The Red Cuillin Hills

Friday 4th July 2008

For the last walk on my holiday I caught a bus to the popular climber's haunt, Sligachan Inn, at the northern end of the great Cuillin range with the mighty Sgurr na Gillean dominating the landscape. I had considered going up the eye-catching mountain, but a wet start and my own reluctance to fall from a great height to my death, I mean to climb such a difficult and exposed mountain, redirected my attention elsewhere. Instead I went up the hills nearby that, despite sharing a similar name to the Cuillin, are very different in character. The Red Cuillin are rounded hills with smooth grassy slopes low down and above 300m have an abundance of loose rock strewn about their steep hillsides. They are not rugged or challenging, they have no jagged angles or sheer cliffs and they are not even very high, but the views from them are amazing. I started along a path that follows the shallow ravines of Allt Daraich and then veered off towards Sron a’Bhealain across a boggy plain. Once the bog was thankfully left behind I climbed the hill to the top of Sron a’Bhealain, and along the ridge beyond. With the boring bit over I began to climb the steep scree slopes of Beinn Dearg Mheadonach (Middle Red Mountain), with similar climbs being required on all of these hills. When I reached the top I walked around the edge of the corrie, over the actual summit and on to the end of the ridge. The views towards the neighbouring hills from this vantage point and even across the sea to Scalpay were sensational. The early rain had cleared to leave me with great weather for the rest of the day, and was giving me good views everywhere even though the biggest hills, including all of the Cuillin remained hidden beneath clouds for much of the day. It was rather satisfying to be on top of the Red Cuillin with clear views while Blaven and the Cuillin were wrapped around in cloud, so maybe I had made the right choice. Returning to the main corrie edge I descended to Bealach Mosgaraidh and climbed the higher Beinn Dearg Mhor (Big Red Mountain – spot a running theme in these names?). It took me a long time to climb up the scree but eventually I reached the summit where I had my lunch in the excellent weather with superb views all around me. After lunch I descended the interminable scree to Bealach na Sgairde, sliding down on occasions rather than walking due to the steepness of the scree. This was a difficult descent but that was nothing compared to the ascent that was ahead of me up Glamaig.

With no path to follow I struggled up the steep scree and I seemed to be taking forever, feeling like I'd never reach the top. However, when I was almost at the summit I turned away and traversed the eastern ridge of Glamaig to its end, An Coilleach, where I had great views out to sea and towards the mainland, before returning along the ridge to complete my ascent of the summit. Now began a descent that will forever be remembered for its frenetic haste and steepness as, with terrifying speed on the steep scree, I slid down the slope often using my hands to keep upright. How I never came to a sorry end I’ll never know, and even once the scree was over I still had long grass slopes to descend before eventually I reached the boggy floor. That descent seemed to just keep going down and down, never ending as I had thought I would reach the bottom once I’d cleared the scree. Once finally at the bottom a wet walk beside the river brought me back to Sligachan where, while I was still some distance away, I saw the bus that I had half-hoped I would catch, was leaving the Inn. Catching that bus had been a weak excuse to come hurtling down a steep slope but it was tremendous fun nonetheless and the walk turned out to be epic, though before starting I had expected it to be short and easy. The scree slopes, particularly on Glamaig, proved to be really strenuous and time consuming. A combination of those scree slopes and the heat really drained me of energy, but fortunately this was the last walk of my holiday so I was be able to go back to work the following week and recover from my holiday!