Over The Hill

We arrived just after 10 o'clock and the Braes of Foss car park was already filling up, only to be expected on a Sunday in July, Schiehallion is such a popular walk. Lindsay was going to take us around the route we had recce's 10 days earlier, so I was fresh in our minds, and probably the only difference today would be the weather - forecast to be cloudy with some sunny spells later in the afternoon, but capping it all was a summit wind speed of 65kph - going to be interesting.

We left the car park and headed off along the John Muir Trust trail, and already we could see walkers on the path and ridge ahead. Easy going on this part, with the views back over the Braes and Loch Tummel opening up as we progressed higher up the path. The wind on this section was blustery but no problem, probably because it was a SW blow, and we were slightly sheltered on the NE slopes.

Leaving the JMT and starting the boulder fields around the 800m altitude we lost the protection of the ridge and the wind soon let us see who was in charge. Here we met a couple of groups who had obviously made an early start and were on the descent all of whom made the same comment - very windy on top, nearly got blown away - nice!

We climbed on, now well above the cloud base, although the visibility was fine, unlike the recce, and were soon onto the final section of the larger boulders which herald the nearing of the summit. True to the forecast, the wind was very strong, and once again I was to be denied any view from the summit - maybe another day.

We dropped north off the summit to avoid the wind and had a very peaceful lunch crouched behind some very large rocks, amazing how a little shelter can make such a difference to the wind. Halfway through our lunch a bunch of walkers from the Aberdeen Hillwalking Club descended on us with the same idea, getting out of the wind - these folks had driven for over 3 hours to get this walk in. We had a chat about various walks, and Jimmy offered round his now famous home-made tablet, impressing them so much that they asked where we were walking next week so they could get some more - no chance - the tablet's ours!

Unlike the walkers we met on our ascent, we were not returning to the car park by retracing our steps, so after lunch it was into the wind and down the west ridge from the summit. We spent an uncomfortable few minutes where we were head into a very strong wind, stopping us in our tracks or tipping us sideways if it caught us unawares, of course now we had no shelter at all the wind coming directly towards us.

However, we found our drop-off point and swing almost south down between the crags and this offered us a nice respite from the wind, the crags protecting us nicely. We were soon down at about 600m altitude at which point we turn and headed on an easterly track, slightly higher and more below the crags than we had on the recce, but this turned out to be a slightly better line to take.

Its a fairly long walk along this section, but luckily, as forecast, the skies brightened and we actually got a bit of sunshine with a more moderate wind which was now blowing behind us, so it helped us along nicely. As we transited the glen, we spotted a number of deer, and at one point we stood and watched four hawks (type yet to be identified) circle and dive just ahead of us. Swinging NE at the end of the glen, we then rejoined the JMT track by the sheep-keep for our return to the car park.

This route makes a pleasant circular walk when climbing Schiehallion, and providing you do not mind a long, pathless walk through the heather and peat troughs along the southern side of Schiehallion, then this is a good days walk - a pint of Ossian ale in the Lawers Hotel rounding the day off nicely.

Great walk - Thanks Lindsay