I hadn’t originally set out to do something quite this silly, but a combination of factors meant I ended up setting off from the Kinloch Hourn carpark at 6:30 am with a firm plan of being back there the same day.

I’d originally planned to walk into Barisdale the evening before, but slow summer roads and a flat tyre a mile from Kinloch Hourn delayed me enough that by the time I arrived it was tent up and straight to bed. I considered the option of carrying the camping stuff in to leave at the campground and use the following night, but the 20km round trip of costal path with a heavy bag just didn’t appeal that much in the moment. And crucially the thought of doing my longest ever day in both distance and ascent appealed to my inner masochist.

The coastal path seems to drag on for ever, it’s initially quite interesting with sections of wall and built path that seem to be just about at the high tide line. However it degrades into a rougher and boggier affair with a couple of steep up and down climbs that really lower it in my estimation, especially on the way back...

1 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

I made it to Barisdale in exactly two hours just as the day was starting to heat up and did my first of many water refills and suncream applications. Here I also met all the people that had made the more sensible choice and set of the day before or were doing other longer distance routes that pass through.

2 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

The climb up into Coire Dhorrcail is initially on a good path with stunning views back the way you came, up towards the summit and over to Arnisdale. When the path swings round above the gorge the impression is maybe more Himalayan than Scottish.

3 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

4 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

The pull up onto the Stob a’ Choire Odhair ridge swiftly breaks this illusion however, as it’s a classically Scottish steep pathless climb. By this point it had really begun to heat up and it was head down, sweat your way up, for an hour until I emerged onto the ridgeline where a bit of a breeze came to my aid. Some very mild scrambling/steep grass then leads you up to the summit ridge and summit where the views are pretty sensational in all directions. I’d made it for a perfectly timed 12pm lunch, and feeling like I was making fairly good time.

4a by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

5 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

Sadly a key part of this view, perhaps the one that was being impressed upon me the most, is just how far away Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe look from here. Infact I was initially sure they couldn’t possibly be the hills I still had to go up.
The descent off Ladhar Bheinn doesn’t really start off as much as a descent at all, infact with the amount of up and down it feels more like climbing the hill than going down it. This illusion last most of the way to Stob a’ Chearcaill where the change to sliding down vertical grass at least loses you some height quickly.

6 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

7 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

It was about here that I think I started to slightly lose my mind, probably due to a serious lack of chocolate consumed (it had all melted). I first followed the old fence line up the west flank of Luinne Bheinn planning to get it on the way back and save myself quite a lot of up and down. However I then decided instead of heading down to the lochans and up Beallach Ile Coire, to head up to Bealach a’ Choire Odhair. This was silly for two reasons, first it meant an extra few hundred meters of ascent going over Meall Coire na Gaoithe’n Ear twice, and more importantly I picked the worst possible line. It involved quite a lot of scrambling through wet mossy slabs with occasional moves that felt like mod/diff. This really slowed me down and wasn't what my legs needed. Would not recommend.

8 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

The pull up to Meall Buidhe was the point at which my legs started to complain about this whole idea, coincidentally also the furthest point away from the car… I was inhaling pork pies and water to try and keep the energy up. Likewise turning around and then the relatively short ascent up Luinne Bheinn was a real head down slog. It was now 6:30pm and I had been on the move pretty continuously for 12 hours. However spirits were lifted by the thought it was all down hill from here and by the great views back over Barisdale.

9 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

I managed a pretty swift walk run combo and was back in Barisdale in just over an hour from the summit. Here the real toil began. Mentally I had finished, sadly geographically I still had 10km of rough up and down to do before I was actually done. The path out was a headphones on, don't look at the map, and try and keep up a decent pace as long as I could. The final two 100m ascents on the path were punishing and might go down as some of the most hated hills I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to go up and over. My core muscles were a bit fed up with lifting my legs for the past 50km and were starting to let me know about it. Combined with feet that had definitely had enough of being weighted for the last 14 hours and the fun of the last 2km by headtorch and I have never felt so happy to see my car and tent before. I arrived back at 11pm making for a total of 16 hrs 30 mins door to door, of which strava thinks 14:50 were “in motion”.

10 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

11 by Euan McIntosh, on Flickr

All in all it works out about 55km, maybe a little more depending on the GPS sampling rate, and somewhere around 3500m of ascent. A fairly significant proportion of the distance is either pathless or on very rough ground. This makes it the longest walk I’ve done in a day in both height and distance. The day was absolutely stunning and the added element of really pushing yourself in my view just makes it more special. I think without my poor route finding at parts, on a less hot day, and with a bit more fitness this route is fairly achievable in about 12+ hours for those that way inclined…