Over The Hill

As you drive up Glen Croe, over the Rest and Be Thankful and down towards Butterbridge it is impossible not to be impressed by the mountains towering above you. The Brack, Ben Donich, The Cobbler, Beinn an Lochain, Beinn Luibhean and Binnein an Fhidhleir greet you one by one as you pass through the glen. On the other hand, our objective for today, Beinn Ime, which is in fact the highest of the mountains in the area, remains stubbornly hidden and out of view to the casual passer-by.

There is a well worn route from Succoth on the shores of Loch Long to Beinn Ime; however, today we would take an alternate approach, one which would see us departing the roadside car park by the old bridge over the Military Road at Butterbridge and heading up Glen Kinglas towards the dwelling place that is Abyssinia, some 3 kilometres further up the glen. The water level in Kinglas Water was still relatively low, making for an easy crossing as we left the estate track and headed around the solitary building of Abyssinia and onto the hillside beyond to gain the lower levels of the north ridge of Beinn Chorranach.

A quick scramble over a very high deer fence which protects the small plantation and we were soon striking up the steep grassy slopes towards the obvious gully that lies between two sets of crags, and which would take us onto the broad and undulating north ridge at around the 500m height. Although we had fairly good visibility at the lower levels, we soon found that a thick blanket of cloud was covering everything above about 600m, and so we saw little else but drifting cloud and grey shapes as we made our way towards the summit of Beinn Chorranach.

Taking a short break on Beinn Chorranach there was a brief moment when a gap appeared in the cloud giving us a keyhole view from the summit down towards Butterbridge and Glen Kinglas. This signaled a slight lifting of the cloud base, and as we were to find as we descended towards Glas Bhealach the cloud clearing entirely from Beinn Chorranach - typical!

From the watershed of Glas Bhealach, we climbed directly up the northern slopes of Beinn Ime in what was a steep, but not difficult climb. We had last climbed this route in winter conditions using crampons on a thick layer of snow, and I was quite surprised to find the surface was primarily grass and rock, I had anticipated a loose scree underneath the snow, a pleasant surprise. We re-entered the cloud base just as we reached the summit, so once again, we were robbed of any good views from this high vantage point.

But, at least it was only this, the highest of the summits that was now cloud-bound, and we had clear tops all round as we descended from Beinn Ime, taking the short, and direct route down to Bealach a'Mhargaidh and following the outflow of small streams from the watershed as they merge and flow first northwest and then west-northwest to join Kinglas Water just a few steps from our start point at Butterbridge.

Another great day, with great company, rounded off with a visit to The Village Inn in Arrochar where we had the usual mix of refreshments, and off course, intellectual and topical discussion. So topical that I see our main point of discussion is the subject of an article in one today's (Tuesday 10 Sept) national papers. To recap, when served with tea or coffee at The Village Inn, its comes with a nice shortbread biscuit, which raised the questions, to "dunk or not to dunk"? and "which biscuit makes the best dunker"? A lively discussion followed, but with no real consensus on either point.

Well, direct from today's Daily Mail, I can now provide the results of a recent national poll on the subject, the preferred biscuits for "dunking" are;

Chocolate Digestive - 23%
Plain Digestive - 20%
Chocolate Chip Cookie - 15%
Bourbon Cream - 12%
Custard Cream - 11%
Malted Milk - 7%
Ginger Nut - 5%
Shortbread - 4%
Fig Roll - 2%
Rich Tea - 1%

So there you have it - And sorry Ian, but there was no mention of how many people "dunk" in their beer!

Great day - Thanks Lawrie