Over The Hill

Heavy rain during the night meant packing away wet tents this morning, but given that yesterday was such a beautiful day on the hills, and as it turned out, so would today, then we were very satisfied with our weekends weather; always nice when it stays dry on the hills.

Today we headed back up Glen Shiel and parked just beyond The Cluanie Inn by the remnants of the Glenshiel Forest, now a scarred landscape where the trees have all been felled. Am Bathach is a great whale-back of a mountain, and so makes for a steep ascent directly from the lochside, a relentless pull up the grassy slopes until you eventually reach the 650m height, when, finally, the gradient eases.

It is then a steady climb to the southern top, at 734m, a great viewpoint over Loch Cluanie, and ahead to the sharp edge of the main summit, with its steep grassy sides dropping dramatically east and west to met the waters of the Allt a'Chaorainn Mhoir and the Allt a'Chaorainn Bhig respectively.

At 798m, we stood on the summit of Am Bathach with our heads seemingly just below the cloud base as it swirled around the surrounding tops, one of which, Ciste Dhubh, had a layer of cloud around its summit with blue skies above, and a rainbow arcing around its lower slopes - yet another variation on Scottish mountain weather.

Gentle grassy slopes descend from the summit towards Bealach a'Choinich, separating Am Bathach from it's neighbour, the aforementioned Ciste Dhubh, and it was down these slopes that we made our way to cross the bealach and then turn south to pick up the headwaters of the Allt a'Chaorainn Bhig whose course we followed, and even crossed at one point when we thought the going looked better on the opposite bank, only to be proved wrong, and to re-cross the river back to whence we came, and continue our original track down the length of An Caorann Beag to Loch Cluanie.

Low clouds and rainbows may have greeted us on the summit, but such was the dry heat in the glen, that when we spotted some beautifully clear water pools in the lower reaches of the Allt a'Chaorainn Bhig it was more than some of us could resist and so we bathed our sweating brows in the cool clear waters - simply heaven, and a fine end to a fine mountain walk.

All that remained now, was to take to the cars and make the journey back along Glen Shiel, Glen Garry, Glen Coe and see a wonderful sunset over Rannoch Moor as we traveled the final stages to Loch Lomond.

A great weekend - Great Mountains - Marvelous company - Thanks All