Beinn an t-Sidhean: tough finding your way at the top

[Zuriburu]

Easy to lose yourself on this wee summit

After months of lockdown, this was our first proper hill after climbing Ben Nevis a year ago. I thought we'd start off gently with something small, but still with the promise of some great views.

The views certainly didn't disappoint, but forget about gentle! The ascent is quite taxing from the moment you leave the cycle track, and there aren't many obvious places to pause and catch your breath.

There were no diversions for tree-felling as reported in a review from 2019, so we simply followed the signs up the relentless slope. The path is signed but also pretty obvious up to the boulder picnic area, about a third of the way up, which provides great views over Loch Lubnaig below.

Beyond that point it continues in a rather obvious way until reaching a boggy area, where the path becomes less obvious. At this point we followed the most obvious route, bypassing the boggiest parts where possible, to reach a grassy, heather-clad ascent where it is quite a scramble using footholds in the soft earth. Beyond there, the path is not currently obvious at all. Clearly the lack of hiking over the last few months mean the correct path was probably covered in heather and the walkers who went before us have forged their own paths. We followed the most obvious of these, but, alas, it was the wrong turn and we ended up at the foot of a rocky outcrop with no obvious way up or way around.

The views from here were spectacular, but common sense prevailed and we decided to descend from there while it was still safe to do so. My GPS shows we had literally arrived at An Sidhean but not quite at the summit and not at the "proper" Beinn an t-Sidhean summit a little further on. We clearly should have taken a left turn at some point, but there was nothing obvious through the heather.

We headed back down the same way, taking special care descending some of the steeper and slippy rocky paths through the bog, and then enjoyed lunch at the boulder picnic area we'd passed on the way up.

This is a good, bracing walk and rewards you with some great views, but it's not for the less experienced walker. Great footwear, waterproofs and walking poles are an absolute must of the summit, and if you can't find the proper path and end up headed the wrong way as we did, pack your climbing gear! Crampons are probably very useful in wintry weather as there are wet rocky parts that are slippy even in the summer.

[desmondo1]

Hi sorry you missed out on the view. We were up just before lockdown on a wild windy day with good snow covering.
As I recall we came off the good track and went up the pathless area to the left hand side of the rock formation. Deep snow but once we got to the top picked up a path again to the viewpoint on the top.
From there the walk forward across the moor to the summit was clear even in these snowy conditions.
The views were superb. Hope you go back and enjoy them.