Over The Hill

Friday evening saw Lindsay, Alan and myself arriving at the Ling Hut in Torridon to be met by Dave and Gordon, and joined later in the evening by Sean, JoJo, Katie and two guests that she had brought along for the weekend, and, with a fairly positive weather outlook for the Saturday expectations for some fine walking were high. There is also a tale to be told of this weekend, but I shall leave you with a question, the answer of which I will provide as you read the weekends exploits - Question "How can you have 4 full cans of Guinness, drink 2 of them on a Saturday night and still have 4 full cans left on the Sunday morning?"

Saturday dawned with good weather prospects, and Dave, Alan, Gordon, Lindsay and myself set off for Beinn Dearg, at 914m equalled only by Foinaven as the highest of the Corbetts, being just a few centimetres short of Munro status. We trod the well maintained path from the car park leading up the east side of Coire Mhic Nobaill and above the waterfalls, sharing the walk with three others who were headed for Beinn Alligin via The Horns. At around the c350m height, a cairn marks the point at which those who are Alligin bound break north northwest, while we continued on a northerly heading, on a rockier and less obvious path towards the head of Bealach a'Chomhla, skirting below the very impressive scar on the east face of The Horns of Alligin.

As we approached the high point of the bealach, we were able to observe the steep, rocky western slopes of the 889m top of Stuc Loch na Cabhaig and select a route through, over or around the rocks and crags, which eventually took us, after some steep sections, and a little hands-on assistance to this outer top, and with a few steps more onto the outlying 882m top, an amazing view point well worth the extra effort. The weather to this point had been beautiful and sunny, but suddenly we were being pelted with hail-stones, which lasted for no more that a few moments, and just as suddenly we were again bathed in sunshine; ah the fickle's of the Scottish mountain weather!

Departing the 888m top it was a pleasant descent and then ascent along a narrowing ridgeline, on which we passed a number of circular stacks bearing the evidence of years of wind and rain as they looked like stacks of pancakes awaiting the oven. The views from the summit are quite amazing, as it is surrounded by the higher and mightier massif of Beinn Eighe, Liathach and Beinn Alligin.

The sting in the tail of this circuit comes as you traverse the ridge beyond the summit and descend towards the ridge above Loch a'Choire Mhoir, where it is necessary to negotiate a rocky stack via three short scrambling descents, one of which required a bit of a twisting squeeze in a narrow slit in the rock before descending an airy short step to the ridge below.

Before making our descent down the very steep and craggy southern slopes to gain the stalkers path to the south of the ridge, we made a slight detour to the distant easterly outer top of Carn na Feola, 761m, to complete this fine ridge walk.

As the evening approached, we gained the stalkers track, and in a beautiful setting with the northern slopes of Liathach highlighted in the setting sun we found ourselves just making the most of a leisurely stop amongst the rock before taking a very easy stroll back down the path to the car park.

A wonderful day, and a really challenging hill - Thanks all