Over The Hill

It was a lovely early morning when we left Gairloch to drive back to Kinlochewe, then along to Torridon and eventually to the junction to Applecross at Loch Kishorn. The forecast was for rain to come but we thought we would have time to climb another Corbett on the way back home before the day deteriorated too much.

Beinn Bhan and Sgurr a’Chaorachain form a very impressive horseshoe of cliffs and buttresses, but today we were taking the easy short route from the top of Bealach na Ba at a height of 630m. The road up to the start point is single track, twisty and narrow with few passing places, and near the top there are several tight hairpin bends to negotiate. The wee van smelt rather hot when we eventually got to the top, having had a few scary moments en route. The wind was pretty strong, so jackets were put on, and also for protection from the impending rain. Clouds were gathering and the views were not as good as yesterday.

There is a radio mast at the top of an access track so we followed this almost to it then headed south east to join a path through grass and rocks. We saw a couple coming off and another couple heading the same way as us. We continued east and climbed a sandstone tower and then onto a broad ridge leading to the cairn. The rain was gentle but the wind was not. We had a good view of the prominent tower of A’Chioch. In next to no time at 11.15am we were at the top. We didn’t linger at the cairn, but retraced our steps to the van. This was the quickest Corbett we had ever done – it took 2hours 15minutes in total. The views past the radio mast were of Raasay and we could make out Duncaan through the rain but not much else. My heart missed a beat when I realised I might have left the headlights on when we parked. And I had, but the van started ok thankfully. A quick change of clothes then off back down the hairpins but it was a slightly easier journey this time. We had hoped the Bealach Cafe and Gallery would be open, and hooray it was, but only Tuesday to Friday for future reference. It was full of cyclists having lunch and sheltering from the rain, so we had a takeaway coffee and cake in the van.

I decided to top up with fuel in Lochcarron, just in case. Luckily the van is diesel because the petrol pumps had a notice on saying “waiting for fuel delivery”, and the card machine was down, but we had enough cash. We felt pleased with ourselves, that we had achieved two Corbetts in two days, and would be home at a reasonable time. Or so we thought. The sting in the tail was there was a nasty accident in Glen Shiel, at the same corner where we had been held up a couple of years ago, and we were stuck there for two and a half hours. However, we weren’t in the accident, and we didn’t witness it, we just got home later than anticipated but safe.