Over The Hill

It is often said that you should "Never judge a book by it's cover." and it could equally be said that you should "Never judge a hill by its height." Which is certainly the case for Sligrachan Hill and Beinn Ruadh. A mere 550m (Highland Five) and 664m (Graham) respectively, these two hills offer character and a walking challenge that exceeds expectations.

Starting from the entrance to the Drynain forest track in the beautiful Glen Finart we climbed steeply up through the forest on a twisting track that varied from a short stretch of tarmac through hardcore gravel, to an overgrown, boggy path which eventually breaks out of the forest and into the high open hillside of Drynain Glen.

At this point, providing there is adequate visibility, the days walk is shown in a wide panorama on the skyline as a ragged ridge line sweeping in a broad anti-clockwise horseshoe from Castle Craig on your right over the apex at Sligrachan Hill and round to Beinn Ruadh on your left. The ridge line is the first indication of the character of this walk, it appears jagged and broken, this will be no simple walk along a nice flat ridge.

Once clear of the forest we kept just above the Drynain Burn as we trudged through deep heather and grasses until the small bealach between Castle Craig and Tom a'Bhothain came into sight, at which point we started a steep climb up towards the bealach picking our way around some small crags and knolls until making a final scramble up through the crags to the summit of Tom a'Bhothain, from where we had our first close-up views of the crags surrounding Sligrachan Hill.

The crags on the eastern face of Sligrachan Hill look quite challenging from afar, and would offer some scrambling if that's what was wanted, however, there is an alternative, albeit just as steep, but grassy route which winds its way between and around the crags which we opted for and were soon on the top of the first of the two distinct tops that make up Sligrachan Hill (Note 1 below). From this first top, these is a short, but steep descend and and equally short and steep ascent to the cairn atop the primary summit at 550m.

Beinn Ruadh, our next objective, lies some 2km south of Sligrachan Hill along a grassy ridge with a number of knolls and craggy outcrops along its length, before a final, steep climb to the summit Trig Point. This ridge offered some great views down to Loch Eck nestled below it's steep western slopes. Approaching the base of Beinn Ruadh along the ridge, two small sets of crags form a "gateway" to pass between, and beyond lies a small un-named lochan with its crystal clear water looking very inviting, if only it were a hot summers day, and not a cold, frosty winter day.

From the lochan, the final climb to the summit of Beinn Ruadh is up a steep grassy slope which eventually flattens for the last few metres across the top to an impressive Trig Point marking the summit.

We left the Trig Point and took a northeasterly route, heading directly for the topmost edge of the forest in the glen below. Initially we were on compass bearings, as the low cloud obscured any reference points, but as we dropped below the cloud base at about 500m, we could clearly see our way forward and just took a bee-line for the point where the Drynain Burn entered the forest, hopeful that we could find a good crossing point when we eventually reached the burn. As it transpired, it was a fairly straight forward crossing, and we were soon picking up our outward route for the return down through the forest and back to Glen Finart.

This was an excellent days walking on an great "little" hill, thanks David

Note 1. A cautionary note if you are navigating Sligrachan Hill in limited visibility, as we were. When I arrived on the "first" top I was convinced we were on the actual summit - Why? - Well I was navigating using an OS 25,000 map which clearly shows the two tops, the one we were currently on, and the second, some 300m to the southwest, but neither has a spot height shown, nor any physical features (i.e. cairns/trig point - although one is shown as 550m contours while the other is 540m) marking the actual tops. The only indication is that on OS 25,000 mapping, the hill's name, Sligrachan Hill, is placed directly alongside the "first" top. And so I announced we were "there", and with the cloud restricting the visibility to our immediate surroundings, the "other" top was at this point hidden in the mist.

However, it was pointed out to me by David, our walk leader for the day, and who has done this hill on a number of occasions, that the summit was in fact on the "second" top, and is well marked by a large cairn. Confused, we double checked our maps only to find that the OS 50,000 differs from the 25,000 in that it places the hill name, directly over the "second" top, which sits at 550m, as opposed to the "first", which is some 10m lower, a point which may be obvious in good visibility, but not so in poor visibility, depending on which OS map series you may be using. Open the route map above and scroll between the 50,000 and 25,000 scales to see why the confusion.