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What a day! Woke up to thick fog but after being up on a small hill yesterday and realising the fog is very low lying I decided to make a break for Caisteal Abhail.
Going up through Glen Sannox, lovely path... but the mist... ugh.
We soon came out the otherside though!
We crossed the burn (shoes off again, I really need to improve on my balancing!) with out issue. It was pretty obvious where to cross with a distinct path leading to and away from the burn. We started our ascent up Sail an Em (heel of butter apparently!) following a nice, distinct path.
After a quick detour the wrong way (how I do not know) we were on the ridge, still climbing ever higher! Looking along to our destination.
Soon we came up to some of the large rock formations and had a spot of lunch. It was really a very pleasant day, didn't even have to put a fleece on whilst we sat down!
We wandered round to the other side of the summit torr as directed by the bits and bobs i'd read on the ascent. Fine and easy clamber up with the dog to the top... noted the old OS concreting and stood there feeling delighted that we'd made it! Shae on summit
And so the descent began! First off I went the wrong way by stupidly following previous tracks... soon realised we were heading towards the witches step so retraced steps and found the correct descent down "Cuithe Mheadhonach". this was tricky, there was no path and it was all very lumpy with rocks and heather. We slowly found our way down though. The dog was entertained by a few red deer running around in the corrie so kept running past, finding a good rock and sitting on it watching the deer.
The way down
We soon came down to the burn and followed it along. Quite boggy but not sinking lose yourself bog so all OK. We came to another burn that we had to cross, this was a bit trickier. We crossed just before the waterfall (boots off again!) and then scrambled up the other side. Shae waiting to be given the goahead to cross.
Route back easy... soon joined the track back down to the car park and a lovely pleasant return! We spent time taking photos and watching a group of kids jumping in... looked cold!
Lastly, a few photos of the surrounding mountains and scenery. It really was a stunning day out on the hills... will be our last on Arran this year but i'll be back to do Cir Mhor at some point. We did not see a single human being on this walk apart from the final path to the car park. Nothing quite like it!
(I really hope i've got them the right way round... I spent quite a bit of time, map in hand, taking photos on the summit and along the ridge... the only problem is by the time i've got down I've forgotten which photo is which!!)
Looking back to the low level hills across Lochranza.
Ridge photos
Cir Mhor (goat fell behind?) and Ben Tarsuinn in the back ground
Goatfell range
Witches step looking cunning.
Shae and I signing off from the summit!
