walkhighlands

Beautifully Horrendous

Route: The Paps of Jura

Corbetts: Beinn an Òir
Fionas: Beinn a' Chaolais, Beinn Shiantaidh

Date walked: 29/04/2023

Time taken: 9.13 hours

Distance: 17.64km

Ascent: 1548m

Up early with the promise of another beautiful day of weather, we headed from Bowmore to catch the 1st ferry of the day. We parked up and as the only car there were soon waved on and speeding across the sound of Jura.

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Contemplating the day ahead

We wound our way alongside the beaches and over cattle grids to reach the parking area. Boots on and directions checked it was off back over the bridge and across the stile to begin the long walk in.

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The Paps looking very far away

Soon we discovered the unavoidable bog, winding our way up and down to try and find the driest path. Less than 20 minutes in, Jack's borrowed boots were already letting water in and he was cursing their ineptitude. The views ahead to our objectives for the day were both glorious and intimidating.

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The days objectives

After a long slog across the bog, we eventually reached the stepping stones at the head of the loch, along with the seemingly out of place fallen telephone poles. On such a warm day, this seemed like a perfect spot for a dip on the way back if we had time.

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Stepping stones

Once across the path petered out and it was time to pick a line up the side of Beinn Shianntaidh. We began our steep ascent, noticing some movement up above. A deer soon appeared, joined soon by it's companion. They stayed in place up to our left as we trudged our way up, stopping frequently to catch our breath and swap the backpack. It was pretty heavy due to the amount of water and juice we'd taken for the unseasonably hot day. I was powering on above during a backpack-less stint when I heard Jack cry out down below. Hissing at face height due to the gradient, Jack met his first adder. Said adder was thoroughly unimpressed to have been disturbed. I scampered back down to see the offending snake. Unfortunately or possibly luckily, it had slithered off out of view by the time I reached my minorly traumatized companion. We then regrouped and began our ascent up to the left as the scree began.

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Deer

We tried our best to find patches of heather to avoid the slippy scree, or to utilise the small boulders to hop across. A more distinct path appeared for a time before being lost again in the scree. A long pull up later we were finally within sight of the summit.

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1st summit

We arrived at the summit and took some summit photos before settling inside the shelter for first lunch. I discovered the emergency supply box with first aid kit, emergency shelter and a small message in bottle re a brilliant day in the hills from some previous climbers. However, the "book you must sign" a relative had mentioned from their own climb many years ago was not to be found (almost a blessing, as I'd forgotten a pen).

Before long we decided we'd better push on to ensure we made it to the end of the walk in time to make it to the ferry. We began the first steep descent of the day, a mix of boulders and heather. We made relatively quick progress and could soon pick out the path heading up Beinn an Oir which looked well defined but with a potentially boggy crossing to make to reach.

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Beinn an Òir

The crossing was nowhere near as arduous as the initial walk in and we were soon making our way up the path. This was probably one of the easiest parts of the day. We made quick progress with the removal of the need for safest/easiest path decision making. It was along this pathway we saw the only other humans of the day - far ahead up the path in the distance it was hard to tell if they were heading down towards us or to the summit. We never did find out as they disappeared not long after, and we didn't see them again the rest of the day.

The going got tougher along the last pull up towards the summit ridge, with more "lovely" loose scree before reaching the boulder hop to the summit.

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Approaching summit

More photos and second lunch whilst enjoying the views ensued, but we were soon persuaded to keep moving by the chilling wind.Little did we know of the horrific descent that awaited us. A bouldery hop down began, which I assumed would lead to more of the heather/boulder style experience from the first descent. It did not.

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2nd summit

Seemingly vertical scree which caused frequent slips ensued. The process of decision making seemed impossible as every choice seemed to be a bad option. We both grew increasingly frustrated, often employing a 4-5 points of contact approach, crawling down the hill like toddlers descending a staircase. The limited grip on Jacks not-fit-for-purpose boots was not helping and some rocks felt the brunt of his frustration as they were hurtled off the side of the hill. At this point I had had enough and was panicking about making it safely down the hillside. Tears from being overwhelmed and a desire to just have safely completed this hike and be back on the ferry came, admittedly this was not the first time on this day. I had made up my mind this was the end of our Paps experience for today and we would be marching back to the car (well bog-trotting) once we made it down this hellish slope.

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Looking back over Islay

However once we eventually made it down, Jack persuaded me he wanted us to keep going (I was worried I was ruining his holiday with this terrible hiking experience). Looking up towards Beinn a'Chaolais it seemed impossibly steep. Luckily we soon found the path which skirted round the left of the hill and this seemed relatively well defined.

We were both struggling at this point but on realizing this was an up-and-back-down I suggested we left the backpack at the bottom to ease our progress to our last summit of the day. This was a welcome relief and the relatively easily followed path lead us to the summit cairn (with plenty of catching our breath stops as had been the theme of the day). We took a quick few photos then started our way back down.

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Me and 3

Unfortunately we managed to follow a different much steeper, more scree laden path than that which we had taken up. Checking the GPS we realized our mistake and heading back over to the right, eventually regaining the path,at which point Jack spotted our backpack "path to home" marker. I'd been quietly very concerned we wouldn't make our way back to the pack and spend pointless tiring time hunting for it.

Next objective, the loch. A pathless journey but on such a clear day it was easy to pick a line to follow. We stomped quickly over the long grass, which mercifully was dry. The small ascents were unwelcome at this point in the day as everything had started to hurt. Not long before reaching the loch we began to see the deer - a few to our left and seemingly the rest of the large herd to our left (no false advertising on the Isle of the Deer). Although reaching the loch was an achievement, it seemed a long way to reach the other side. The lowering sun on the hillside made this a beautiful setting and without the anxiety of making it back in time for our ferry it would have been fantastic to sit and enjoy it, and perhaps take a cool dip to relieve our aching muscles.

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Looking back

The end of the loch marked the return of the bog trot, which I was dreading - more so for Jack with his terrible boots (as often as I had also had damp dips into the bog, my Hanwags were quickly drying out). We'd make quicker progress for a while then come back across the large black muddy puddles we'd tried so hard to circumnavigate on the way in. To begin with we tried this approach again, but tiredness got the better of us and we eventually accepted defeat, stamping right in and through these patches. Somewhere along this stretch I lost my footing in one of the bogs and fell over onto one side. I was more angry than upset and quickly righted myself and almost ran off ahead to burn off my annoyance (Jack had sensed there was no need for concern and was also too tired for my grumpy outburst). I eventually calmed down enough to slow down for Jack to catch me up where he asked why I'd been running - obviously frustration but also somewhere midway I'd realized it was quickening my progress towards the car - the advantage of a bad situation. Not long after we welcomed the sight of the stile and bridge back to the car where a couple of people were walking dogs.

Our first social interaction apart from each other we chatted to a woman walking a dog whilst crossing the bridge. She remarked what a great day we'd got for the paps - she was definitely right, on a bad weather day the hike would likely have been abandoned given how difficult it was for us on a beautiful blue sky day.

Back at the car it was amazing to remove our boots and change into shorts (there was no way I could get into the car with my bog-covered outfit). I did however nearly fall over mid change, and it would have been thoroughly embarrasing to have been offered help while half into a pair of shorts at the side of the road by the gentleman I hadn't realized was getting into the car park next to us :shock: .

Luckily we'd made it back to the car with an hour to spare before the last ferry but we were desperate to get back over to Islay and order a huge Chinese. We were delayed slightly by a stag in the middle of the road on our way back and then unfortunately were in too much of a rush (we could see the ferry coming in) to stop and take a photo of the golden eagle casually sitting on a fence post right next to the road.

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Looking back over Islay

One of the worst and best days I've had in the hills, but it's clear we're fit again for long hill days.

...and Jack binned his boots when he got home (I thought this might be the end of his hiking career, but he requested new hiking boots for his birthday, which he is eager to try out soon).

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Comments: 1



Spate solution: climb a tree

Attachment(s) Munros: Am Bodach, An Gearanach, Sgùrr a' Mhàim, Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Date walked: 10/07/2019
Comments: 4
Views: 2371


Backwards, Boggy and a Broken Bridge

Attachment(s) Date walked: 15/06/2019
Distance: 30.3km
Comments: 1
Views: 953

nadine25x



Munros: 65
Corbetts: 14
Fionas: 7
Wainwrights: 3
Hewitts: 2
Sub 2000: 30
Islands: 7



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Statistics

2023

Trips: 1
Distance: 17.64 km
Ascent: 1548m
Corbetts: 1
Fionas: 2

2019

Trips: 2
Distance: 30.3 km
Munros: 4


Joined: Aug 25, 2015
Last visited: Mar 28, 2024
Total posts: 3 | Search posts