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We were on holiday at a lovely wee cottage at Ellenabeich on Seil Island relatively close to Ballachulish compared to home so i decided to do Beinn a ` Bheithir , as i`d previously saw walk report of it on the site & it looked very exciting !
Also we`d stayed at The Lodge on the Loch hotel last year & the views across from our room to these hills was trully awesome. I was up very early at 4am & parked in the parking area at Gleann a Chaolais it`s clearly marked from the main road - i was coming up the A828 from Oban. Once parked easy forrest paths/trails are clealr marked & lead you onto the 2 hills.
The path splits - left for Sgorr Dhearg & right for Sgorr Dhonuill NB the R/H path for Sgorr Dhonuill has an " advisory " sign saying access is not currently allowed due to forrest works ( felling ) and thanks you for taking a different route , sign says it will be closed till July - start of or finish it didn`t say .
I had planned to do Sgorr Dhearg 1st anyway so i was fine. It was quite warm despite it being early although a wee bit overcast , the forecast was for a very much improving day , and it did improve greatly
I plodded on & cleared the trees on towards the bealach , the last few hundered meters were a wee bit wet & muddy ,but honestly not too bad at all .
at last the bealach
The clouds were lifting to offer fleeting glimpse of Sgorr Dhearg although Sgorr Dhonuill was still obscured.
At the bealach i turned & headed up to S Dhearg an easily marked route , i thoroughly enjoyed every foot of it.
Once on the summitt the clouds cleared FOR THE REST OF THE DAY to offer fabulous views especially to south & west , but less so to the east & north. Overall though the views were amazing !!!!!
Oskar on Sgorr Dhearg with Sgorr Dhonuill behind , the cloud would soon burn off in the hot sun !
I took a long break on S Dhearg soaking in the views , before moving down & onto S Dhonuill , at the bealach i briefly chatted with 2 guys from N. Ireland who were making their way up to S Dhearg.
I`d read how challanging Sgorr Dhonuills` final pull can be , but i managed it fine , as did Oskar who had no difficulties at all. It was exciting & the views - now in hot sunshine - only added to the climb .
Looking down the Firth of Lorne to Mull & Lismore
I had a shorter break at the top before decending fron S Dhonuill towards Coire Dearg , then towards the lochans heading for Coire na Capuill , Creag Ghorm & exiting via the forrest to the car park. This route looked fairly easy from the summit of S Dhonuill , BUT was in fact more difficult a lot of ups & downs - quite a tirring route out !!
Oskar on Sgorr Dhonuill summitt with Loch Linnhe behind
Looking over to Corran Ferry
I did in fact go down Coire na Capuill , a wee bit shorter than i had hoped, however the 2 guys behind me were still continuing down on that route . Once into the trees it was only a very short distance to the track / road out . There was no work actually going on the forrest plant was all around , but the workers had presumably finished for the day or went to the pub !!
This is a fabulous climb / walk a trully wonderfull day out with amazing views in the right conditions.
