walkhighlands

Share your personal walking route experiences in Scotland, and comment on other peoples' reports.
Warning Please note that hillwalking when there is snow lying requires an ice-axe, crampons and the knowledge, experience and skill to use them correctly. Summer routes may not be viable or appropriate in winter. See winter information on our skills and safety pages for more information.

Tyndrum Meet day 2: Meall Odhar and Fiarach

Tyndrum Meet day 2: Meall Odhar and Fiarach


Postby malky_c » Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:05 am

Fionas included on this walk: Fiarach, Meall Odhar

Date walked: 09/11/2014

Time taken: 6 hours

Distance: 20 km

Ascent: 1065m

1 person thinks this report is great.
Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).

Grahams: Meall Odhar, Fiarach.
Date: 09/11/2014.
Distance: 20km.
Ascent: 1065m.
Time taken: 5 hours, 50 minutes.
Weather: Sunshine, inversions, layered cloud. Cool and calm.

Not hungover this morning, but a serious lack of sleep over the weekend would probably be paid for later :roll: . With the bunkhouse kicking us out at 10 and my bus not due until almost 5, I had plenty of time to fill. Nathan was planning a short walk up Meall Odhar to work off the last of the whisky fumes, so I decided to join him with a view to carrying on to Fiarach afterwards. At one tome I had hoped to do these hills as part of a long Cononish round, but that was definitely for a summer's day and they were just too convenient as a shorter Sunday walk.

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


We headed off shortly after 9 into sunshine and atmospheric cloud, following the path up through the old lead mine spoil tips.

Path through the woods from Tyndrum:
Image

Spoil tips from lead mine:
Image

The path zigzagged up, making the steep start less difficult, then continued on to Sron nan Colan. Good views from here, with the way on to Meall Odhar looking a little rougher.

Back to Tyndrum:
Image

Beinn Odhar:
Image

Loch na Bi:
Image

At the next col we passed the second tiny reservoir, probably built for the lead mines, then followed a distinctive quartz rib to the summit of Meall Odhar. This was similar to the one on the neighbouring Beinn Udlaidh, although much shorter. It was a pleasant walk to the summit, much nicer than I thought it would be. That was probably based on it looking rather miserable a couple of years earlier when we had missed it out after a hard day on Beinn a' Chuirn.

Ben Oss, Ben Lui and Beinn a’ Chuirn:
Image

Ben More and Stob Binnein:
Image

Image

Quartz rib leading to the summit of Meall Odhar:
Image

North to Beinn Dorain:
Image

Beinn a’ Chuirn from Meall Odhar:
Image

North from the summit of Meall Odhar:
Image

Ben Lui:
Image

Alan Mountainstar had explained a route through the conifers into Glen Cononish in great detail the previous night and I even remembered most of it. Unfortunately it didn't help much, as we were going down, not up. We retraced our steps to the dammed lochan, where a faint path dropped into the trees.

The route down into Glen Cononish:
Image

The path followed the bank of the burn down - a little muddy in places but not too bad initially. Then it got worse and there was a bit of a crash through bog and trees to meet the track following the Cononish. We also met a big deer fence right at the end. Pretty sure this wasn't the route Alan described?

Ben Lui up the Cononish:
Image

Image

Beinn a’ Chuirn:
Image

Nathan headed back to Tyndrum at this point and I carried on down the track towards Fiarach. Great views back up the glen. The dry route involved a walk back to Dalrigh, but I could see a potential shortcut.

Cloud settling over Fiarach:
Image

The Cononish looked crossable so I went for it. The boulders on the bed were annoyingly slippy, but it was a fairly quick crossing. Wet feet of course.

Crossing the Cononish:
Image

After this, crossing the Allt Gleann Auchreoch was easy as I was already wet. I had heard mention of a sign at Dalrigh mentioning a bridge was out - I saw it later and it didn't look that old - but the bridge didn't look like it had had a deck in years. I was last here in 2004 and have no recollection whether the bridge was usable then or not.

Meeting of the Cononish and the Allt Gleann Auchreoch:
Image

When was this bridge last in?
Image

Once over I decided to make the most of the forestry track up the side of Fiarach...until I hit a locked gate. I could have climbed over, but it looked easier to follow the edge of the forest up onto the hill.

North towards Tyndrum:
Image

Locked gate in Gleann Auchreoch:
Image

Typical Graham country round here - heathery moorland, lochans and no discernable ridgelines - until I reached the summit, which is a very uncharacteristic transverse ridge with a miniature line of crags along one side. A nice spot, although the hills to the south were a bit clagged in.

Lochan Fiarach:
Image

Summit of Fiarach:
Image

Image

I took a slightly different line back, dropping down to the track just before the railway bridge. Not really much in the way of paths on Fiarach, although the odd trace of one higher up.

Auchtertyre:
Image

Ben Lui:
Image

Strath Fillan:
Image

Then it was down to the loop of old road where I picked up the West Highland Way back to Tyndrum. A pleasant wander back into town, although the noise of the A82 was never far away.

Cononish at Dalrigh:
Image

West Highland Way back to Tyndrum:
Image

Looking back to Fiarach:
Image

I picked up my bag from the bunkhouse and wandered over to the Good Food cafe for a very large plate of fish and chips to fill up the last 90 minutes or so before the bus. I also bumped into Paul and Helen in here :) .

The bus journey home was the shortest ever as I slept for most of it, not to mention a bit at work the next day :lol: .

Cheers to Barrie and Colleen for organising a fantastic meet, and pulling out the stops to alter the weather from the rubbish forecast 8) .
Last edited by malky_c on Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
malky_c
 
Posts: 6342
Munros:282   Corbetts:222
Fionas:219   Donalds:80+37
Sub 2000:315   Hewitts:281
Wainwrights:140   Islands:39
Joined: Nov 22, 2009
Location: Glasgow/Inverness

Re: Tyndrum Meet day 2: Meall Odhar and Fiarach

Postby spiderwebb » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:28 am

Nice pics there Malky !

That bridge erhm hmm :crazy: Met that in the dark having walked out the last mile or so with a fellow walker (not WH) with no head torch, offered my spare but declined, just followed me thro the woods, not an easy path out in the dark, and then the bridge.

managed to get teo thirds across the burn before a leap was needed and soaked feet were the deal. But reached Dalrigh where I parted with my new 'pal', hoping for a offer of lift back to Tyndrum as he was parked at Dalrigh, seeing as I helped out with the headtorch, but no, he pointed me to a path to the WHW saying tha'll get you back...humph !!!! :(

But a great w/e nevertheless
User avatar
spiderwebb
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 1515
Munros:97   Corbetts:15
Fionas:3   Donalds:1
Hewitts:108
Wainwrights:68   
Joined: May 18, 2011
Location: Miltonduff, Elgin

1 person thinks this report is great.
Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).




Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to Walk reports - Scotland

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ambrreeves, codian, Keir1000, Smithy1963, Snazzylee and 78 guests