….we weren’t sure if we were supposed to there or not so made a quick exit down the track!
It was an easy walk and we were back down at the car, Skye was looking even more clear now!
Sadly the Glenelg Inn had stopped serving food at 2.30 (we were 10 minutes too late
) but the café was still going and we had a wonderful spread of soup, toasties and wonderful cakes
Ross had survived his first bothy trip and was even suggesting he would come out again!
