2024: another year with a rather unimpressive Munros tally for me, due to a big family wedding plus some truly dire summer weather - yes, I know, excuses excuses! Anyway, here I was back from a fortnight's holiday in Spain in late September, and maybe there might just be a window to get one more Munro done in the first half of October before the clocks went back and put paid to all that? The forecast for the Sunday 13th October didn't look too bad, and due to some improbable conjunction of the planets, I also wasn't on-call and had no social commitments ... Plan A had been to try to book a hostel bed and drive up on the Saturday evening to allow an early start, but of course it was the start of the School October Week, wasn't it ? Needless to say, everywhere was booked solid. After a bit of head-scratching, I resigned myself to getting up very early and just day-tripping Am Faochagach, which was an Awkward Singleton that I still had to do. It's a long drive from Glasgow to the starting point on the A835 Dirrie Mor road - about four and a half hours each way, no less - but the walk itself should be short by all accounts, so I knuckled down and got on with it.
Now, there was some reason why I'd left this hill until I was into my Last Fifty. What was it again ?
A short day, yes. Nasty, brutish and short, as Thomas Hobbes might have put it, had he improbably acquired a good pair of 17th-century hiking boots and taken to bagging Munros .
The problem is, Am Faochagach is something of a damp squib. In fact, it's utterly waterlogged to the extent of requiring not only snorkel and flippers, but possibly an aqualung too for the Swamp Thing approach path and subsequent tricky river crossing .Instead of giving it its oh-so-useful Gaelic monicker, meaning "The Heathery One" (as others have pointed out, that's SO handy in distinguishing it from all those countless other Scottish hills that DON'T feature any heather - not !), could those early OS cartographers not have shown a tad more imagination, and called it "An Te Fhliuch" or something similar?
Here I was at the parking area just north of Torrandhu Bridge on the A835, and raring to get going. Now, where was that approach path again? And why was that wee burn perpendicular to the road not marked on the Landranger map ?
A closer look at the approach-path-cum-watercourse didn't make it any more appealing, but there wasn't any better option so I just resigned myself to wet feet early in the day... Am Fao was looking a bit parky up ahead in the distance, too!
The Walkhighlands Munros book notes rather wryly that Am Fao is "best left for a dry spell as the start is virtually a swamp". Unfortunately no Dry Spell has been forthcoming this year of course, so we can dispense with the "virtually" !
After the Two Thousand Metres Freestyle, comes a "potentially tricky river crossing", of the Abhainn a' Gharbhrain. Ah well, it had at least been quite dry yesterday afternoon and overnight, so hopefully the water level might be low enough to be manageable, no? Now, what was that odd roaring sound in the distance?
It was a pretty formidable river crossing to be honest, and with the benefit of hindsight this was probably a rather dodgy place to cross: there is a bit not far upstream, nearer to the Abhainn's source at Loch a' Gharbhrain, where the river is much less fast-flowing (although probably a bit deeper) and which would have made a safer crossing point. Ah well, you live and learn - well, if you don't drown or get mangled in the turbines of the nearby Hydro Works, you might live and learn, anyway. I took my time and used my trekking poles to probe the water depth before each step I took, and I did get across without falling in, although the water level was up past my knees at its deepest. All a bit of an adventure .
It was a decided relief to make it to the other side and start the ascent proper. I'd managed to lose the path now (I think the problem is that there are several different potential crossing points over the Abhainn, therefore no clear path on the other side until a bit further up), but the ongoing route is obvious, straight uphill to the north-east and then trending due north on the final approach to the summit.
Just across the Abhainn, there was a lovely view of the "Deargs" group of hills reflected in Loch a' Gharbhrain:

A bit higher up, and it was Beinn Dearg's companion peak Cona' Mheall that was stealing the show: spectacular buttresses, if I may be so bold!
I hadn't managed to re-locate a path as yet, but there was Am Fao dead ahead, looking large, lumpen and decidedly parky:
Ah well, the terrain may have been the stuff of nightmare, but at least this hill does have reasonable views by way of compensation. There was a pleasantly hazy vista back down now to Loch a' Gharbhrain, with all the Fannaichs lined up in the distance asking to be named (although as usual I was unable to oblige):
Am Fao well seen now as a big shapeless lump of a thing (I can empathise), but with a scary shedload of soft, fresh snow on it . That looked as though it could be hard work, and it probably wasn't going to be the pleasantest of Snow Plods given that my feet were already squelching in my boots after the river crossing !
That was pretty much how it panned out - an unpleasant and laborious Snow Plod, although I largely managed to avoid frostbite ...
I was heartily glad that two or three parties had been up in advance of me today (I'd been overtaken by one of them on the way up), and that I was able to step in their footsteps at the deeper bits rather than having to break fresh snow myself, but it was indeed a sair fecht, so it was a relief to have further fine views by way of distraction.
Cona' Mheall keeking round Am Fao's shoulder, and looking unexpectedly scary:
A pleasant view back down through all that snow to Loch a' Gharbhrain, and with the Fannaichs also blessed by a good covering of the White Stuff in the distance:
The views may have been good, but it's fair to say that Am Fao's summit cairn was eventually glimpsed with very considerable relief ! I was delighted to have a bit of a view and a nice cloudscape to admire while I got my breath back and ate some M&S prunes:
There are actually two cairns fairly close together, but this was the one that marked the true summit according to my GPS. I think this view was to the north-west, looking towards Beinn Dearg and Cona' Mheall again, but I'm not sure: despite the grand views on approach (and on descent), the flatness of Am Fao's immediate summit environs tend to rob the views of any depth.
The compulsory Summit Selfie, still looking a bit bemused and bedraggled after that river crossing!
The only sensible way back down this one is by exactly the same way that one comes up, although I did chat to a couple of other parties near the top, who advised me about the easier river crossing spot higher up near the outflow from Loch a' Gharbhrain, which was handy to know.
More grand views on the way down, at least! Admittedly there are basically only the two good vistas - the first one one across Loch a' Gharbrain to the Fannaichs, and the second one westwards to Beinn Dearg and Cona' Mheall - but Am Fao definitely makes the most of both of these.
So - Loch a' Gharbhrain and the Fannaichs:
Looking back up to Am Fao's wintry summit dome with Cona' Mheall impressive again to its left:
Beinn Dearg, and many a Fannaich in the distance:
Loch a' Gharbrain and the Fannaichs again:
...And possibly the best version I got of View Number Two, westwards to Beinn Dearg and Cona Mheall.
Although there is a clear path initially on descent from the summit, this braids and fragments on the way back down to the Abhainn a' Gharbhrain, and I was very glad that the Clag stayed high so that I could see Loch a' Gharbrain clearly on the way down and I could aim for its outflow where the Abhainn starts.
Down near the loch, the path completely disappeared needless to say, and it was a swampy plod through some decidedly rough terrain to get to the Good River Crossing Spot, which is immediately below the outflow from the loch where a river island slows the flow of the Abhainn and makes the crossing safer than where I'd crossed on the way up. Although much less fast-flowing, the Abhainn is however a wee bit deeper here - a mid-thigh wade rather than a just-above-the-knee one, in fact, and again it was a relief to get across safely.
After that, it was a simple matter of traversing the swamp back to the car park, and then that wee four-and-a-half-hour drive back to Glasgow . A short outing (in terms of the walking anyway), but not an easy one - Am Fao may be a shapeless lump of a thing, but it commands respect!