Over The Hill

These two Munros have a reputation among the walking guides and web sites as being extremely wet, boggy and uninspiring. Well not today; today they were so dry as to be almost arid, and with glorious blue skies, quite beautiful.

We set off from the entrance to the private road to Auchessan, passing through the farm to pick up the path alongside of the Allt Riobain which rises in a rather gentle manner steadily uphill towards the open moorland until it eventually reaches the dam at the head of the river. The water levels in the river were extremely low, especially towards the upper reaches, so much so that the new "old sleeper" bridge at the inflow from the Allt Glas was an un-necessary luxury.

From the dam it was my intention to head for the bealach just below the summit of Sgiath Chuil, but I had forgotten the "perfectionist" that Alan is and when he asked "Why are we not doing the 853 top?", a quick change of plan had us heading for the minor top of Sgiath Chrom, right on the southern end of the ridge. The lower slopes were primarily heather clad which gradually changed to rough grass as we made our way up an ever steepening hollow towards the small cairn marking the summit of Sgiath Chrom (853m).

A short descent across the bealach and around the dried up lochan, still more evidence of just how dry the weather has been this year, and we were soon climbing the final steep grass and rock slopes that surround the pinnacle summit of Sgiath Chuil (921m). A good path follows the top of the ridge as it then runs north towards Meall a'Churain, its northern most top, and in keeping with the "perfectionist" theme, we duly made our way along the ridge to include Meall a'Churain (917m), thereby completing the entire ridge and all its bumps.

Getting off this ridge was now our next challenge. It's western slopes are extremely steep, and there are a few areas of rocks and crags to be avoided. We doubled-back south along the ridge for about 200 metres before selecting our point of descent, which proved almost perfect. Our descent was entirely on grass, and although steep, was quite hazard free, and we were soon leveling out, having just lost some 270 metres of hard earned height, ready to tackle the peat hags of the Lairig a'Churain.

On our descent we were able to get a birds-eye view of the crossing, and had selected what looked like a good line through the worst of the peat hags, which although very dry, still presented a bit of an obstacle to be negotiated. Today would appear to be our lucky day, as again the line we had chosen proved to be a good one, and with only a few minor deviations we were soon on the higher ground on the western side of the bealach, without so much as a wet boot. Time to celebrate with our first real break of the day, and what better a place than the row of huge cliff like boulders lining the base of Beinn Cheathaich at around the 650 metre contour, leaving us with just under 300 metres of ascent after lunch before we would be on the summit.

It may just have been 300 metres of ascent, but by choosing a direct line up the eastern side of Beinn Cheathaich we had chosen what is probably the steepest approach, the conventional route being to head for a spot some 300 metres distance north of the summit and approach it from this point on the north ridge. And it was steep, as was evidenced by our relief when the summit Trig Point popped into view just a few steps away as we crested the ridge. Atop Beinn Cheathaich (937m) the views east to the full ridgeline of Sgiath Chuil were magnificent, and vindicated Alan's "perfectionist" ideal, in that we could feel very satisfied that we had indeed walked the entire length of the view now presented to us.

But we were still not finished, we had one more minor top which we had to visit before reaching our final objective for the day. And so, as the path contoured to the north of the 908m top, we detoured up the short slopes to reach the small cairn marking the un-named 908m top; it was well worth it, for the views across Glen Lochay towards Creag Mhor and its great bowl of a corrie were our reward for making this small additional effort. A short descent and we re-joined the path as we made the final uphill pull towards the cairn on the broad grassy summit of Meall Glas (959m) and our final top of the day.

It is a longish haul from Meall Glas back to Auchessan. Therefore, it was "shortest route between two points" as far as I was concerned; drop south southeast off the summit plateau, down over the rocky edges of Meall Glas Beag, and just keep going over the rough pathless moorland littered with its deep peat hags and pick up the narrow path that follows the un-named stream running just east of Creag nan Uan down to the farm building at Auchessan, with, off course, the now customary short break for "afternoon tea". Straight forward and job done!

I admit we had almost perfect weather, and the lack of rain in previous weeks had dried out the usually wet and boggy areas of this walk, but, I believe that this walk does not deserve the reputation it has as a "boring" and "uninteresting" walk - pick the right conditions and this is a wonderful walk.

A great day, with great company. Thanks.