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Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy


Postby trevp » Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:07 pm

Munros included on this walk: Beinn a' Chreachain

Date walked: 19/04/2015

Time taken: 12 hours

Ascent: 850m

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If things had gone to plan this would be a walk reporting detailing our efforts on Stob Coire a Mheadhoin and Stob Coire Easain, however... best laid plans are doomed to fail and our intention to catch the saturday afternoon train from brige of orchy to corrour were ruined by traffic in Glasgow. :crazy: So after some frantic googling and various discussions about completely altering our plans for the 3 day trip we decided to stop at Tyndrum and pick up a map of the bridge of orchy area. Google had thrown up Gorton bothy and not fancying the idea of using our bivvy bags we decided to strike out for Gorton and assess our options from there. Fortunately the weather was glorious with a forecast for more of the same - we couldn't have chosen a better weekend on that front at least! :)

ImageIMAG0266 by Trev Povey At the car park, ready for the off

The walk into the bothy took a couple of hours of very straightforward walking along the landrover track. Eventually the bothy came into view and we met with a few lads who were already installed. Plenty of room at the bothy though with two large rooms.
After a little consultation with the guys at the bothy and after unfolding our crisp, new map we settled on the obvious target of Beinn a Creachain for the following day.

ImageIMAG0270 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Not a bad place to spend the evening

A splendid sunset looking down to glencoe across Rannoch Moor and a (reasonably) good nights sleep later saw us ready to ascend first thing on sunday. Following the landrover track soon brought us under the west highland railway line from where we followed the gentler contours upwards. The sun was already burning hot even at 9am and the first hour or so was heavy going with plenty of stops for water, chocolate and sunscreen but the views were already starting to reward us. We could even see north to the Stob Coires where we should have been!!

ImageIMAG0276 by Trev Povey, on Flickr On the up
ImageIMAG0279 by Trev Povey, on Flickr where we couldve been!

As always, once we were into a rhythm the going became easier and soon we could see Creachain smiling down on us. The ridge looked a little tricky from down below with plenty of snow but we decided to continue and assess it when we got there.
ImageIMAG0286 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Summit in sight

As we climbed the views down to Lochan a Creachain opened up and we could see the broken ice sheet on the water. Not the time of year for a dip so we pressed on upwards finding that the ridge was clear of snow and an easy stroll in the sunshine.

ImageIMAG0290 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Lochan a Creachain
ImageIMAG0294 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Nearly there, stay off those cornices!

Once on the top, the views were stunning with snow capped peaks for miles and miles around in all directions. Difficult to imagine a more perfect place to spend your sunday afternoon. We lingered on the summit with the place to ourselves for the best part of an hour soaking up the sun and the vista before dropping down to the bealach.
ImageIMAG0297 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Nice enough!

We decided not to continue to Beinn Achaladair as that route would take us further away from the bothy which we were intending to return to as we had no other plan in mind having been forced into the late change.

We quickly descended down the gradual slopes towards the railway which made for a pleasant walk through the woods, allowing us to collect some dead wood for that night's fire.

ImageIMAG0306 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Heading down with rannoch moor and glencoe in the distance.

After fording Tulla water (the footbridge marked on the os map is now virtually non existant) we plodded back to Gorton, tired and hungry but very content after our improvised adventure had been such a huge success!

ImageIMAG0317 by Trev Povey, on Flickr Fireside chat

We had Gorton to ourselves on the sunday night and enjoyed a roaring fire and some dirty rum and brandy before retracing our steps to the car in the morning for the 5 hour drive back south.

All in all a wonderful adventure in truly amazing weather in a unique part of the uk.
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Last edited by trevp on Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Postby Paul Webster » Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:57 pm

Hi trevp and welcome to Walkhighlands!

You've posted url links as all your images, so all the photos in your first report are broken.

To post pics from Flickr, go to the photo page on Flickr, choose share icon (second from the right of the icons bottom right), choose BBCode, and Medium size. Then just post the code given into your Walkhighlands report (which you can edit), instead of the photo codes you have put in. Once you've shared one photo from flickr, flickr should remember the share settings and go straight to bbcode and the right size.

Hope that helps you get sorted out.
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Re: Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Postby trevp » Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:25 pm

cheers Paul, think ive sorted it now!
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Re: Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Postby Graeme D » Sun Apr 26, 2015 8:38 pm

Not too shoddy for a Plan B! :lol:
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Re: Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Postby Silverhill » Sun Apr 26, 2015 10:13 pm

Exactly what I was going to say: a brilliant back-up plan! 8)
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Re: Beinn a' Chreachain from Gorton bothy

Postby riverlodge » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:25 pm

great report on one of my personal favourite, underrated, hills. never knew about the bothy but you made it look well homely.
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