Over The Hill

Starting a walk from Corrour Station offers such a different prospect to many other starting points; for one thing you can ditch the car and sit back and enjoy the wonderful views of mountains and moor as you take the West Highland train from Helensburgh Upper to Corrour Station ; and once there, you have all the options from low level loch shore walking, a fine Corbett or any of three great Munros to choose from. And Idris left all options open, the programmed walk being a full circuit of Loch Ossian which the main party of 9 of us had opted for, whilst 4 intrepid walkers opted for the Corbett, Leum Uilleim. Choices made, and off we all set.

Loch Ossian Circular. For those of us taking the low level option we set off along the track leading from Corrour Station to the western end of Loch Ossian, passing the remote and small Youth Hostel which sits among the trees at the lochside. Taking the anti-clockwise circuit the good graded path hugs the loch shore and makes for a relaxed and easy pace with plenty of opportunities to gaze across the loch to the gentle slopes of Beinn na Lap, a Munro whose prominence is lost in the ease at which it rises, until one realises that Loch Ossian is some 400m above sea level itself, making Beinn na Lap a mere 500m of climb before gaining the summit cairn.

The track eventually enters the remnants of Corrour Forest on the lower slopes of Carn Dearg where we selected a spot to drop down to the shoreline and have an early lunch break and hope that the slight breeze from the loch would help to keep the midges at bay; which thankfully it did allowing us to have a peaceful and midge free break.

Back on the track, there are a few minor undulations as it weaves through the wooded area towards the eastern end of the loch, where the impressive, and rather expensive, Corrour Lodge and cottages are located. It was here that we took our main break on the bridge spanning the out-flow from Loch Ossian into the obviously named River Ossian, probably one of the shortest rivers in Scotland, running a mere 5 kilometres until it flows into Loch Ghuilbinn, the out-flow of which takes the name of Abhainn Ghuilbinn.

Fortune favoured us somewhat, as we had generally finished our break when suddenly a huge bite of midges descended upon us, so it was a quick up, rucksacks on, and leg it away down the track before they had us for lunch. The path skirts around the main estate buildings as it swings around to the northern side of the loch for it’s return to Corrour Station. Since our departure from the station we had had a fairly constant but very light drizzle, not enough to require heavy waterproofs, but as we started our return walk the drizzle increased to a more steady and persistent rain which did require us taking slightly more cover up in order to stay dry.

As befits an easy and relaxed walk, we took advantage of a brief respite in the rain to take yet another short break as we approached the western end of Loch Ossian, before making the final leg back to our start point at Corrour Station, where yet more midges were there to greet us as we hastily dumped our rucksack and headed indoors to the very welcoming Station House Restaurant.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, we split into two groups, and it would be remiss of me not add a short paragraph of two on the days events for those who headed for Leum Uilleim, the Corbett which dominates the view west of Corrour Station

Leum Uilleim. Crossing back over the railway line, the group walked north along the track paralleling the railway before swinging in a gentle arc onto the long sloping ridge of An Diollaid with a good ATV track running the full length of the ridge to the minor outlier Beinn Bhrich, at 876m. Here, they decided to contour generally south of Leum Uilleim and visit the southern outlier, the un-named 849m top, a fine rocky plateau which offers some wonderful views south over Rannoch Moor and the Blackwater Reservoir, the water level of which they reported as very low in comparision to previos years. On both of these outers they did not hang around, their weather being somwhat wetter and windier then we were experiencing on our low level walk, although they were midge free due to the increased wind at the higher levels.

A kilometre of so of rough walking north brough them swiftly to the days objective, the 909m summit of Leum Uilleim, with it's rather substantial cairn. Even here they did not loiter, and set off almost immediately on the descent down the narrow and steeper northeast ridge, a descent of just over 300m on a clear path which ends as the ridge meets the heather and scrub of the rather wet underfoot lower slopes, across which the final couple of kilometres took them back to Corrour Station.

We arrived at the station just in time to see them trudge the last steps and greet them back into the fold.

Everyone, both low level and high level walkers had a thoroughly enjoyabe day - Thanks everyone for your company, and well done Idris on organising a brilliant day.