Over The Hill

Suilven is an iconic mountain towering above Lochinver and had been on Les’ bucket list for quite a few years, and one which I had climbed in 2004 with friends from the Carn Dearg Mountaineering Club. On that occasion we started at Elphin in the east, but this time we chose to tackle the mountain from the west, the route used by most people. There was high pressure forecast for the weekend so we grabbed the chance and organised to stay in the hostel in Lochinver, a bit of luxury for us for a change.

On the Friday afternoon we did a recce to the Suilven Walkers Car Park to make it more relaxed the next morning. It was busy with one space available so we hoped there would be room for us the next morning. We were very lucky on Saturday and got the last space! Suilven looked amazing in the morning sunshine, and it looked a long way away too!

In 2005 The Assynt Foundation was formed which is a Community Landowner for Glencanisp and Drumrunie Estates, and so they own the car park and Glencanisp Lodge which is about 1k from the car park. It was a luxurious former shooting lodge and has been renovated with funds from various sources including lottery funding.

Suileag Bothy lies just over 4.5k from the car park and many people choose to use this facility as it means a shorter day to the top of the hill. We met several folk coming out from the bothy as we walked in, and on chatting to one he said there had been about 8 people overnight and one large dog. We took lots of photos and chatted to other folk heading to the hill, all of whom overtook us – I wonder why? A couple of mad fools used a bike but the track was quite rough in places and undulated quite a lot, and would not have been our choice to use. Our goal dominated the view as well as Canisp to the east, but it is a landscape of beautiful rivers and lochs but no trees to speak of once past the Lodge although the land is called Glencanisp Forest.

After two hours walking we crossed the bridge over the river and half an hour later we found the cairn which marks the route to take us to Suilven. The path from here has been extensively improved by volunteers from the John Muir Trust and the Assynt Foundation amongst others who also employed professional workers, as well as using a helicopter to take stones to the ridge so the gully route to Bealach Mor could be improved. I took some photos from a brochure we found in the hostel which I have included in my report. Les and I were so grateful for this restoration of the path, particularly in the gully which is rather steep and runs with water in places. We must have been amongst 40 or so walkers on the hill on Saturday, and that is only one day out of how many that folk climb Suilven. We saw only one other man whom we reckoned was our age, the rest were younger of course, and quite a lot of foreigners, but the most striking thing was our backpacks were at least twice the size of the other walkers. That’s apart from the two lads who had paraglided from the top and were heading back to the car park, whose bags were huge. Later in the day we saw one or two couples who intended camping out on the top so their bags were a fair size. The improved path crossing the moorland is now bog free and aims directly at the route up the gully to the “nick” in the ridge between the western dome of Caisteal Liath and the eastern peak of Meall Meadhonach. We started to climb the gully at 12 noon and popped our heads over the top about an hour later. The view south to Stac Pollaidh and other hills and a landscape of a multitude of lochs and rivers is immortalised by Norman MacCaig in his poem “Climbing Suilven” when he writes And suddenly My shadow jumps huge miles away from me.

Heading west on the ridge we came across an amazing dry stone wall which the path passes through. It is thought this might have been built in exchange for famine relief during the Highland potato famines. It is an incredible construction with the large stones lying horizontal as the wall descends either side of the steep sided ridge. The path continues onwards and upwards passing a little knoll with a level top on which we noticed a tent already pitched. The final climb requires a bit more scrambling and then suddenly the cairn on the top appears. The top is quite unlike any top on any other mountain I can think of because it is wide and flat and grassy. The wind we felt while crossing the ridge and climbing to the cairn disappeared at the far end and it was calm and warm and a perfect place for a bite to eat and to sit and admire the view. The two people who took our photo at the cairn had left and we were alone, which made it quite magical after being aware of so many on the hill. It was a warm day with hardly any wind which made our day so memorable, however the distant views were a little hazy and there was a cloud bank out to sea so photos were not very clear. It is an amazing landscape and one which draws so many people to see for themselves the rocky knolls and lochans which make up much of Assynt.

After half an hour we had to leave knowing that we had a long way to go back to the car. The route back was just the reverse of the route up. Heading back down the gully was not one we were looking forward to but there is no option but to grit our teeth and go slowly and be thankful for walking poles. We had a simply wonderful day.