Over The Hill

Gradually, throughout the week the bright, clear, cold weather we had been experiencing changed to damp, wet and grey cloudy skies, with Saturday's forecast not promising any great improvement. But, nevertheless, 15 of us set off from Dalrigh along the West Highland Way towards Auchtertyre in quite pleasant conditions, with a light wind and reasonably clear visibility, although the tops were under a blanket of low cloud.

We followed the track under the viaduct that carries the West Highland Railway over the Allt Auchtertyre and then almost immediately climbed north west up the broad, trackless hillside towards the prominent pointed nose of Creag Bhan Eigheach which forms the start of the ridge line that would eventually lead us to our objective, the summit of Meall Buidhe. Underfoot, the ground was solid, and the short tufted grass made for relatively easy walking on what is a very broad, and fairly featureless ridge.

Although our route was snow free, the neighbouring hillside across the glen, Beinn Chaorach, still held quite an amount of snow over its upper slopes, and as we gained height and Beinn Odhar came into view, it also displayed quite a covering of snow from about 700m and above. The weather was kinder than the forecast suggested, and by the time we topped the summit cairn on Meall Buidhe there were patches of blue sky, and the cloud base had lifted sufficiently for us to clearly see the tops of Beinn Odhar and the surrounding hills.

We had a long, leisurely break on the grassy top of Meall Buidhe before we set off towards the bealach between Meall Buidhe and Beinn Odhar, from where we surveyed a route down the fairly steep slopes towards the Crom Allt for our south western descent towards the WHW. It was on our descent towards the Crom Allt that we found ourselves having to cross a few patches of snow, still lying in the shaded gullies, and, of course, the easiest means of descent in such cases is just to let yourself go - and its fun - so much so that some time was spent "bum sliding" down, and then back up to have another go!

When we eventually left the snow slopes and descended into the dry river bed of the Crom Allt, we elected to continue down the rocky river bed instead of traversing the hillside and its numerous small gullies. Although rocky, the river bed was surprisingly easy to negotiate and we were soon down to the lower levels of the river, having passed some impressive hanging ice formations en-route. As a detour, I was interested in finding a "memorial" marked on the 25000 OS maps on the hillside just above the Crom Allt, and so we checked the maps and headed for the spot, not easy to find, as it's a very small cairn, sitting in a shallow depression. The memorial consisted of a plaque containing a name, date and inscription; it appears to be a personal memorial to a young man, rather than a memorial of any historical context.

From the memorial, our route was then along the WHW, heading through Tyndrum and onwards to our start point at Dalrigh. As you approach Dalrigh there is a small lochan with the unusual name of "The Loch of the Legend of the Lost Sword", marked with a stone seat and a carved stone sword set into the pathway. It certainly provided a point of interest and discussion, with quite a few "stories" about its origin - so here is the "official" tale.

Quote - Tyndrum is built over an ancient battlefield. In 1306, the Battle of Dalrigh took place between Clan MacDougall and Robert the Bruce, resulting in a rare defeat for Robert’s forces (He is well known to Scots, but made famous world-wide in the 1996 movie ‘Braveheart’). To allow a hasty retreat it is reported that Robert ordered his men to discard their heavy weapons into a nearby Loch, now aptly-named ‘The Loch of the Legend of the Lost Sword’, after Robert’s own massive sword that was reputed to have been over 6 feet in length. - Unquote Ref: Tyndrum By the Way

And so, another very interesting walk and a great day on the hills - all rounded of with a nice stop at the BeinGlas campsite restaurant for some welcome refreshments on the way home.

Great day - Thanks Michael