Beinn Tharsuinn from Diebidale

[TheTortoise]

With many thanks to WH reports from Black Panther and Yorick for the inspiration for this enjoyable route, a grand day out ideal for those who don't want to bag two rather unrelated Grahams in one day.
From the Alladale car park we cycled a few km up Glen Calvie, then left the bikes by the footbridge to Diebidale, and walked up and along the long ridge.

Back down Glen Calvie

Back towards Carn Chuinneag

We had initially avoided the Diebidale house and went across country, then joined an ATV track which later helped us to dodge the peat hags. Higher up, there was really nice walking on very short vegetation. This is certainly a hill for those who like to be on a ridge for a long time! We had a first lunch huddled out of the wind into a little shelter, then continued. After all that lovely easy ridge-walking, it was dispiriting to see a boggy descent with a few hags, followed by a steep looking reascent to the summit through some rocks. It turned out to be fairly straightforward, and we had our second lunch on the top.

An exclamation mark above Beinn Dearg

Panorama to westward hills

Zoomed view of Beinn Dearg

Then we continued the horseshoe with a gentle descent to a col, up onto the ridge of the two Dunan Liaths. There was still short vegetation but quite a lot of moderate sized grey stones so you had to watch your feet.

Zoomed view of Suilven, and Carn a'Choin Deirg

As we got lower, it got grassier, and we descended through a heather grass mix back to the track leading back to Diebidale and our bikes, for a relatively short ride back,
Here is our approximate route.

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

[BlackPanther]

It is indeed a great way to approach this hill I don't understand why the Graham Book suggests combining it with Meall a'Chaorainn and the long walk (or cycle) from Black Bridge? This is much more entertaining route. Maybe the SMC instructions are for speed-baggers but we prefer to savour the views for longer. More ridgewalking always means more fun (even with peat hags en route).

We once had a surprisingly nice encounter with stalkers from Diebidale Estate. They were very friendly and asked where we were going, explained which ridge they wanted to stalk etc. One of them joked "we would like to avoid shooting you by accident, so we better stay away from each other!"

[TheTortoise]

[quote]I don't understand why the Graham Book suggests combining it with Meall a'Chaorainn and the long walk (or cycle) from Black Bridge?[quote]
Agreed. Sometimes the book gives alternatives but not this time, they are definitely writing for speedbaggers with these hills. We 'copied' you on Meall a'Chaorainn too! On the hill at least. Not deliberately though. Thanks again for your reports.

[dram]

Hi, a couple of things, firstly well done for a short, accurate report on simply one walk on one day rather than doing a walk report that includes several days under one heading and for keeping the report on track without the need to say what you had for breakfast and what the weather was like at home!

Secondly, not exactly as I meant to do it but I followed your route and thoroughly enjoyed it especially doing it as a horseshoe. Cheers

[TheTortoise]

Hi, a couple of things, firstly well done for a short, accurate report on simply one walk on one day rather than doing a walk report that includes several days under one heading and for keeping the report on track without the need to say what you had for breakfast and what the weather was like at home!

Secondly, not exactly as I meant to do it but I followed your route and thoroughly enjoyed it especially doing it as a horseshoe. Cheers

(Short reply!)