Over The Hill

The start point for today's walk was Kenknock Farm at the far end of Glen Lochay and as we drove up the narrow winding single track road from Bridge of Orchay, it was fairly obvious that the weather forecast of sunshine, clear blue skies and temperatures in the 20s was not going to be the case. It was a dull, overcast and quite cool morning, with no sign of the sun having any chance of breaking through the cloud. I parked up at the old car park area, near the hydro pipe, and Jim and I got booted up waiting for Alan and the others to arrive, donning our jackets the air was that cold. After a bit of a wait, we realised that the others may be at the lower car park which we had passed some 1.5k down the track, so we set off to find them, and there they were, patiently awaiting our arrival. Not a great start to the day, and it was only to get worse, more of that later.

Which ever direction you approach Beinn Heasgarnich from after leaving the car park, it involves a walk-in, either by a gravel estate track continuing along Glen Lochay, or to take the tarmac (and I use that word loosely) track heading uphill to the bealach between Glen Lochay and the hamlet of Pubil at the head of Glen Lyon. Alan opted for the bealach, so off we set up the winding road, which has the advantage of gaining height relatively easy, reaching 500m at the end of the 4k walk.

Now the real walking begins. The northern face of Beinn Heasgarnich resembles a deep craggy bowl with two parallel ridges running north from the summit, forming Coire Heasgarnich. Our plan was to approach the summit via the eastern ridge, over the minor top at 949m and follow the ridge along the top of Coire Heasgarnich. From our viewpoint at the bealach, the ridge and summit were bathed in cloud down to about 600m preventing a good visual of any possible route towards the 949m top. Therefore, we opted to leave the tarmac road and head directly west on an easy uphill route over grass covered slopes till we crested a lesser ridge about 650m height. From here we then crossed a broad flat moorland area of peat hags, some of which needed a slight detour to bypass what looked like a boggy mess of deep wet peat. Finally, we had a visual reference on the lower part of the main ridge which we could see would bring us nicely onto the ridge proper, from where we could swing south to approach the 949m top from the north.

Once across the peat hags, a slight swing north-west and then west took us up the grassy slopes to the main ridge, from where the going at first was relatively easy over a grass and rock base ridge. However, as we gained a little more height we encountered what can only be described as quite a strong wind, enough to turn our pleasant walk into a bit of a battle against a head-wind. We reached the 949m top and decided to get a little shelter behind some large rocks and have ourselves a quick break, hoping the wind would subside before setting off on the final climb to the summit cairn on Beinn Heasgarnich.

It wasn't to be our day, break over, the wind was still as strong and buffeted us as we set off on the final section towards the summit. En route we passed a set of small lochans nestling between the rocks, and gazed down the steep north corrie towards the distant Loch Lyon. The climb was surprisingly easy (apart from the wind) as we climbed a broad grassy slope leading directly to the summit cairn standing some 100m from the edge of the northern corries.

We stayed on the summit only long enough for the obligatory photos, and to reconfirm our intended descent route, which would take us initially south to the top at 1041m, and then south-south-west to the prominent top of Stob an Fhir-Bhogha. Leaving the summit and descending, the wind finally started to ease, and the walk over this broad grassy dome of a ridge was pleasantly easy, with some good views to the mass of Creag Mhor looming over the other side of the bealach which separates these two mountains.

From Stob an Fhir-Bhogha, we headed generally south-east aiming to join the upper Hydro track around the small dam and footbridge over the Allt Bad Odhar, some 700m below and 2.5kms distance from our current position. The descent was relatively easy, steep, but not difficult, with some areas where the ground leveled out for a short distance, before again descending down either grassy slopes, or small gullies. The visibility was very good, so we were able to see out objective for most of the descent, and had no problem dropping off the hillside right by the dam and footbridge. From here the return to our start point was a straightforward walk along a good track to rejoin the tarmac road for a short final descent to the car park and Kenknock.

And that's where our day should have ended, but there was one final twist that fate was yet to play on us, or rather me. My car just would not start, not a sign of life, no ignition lights on the dashboard, but headlights strong as anything. We tried bump-starting which had no effect, so it was into Alan's van and off to the Bridge of Orchay hotel to get a mobile signal and call out the RAC man, who duly arrived and also failed to get it going, diagnosing a probable ignition fault that would necessitate a recovery to a garage. Anyway, the outcome was, the car was left with the man with the recovery vehicle, and Alan, once again, came to the rescue to take Jim and myself back to sunny Balloch. The latest I have is that the car is now in my local garage while they try to trace some elusive electrical fault, hopefully, sooner rather than later.

Thanks to everyone for their help and the attempted push-starts, sorry for all the inconvenience, the beers are on me next walk.

A day of very mixed fortunes, but another hill and another day with great company - Thanks Alan.