Mullach an Rathain - the direct route

[scotdavid63]

Having done Spidean a C'L previously when the boy was 10ish - we headed back up having sadly missed the chance to enjoy a glorious Saturday in the hills due to other commitments in Edinburgh. That said, leaving on a Saturday at 4.30pm turned out pretty well, we were pitching the tent in the Torridon campsite by 8.10pm and sitting at the Torridon Inn for dinner at 8.45pm !
Campsite was busy and it's suffered from mud but I think it's great, shower and loo still in good nick. We had planned to stay two nights but there was an amber weather warning knocking around for rain so we left the tent up to keep our options open and headed off for the morning event - Beinn Alligin. What a brilliant mountain that is, we were looking around, considered heading straight to Liathach up the back (as per some guide books) but thought - car will be miles away when we get of Liathach and would be nice to get a coffee and some lunch. Headed back to car, drove to the cafe in Torridon village - closed ! Highland hospitality in the middle of tourist season, oh dear ....
The weather outlook had not improved so we ate some more breakfast and snacks, packed up the tent and tried to find the path up the from of MaR. Much of the reason I'm writing this report is to address this point and help other walkhighlanders ! There is no obvious cairn roadside (unlike over at Spiden) and no signpost. The only parking is in the copse of trees that helpfully provides a gauge/marker for the path. Heading away from Torridon, take great care when you reach the first copse of trees which borders the river, then look over to the left and you can just see the makings of a path up a wee hillock. That's it !!! Park in the trees if you can, there are two pretty big passing spaces which might help but that's not quite mannerly !
The path is pretty brutal in places, scree and eroded sandstone type dirt near the top but it gets you there. Not quite as brutal as the path up the other side of Liathach but 1000m of ascent in 3.2km puts it up there. Not great for dogs but the big beast (now at 180 munros) was fine, left the smaller one at home with friends, she's a nightmare in a tent as well !
Near the top, about 3pm, wind increased and it got cooler, storm clouds gathering so couple of pics at the top and left the ridge for another day. Got soaked on the way down but, lo and behold, the sun cam back out 0.5km from the car, d'oh.
These munros are epic, will come back in the future, stay in the Inn/Hotel and be more leisurely sometime. And another, final point on logistics, leaving Torridon 5.15pm on a Sunday even in summer is good timing, and you don't hit any ferry traffic coming down from Ullapool !

[gaffr]

For M an R path could be that it is mainly used in descent with folks fanning out a bit when the road is sighted.
At the other end for Stuc a'Choire Dhuibh Bhig, when I was younger, I reached the high ground for a traverse of Liathach from the Choire Dhuibh Mhoir path.....don't think that there was a pukka parking place there at that time?