Over The Hill

We left Skye on Friday and returned to the mainland heading for the Morvich Campsite just south of Dornie for a stop-over for Friday and Saturday night. This would position us quite nicely for our planned Saturday walk, Mullach na Dheiragain. This walk certainly required a little pre-planning in that we would have to undertake a 13 kilometre bike ride just to get to the starting point of what would be a 15 kilometre walk. Not to mention the 13k bike ride back out. It was going to be a big day.

Immediately we parked up at the gates to the Inverinate Estate we were attacked by a ferocious swarm of midges - what better an incentive to get the bikes out of the van and start peddling! Apart from Lawrie, I think all of us were thankful that the initial few kilometres were on a good tarmac estate road as it gave us a chance to get used to being "in the saddle" again. Certainly I needed an easy start as I reckoned it was a least 15 years since I was last on a bike, so by the time we were onto gravel track I had at least figured out the gears. Just over 1¼ hours later we were hitching the bikes to the fence posts at Iron Lodge having successfully managed the ups and downs of the track along Glen Elchaig.

Once across a slightly boggy area alongside Iron Lodge, a good path zigzags steeply uphill above the Allt Sgairt Lair and past the rather dry looking Loch Droma as it continues generally eastwards through the high level pass leading towards Loch Mullardoch. The weather was a bit fickle, as the low cloud obscured everything above about 500m, and an intermittent drizzle was never far away. However the going was fairly easy and we were soon leaving the main path and heading towards the footbridge over the Abhainn Sithidh.

Once over the river, we elected to head uphill towards a small craggy area which would bring us onto the main ridge just north of Creag a'Choir Aird. The going was quite steep and over some rough ground, but once we reached Creag a'Choir Aird and the ridge line proper, the slope and ground eased considerably. At this point the cloud base had lifted a little, but the main summit ahead was still hidden in grey mist.

From the ridge, a very faint path could be traced heading steadily uphill towards the summit, and although it was not a hard climb in relative terms, I was beginning to feel a bit weary; I guess the week on Skye was beginning to take its toll on my legs. We had intended to have lunch on the summit, but I felt in need of sustenance, and so we took a break just below the 974m top of Mullach Sithidh, after which Lawrie produced some of Jimmy's magic tablet, and that did the trick and put some strength back into my legs.

We continued onto Mullach Sithidh and its large cairn before completing the final 500m over the ridge towards the main 982m top of Mullach na Dheiragain and its contrastingly much smaller cairn. Celebrations were the order of the day, a new Munro for all of us, and the penultimate Munro for Alan. Cakes and handshakes all around.

We discussed the alternatives for our return route, but given the lack of views and poor visibility, we decided to retrace our route to a point on the ridge where we thought it safe to drop-off into Gleann Sithidh and pick up the track back towards the river crossing, and onwards towards Loch Droma and the zigzags downhill to Iron Lodge.

The return bike ride was not a bad as we had feared, with some very nice downhill runs to make life a little easier - that is except for the herd of Highland cattle which we had to negotiate at one point, as they decided that they owned the track and were not going to move until they had their late afternoon feed.

It was a long day, but an interesting day, and I was sure glad of a snug sleeping bag awaiting me back at the camp site.

Great day - Thanks All