Sgùrr na Feataig

Wednesday 22nd May 2019

The evening before this walk, in the Bearnais bothy, I made grandiose plans to walk up the Munros Sgùrr Choinnich and Sgùrr a’ Chaorachain, and if there was time to spare afterwards to climb the Corbett Beinn Tharsuinn, but to do this I was hoping for good weather, and this was the Scottish Highlands. When I got up in the morning the weather was awful with low clouds and miserable rain. All my plans had gone awry as it wasn’t a day for going for a walk up a mountain. I have been accused of being a fair weather walker, and, frankly, they are right. It is a lot nicer to be up a mountain when the sun is shining and you’ve got a view, however, I couldn’t stay in the bothy all day so I decided I would climb the Corbett Sgùrr na Feataig. This seemed my best option as not only is this mountain the nearest to the bothy it also has a clear footpath that leads almost all the way to the summit. After getting kitted up in all my waterproofs I headed off into the rain and up the path that climbs beside the Allt Mòr a’ Bhearnais with surprisingly good views behind me of the bothy and Loch na Laoigh behind that. The weather at this time was not as bad as it would later become.

After plunging into the clouds and reaching the top of the pass that Ordnance Survey calls Baobh-chacan Dubha I came across a small cairn that I took to be marking the junction I needed even though there was no sign of a path coming off the one I was on. Despite this I turned off onto an imaginary path and headed up the hill soon realising that I had gone the wrong way. This is one of the problems with building lots of piles of stones on hills as they can be easily misinterpreted. I had been sheltered from the wind during the climb and the rain, at this time, was merely a constant drizzle, but when I eventually reached the top of the ridge I was suddenly assaulted by strong winds and an increase in the rain. I also found no path at the top of the ridge, but nevertheless I headed fearlessly east along the ridge passing over a small top and suddenly a clear path materialised through the mist. Where this path had come from would become clear on my way back down. While climbing a steeper top I thought the sky was brightening, though this may have been my imagination as I reached the 805 metre top that is marked on Ordnance Survey’s Explorer maps as Sgùrr na Feartaig.

The Ordnance Survey Landranger map gives this name to the whole ridge while Harvey Maps uses the slightly different spelling, Sgùrr na Feataig, that I have adopted, for the 862 metre summit of the Corbett. Despite the poor weather I enjoyed my walk along the ridge and reflected that all the best hill walking is along a ridge where one can gain maximum enjoy from being at the top of a mountain while expending minimum effort walking along the ridge. This ridge would have been better if the weather was better and gave me a view of the sensational mountains that are in every direction. The path along the ridge is very well made with a miner’s talent for negotiating the contours weaving along the undulating ridge and was a real pleasure to walk upon. Soon after the best example of this cunning path it bypassed a broad top and eventually began to descend, which made me wonder if I had just walked past the summit. Checking my compass revealed I was now heading north, which confirmed my suspicions, so to establish my position with certainty I powered up my GPS device and this showed that I was north of the summit having indeed passed by. Turning around I headed back up the hill and coming off the path crossed the trackless slopes to find a well-built cairn sitting on a wide base of stones.

After eating I took a bearing and headed back onto the path passing some pretty yellow flowers growing in a boggy area that I took to be marsh-marigold, though I am no expert. Back onto the excellent path I headed back along the ridge now with my face into the wind that seemed to have increased while the rain was more persistent, and this made the journey back along the ridge less appealing than it had been earlier. When I reached the point where I had joined the clear path at the start of the ridge I now found the path dropping down the northern side to reach the pass on the northern edge of the wide saddle. Turning left I headed along the path over the pass eventually discovering that I had not lost the path at the fictitious junction, but earlier than that where there is a sudden turn that was not clear in the low cloud. Some cairns here would have helped. Descending in the rain I came all the way back down into the valley and back to the bothy where I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing cards. Considering the bad weather this was not a bad walk that was helped by a clear path on a good ridge.