Goat Fell - Mainly Photo Report

[mountain coward]

This walk was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of things so I'll just put the basic route we took and a couple of other paragraphs but mainly photos...

On Richard and my first visit to Arran (guessing at the date above), one day I decided to send him off on a recce up Cioch na h' Oighe as I'd been reading about it and looking at it and thought it looked fascinating. We therefore got on the bus in Brodick and I got off at the little village of Corrie for the Corrie track up Goat Fell while Richard continued on another stop or so to Glen Sannox with a verbal description in his head from me (think I had 'the' map ). It was a lovely clear and sunny day so I knew a description would suffice...

I followed the road up to where the track continues up the side of waterfalls into the corrie between Goat Fell and Mullach Bhuidhe. From there I continued up the eroded track to the col between North Goatfell and Mullach Bhuidhe and decided I'd go off up the latter to meet Richard.

It was a very easy stroll up onto Mullach Bhuidhe and, as I descended the far side to see what the Cioch looked like from above, saw Richard clambering over the last of the little craggy scrambles across the narrow ridge. He looked pretty hot but not particularly 'bothered' and said he'd enjoyed it but didn't think it was for me really... (see my other report written back in Jan 2009 for when I went and did it anyway the next year ).

We strolled back over the Mullach to the col and up onto North Goatfell - a small (from the col) but very steep peak. It was exceedingly steep getting down off it to the famous Stacach Ridge - the ridge between the two Goatfells with the three large tors astride it.

I swore a bit on the way down onto the ridge, had a look at the tors and decided I didn't fancy them so we split up again. Richard went over the tors, which he thorough enjoyed, while I traversed below them. As far as I know, you can traverse below them either side of the ridge but my side certainly wasn't much fun as it was the Rosa Slabs side and was pretty loose and very steep! I met another guy avoiding the tors coming the other way and he looked even less happy than I did!

North Goatfell on left and Mullach Bhuidhe on right and my traverse on the rubble below!

'My' side

I eventually met up with Richard as he climbed down off the final tor and I scrabbled up the scree to meet him. There is then an easy clamber up onto Goat Fell proper - a highly popular summit. We had a quick break and admired the stunning views in all directions then had a bit of a disagreement about which ridge to descend. I had my eye on a little ridge which went more or less straight on from the line of the Stacach whereas he just wanted to descend the normal route. I'm not sure why we didn't just split up once more but we didn't and, for once, Richard won the day and we took the normal descent route. I kept looking at my nice ridge and grumbling though!

From there we took the very long, and we thought pretty weary, route back to Brodick which ultimately comes down through the castle grounds.

Long Walk Back!

[malky_c]

I followed the route that Richard took when I was over in 2003 - so far the only 'complete' walk I've done on Arran. Sadly we were in the clag at the top of the scrambly section, and didn't see anything else all day. Definitely one to repeat!

Although I like the rock on Arran, and find it really grippy for scrambling, by dad hates the rounded nature of it. I think he went around some of the pinnacles while I went over them.

[mountain coward]

I think maybe that's what put me off the tors on the Stacach - the rock is all very rounded and to me, there weren't enough obvious hand and footholds for me to attempt it. Having said that, Richard isn't a great scrambler (ideas-wise and technique) and often needs guidance and suggestions and he didn't seem to have any problems with it. But the rock is certainly grippy - every time I do any scrambling there, within about 2 days each of my fingertips has a small but very painful cut across it!