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This walk was done one week before our "madness" expedition to Garbh Bheinn & Grahams and we could say, we were just warming up to the hard task
Sgurr Dhomhnuill on its own is not a difficult climb. It can be made tougher by continuing to the 803m top and descending via Druim Garbh, but on this occasion, we didn't bother and opted for the easier route up and down the SW ridge.
We were badly attacked by keds from the early stages of this walk, they seemed to think we were deer and did all they could to hitch a ride on our clothes, skin and especially hair. At some point I was on the very edge of losing it. Midge repellent doesn't work on them, they somehow wriggle themselves into every gap between clothes and skin, arghhhhh.... At least they don't bite very often, but still they did a good job spoiling our day!
Starting from the car park Ariundle Oakwoods, we assumed we'd enjoy a lovely quick walk-in on a good track:
Our "target" hill on the horizon:
The initial walk through the forest is a very pleasant experience indeed (or it would be but for keds!), even when the track shrinks to a path which is a bit eroded and stony in places. The route even included walking over a wobbly-looking bridge...
...but once the path emerged out of the forest, we could now see our target right in front of us and... I was ready to miaow! The ridge looked fantastic!
Panoramic view of the Ardgour peaks from the northern entrance to the Ariundle Oakwoods, the summit of Sgurr Dhomhnuill can't be seen from here but Sgurr na h-Iginn, the lower top, is the pointy peak on the left-hand side:
But before we could reach the ridge, we had to walk past the old mines:
Looking for the best spot to cross Allt Feith Dhomhnuill:
The ground on the other side of the burn was wet but as soon as we started gaining height it dried out enough to make walking enjoyable. Keds were still doing their best to drive us crazy but we tried to ignore them. They seemed to like Kevin more than me, maybe they didn't like the smell of my sun-cream (I use a lot of it due to UV allergy)?
Up we go! it's getting interesting!
Abandoned mine shafts across the glen:
The views are splendid from early stages of the ridge, especially looking back down to the glen with the Ariundle Oakwoods and the Strontian River. Beinn Resipol dominates the western horizon:
I was surprised to see a herd of cows half way up the mountain, but they probably walked up here for the juicy, green grass:
The bumpy ridge was relatively easy to follow, getting more rocky higher up but no scrambling required. The summit was now in sight, but we intended to climb the lower top, Sgurr na h-Ighinn, first:
We took a short break on one of the bumps, to catch our breath and record a few panoramas. Garbh-Bheinn across the glen was so tempting... No wonder we gave in to this temptation a week later!
The ridge yet to tackle:
Looking back west to Beinn Resipol past one of many small lochans on the ridge:
Approaching Sgurr na h-Ighinn:
Sgurr na h-Ighinn might look intimidating from below and it can be skirted to the left hand side when going up, but I'd recommend adding it to the walk as it is a great viewpoint and provides some rocky fun:
After a couple of false summits, we eventually reached the point where we could see the true top of Sgurr na h-Ighinn... Garbh Bheinn, the Monstahhhhh, to the right:
Kevin nearly there... One of the false tops behind him:
Lucy on the summit of Sgurr na h-Ighinn, posing with Ben Nevis on the horizon:
Not far to the true summit now! I was so excited to climb our first NEW hill this year (Subs and Tumps don't count!):
Zoom to Ballachulish and Beinn a'Bheithir:
Panoramic view to Sgurr a'Chaorainn (Graham) and Beinn na h-Uamha (Corbett). We had already climbed Beinn na h-Uamha and we have a sneaky idea for a route to reach the Graham. Probably next year before the stalking season starts for good.
The final stage begins... Looking very scary, but the devil is not as black... as a panther
Looking back to Sgurr na h-Ighinn from the grassy ramp half way up the final climb:
We easily avoided all wet rock (a faint path can be followed most of the way up) and reached the summit, happy to celebrate our first new Corbett in 2020!
Lucy celebrating her 113th Corbett, Kevin busy photographing:
One could spend hours sitting on the summit of Sgurr Dhomhnuill, just trying to identify hills on the horizon! At least there was a refreshing breeze here and keds didn't bother us as much. No wonder Kevin was mesmerized:
We were indeed in the heart of Ardgour. In every direction,we could see countless mountain tops, so many of them yest unclimbed (by us of course
). View due east along Glen Scaddle was particularly impressive:
A wider pano:
Panoramic snap of the north-western peaks including Gulvain and the Glenfinnian Munros:
Beinn a'Bheithir once again:
Garbh Bheinn dark and moody as always:
Kevin mentioned something about a circular over Druim Garbh but I didn't fancy it. i think it is possible but we'd have to descend half way back to the 682m col then traverse on grassy ledges below Sgurr Dhomhnuill to the NW col, Glas Bhealach. The descent straight to Glas Bhealach looked to steep for my liking. Maybe next time we'd do the circular route, but on this occasion, we decided to stick to the safer ground.
The shallow gully we used to avoid re-ascending Sgurr na h-Ighinn:
The return walk was just as enjoyable as the climb itself, with all these fantastic Ardgour mountains around us! Shame it takes so long to drive here from Inverness, or we would visit more often.
One last look at the magnificent cliffs surrounding the upper glen to the south of Sgurr Dhomhnuill. There is another Graham here, Sgurr nan Cnamh, also on our to-do list:
We are slowly chewing through the Ardgour/Moidart mountains but at this pace it is going to take several years at least... Which is fine by me. It's such a superb corner of the Highlands and coming back here to climb hills is pure pleasure - and indeed a privilege.
I still have two delayed August reports to write, one from a steep yet entertaining Munro and one from a certain Graham duo, one of my favourite walks. Suffice to say that on the latter trip we took nearly 900 photos! Reducing them to 40 snaps to put into a TR will be an impossible task
