Sail Mhor

[Orosay]

A friend lives near Dundonnell and uses Sail Mhor as a winter weather barometer. Snow more than halfway down the hill means bad road conditions are likely! So, we left it until August, why chance it!
After an early start arrived at Ardessie and set off up the muddy obscure path on the right bank (or left if you are heading up!). Soon arrived at the lovely waterfalls and caught sight of Sail Mhor

First waterfall and the hill

Looking back down towards the sea was fantastic too!

Little loch broom

We carried on up along the stream, with Sail Mhor looking steep on our right

Sail mhor

As we got past the foot of the mountain, the moment of truth - we had to cross the burn! 😳. We had read that this might involve some wading..... and sure enough, after plootering around for a while, we took the plunge, literally! We cleverly threw our boots across the stream before wading in, then a moment of worry as we realised quite how fast flowing it was! Soon we were over, too busy clutching on to poles and hands for photos, which is a pity. Once over we headed up another small stream toward the Beallach between sail mhor and ruigh mhealan. Good views toward An Teallach on the way up

An Teallach

and soon even better ones of fisher field, Beinn dearg’s - mor and beag, these look slightly challenging

Ben dearg mor

It was a long plod toward the ridge on a hot day and we decided that a short cut straight up the hill was a better idea... it really wasn’t! Pretty tiring😩 although one of us had enough energy to clamber up here!

Little peak on sail mhor

After a misadventure on Ben Dearg the week before I was slightly concerned that the heat might get to me again, but was ok and before long we were at the summit, looking south to fisherfield again

Fisherfield

and west toward the Minch

Out to sea

before a wee drink at the summit

At the summit, cooling down

and lovely views down to little loch broom and this nice wee cloud!

Baby cloud near ardessie

Is that an inversion? Maybe not! Anyway, down we headed, much faster than we came up, found an easier crossing place and enjoyed the walk back down the burn. Then the best bit, time to kill on a lovely sunny day by the beautiful Ardessie falls, with not another soul in sight, time to cool off with feet in the water

By the falls

before a last photo on the impressive rocks

Final pose

and back to the car. This was a fantastic day, peaceful, great mix of hill, river and sea, beautiful weather and views, 5 stars!!!