Over The Hill

In the past, whenever we passed Auch Glen, en route to, or coming home from a days walking we invariably looked towards these two hills and said "One day we must do those two". Well, today, finally it was their turn on our "To do" list; and it seems they were on everyone's list, as I was surprised to find that of the twelve of us, only Trish and Michael had actually done them previously.

Taking the estate track from Auch Cottages, we were soon passing under the West Highland Railway viaduct and swinging right off the main track to head off into Glen Coralan flanked on the right by the steeps slopes of Beinn Odhar, and on the left by those of our first objective, Beinn a'Chaisteil. It's a relatively gentle ascent up the glen to the 350m height, just above the waterfall which now serves as the water intake area for the new Hydro project taking place along the length of the glen.

Gentle it may have been to this point, but that was now to change as we took to the steep grassy slopes alongside a shallow gully and stream which provided an ideal "handrail" leading up to the ridge along Creagan Liatha. On easier slopes again, we were now able to enjoy the extensive views offered from this broad ridge while making the final, curving walk around the edge of Coire Gaothach and onto the broad grassy dome at the centre of which lies a rather small cairn marking the summit of this 886m Corbett.

The high cloud made it a somewhat grey day, but temperatures were fair, and so we were able to enjoy a leisurely lunch as we spread ourselves around the summit, contemplating the peat hags lying in the 546m bealach below, across which we would have to make our way en route to Beinn nam Fuaran.

Lunch over, we made a descent of just under 350m down easy slopes towards the peat hags, which, by the time we had reached them we were still undecided as to which way we should tackle the slopes of Beinn nam Fuaran, and so we tried both approach routes, with one group sticking to the fenceline and heading off up through the crags, and another taking to the southern shoulder and climbing it's grassy slopes. Therefore your may ask, "Which way was the best/quickest?". Well, as it transpired, both groups converged simultaneously just south of the summit cairn and strolled towards the top as a reformed group at the summit of our second Corbett of the day, the 806m Beinn nam Fuaran.

We descended the southern shoulder for a short distance until we had visual on the bealach below, and then made a curving descent to the flat grassy area to the north of the peat hags and then headed for small, but obvious "V" on the western edge of the bealach which gave us our start point for a steep, but very "do-able" descent down towards the Allt Kinglass, where the low water level made for an easy crossing to join the good estate track which would take us back along Auch Glen - Gleann Achadh -innis Chailein to give it it's proper title - and back under the railway viaduct to Auch Cottages.

Two great hills and great company - Brilliant day - Thanks everyone.