The Eastern Mamores

Friday 28th July 2006

The last walk of my holiday took me back to the familiar territory of the Mamores. I spent two days there in 2005 (the reports are here and here) walking over the hills in stunning weather and quickly developed a love for them. They are great fun to walk over with many high tops connected by narrow ridges and consisting of many Munros. Last year I went up six Munros in the Mamores, but I had been unable to include the highest in the Mamores, Binnien Mor, so on this walk I wanted to correct that omission while retreading part of the Mamores that I had done the year before, however the weather wasn't as nice.

I had decided to start in Kinlochleven, but it was raining during my journey on the bus so even though it had stopped by the time I arrived full waterproofs were put on and remained on for the entirety of the walk. Starting from Kinlochleven I took a path that led me out of the town through woodland heading towards Loch Eilde Mor. Once out of the wood the steep path settled down to cross the moor before turning towards Sgurr Eilde Beag becoming an excellent path as it zigzags up the side of the hill. This made the final ascent relatively easy and the initial climb out of Kinlochleven the hardest of the day.

Once Sgurr Eilde Beag was gained I continued along the ridge up to the south top of Binnien Mor, now well hidden in the clouds. After a midge-infested lunch I crossed over to the summit of Binnien Mor and enjoyed the short narrow ridge along the top. On setting off back to the south top it started raining again and didn't stop until I arrived at Na Gruagaichean. The path over this Munro was quite tricky, especially in the wet, but that just made it even more exciting. Once safely over I continued along the ridge to my third Munro of the day and one that I had actually been up the year before, Stob Coire a'Chairn.

Turning north I descended and began a thrilling scramble up to the rocky top of An Garbhanach. The year before I had descended from this rocky top while pre-occupied with a Grand Prix on the radio; this time I was going in the right direction and I was able to give it my undivided attention, which was fortunate. After the earlier rain the rocks and my boots were rather wet making for a slippery combination. There were a couple of occasions when my foot slipped a couple of inches and I looked at the sheer drop beside me thinking how close I was to the edge. Needless to say I didn't fall to my death and safely crossed the ridge to the fourth Munro of the day, An Gearanach.

With the last mountain of my holiday behind me I descended along the ridge to the top of Coire Dubh and then followed the excellent path that zigzags many times down to the valley floor, running all the way down to ensure I caught a bus. Reaching the grassy plain before the An Steall waterfall in record time I took a path through the gorge back into Glen Nevis and I was approaching the bus stop just as the bus was arriving. And that was that, my last walk in Scotland for the year. It was a pity the weather was poor for this walk, but the Mamores are such an excellent area to walk in that a little rain and clouds did little to dampen my enthusiasm, and besides the views during the descent of the breaking clouds more than made up for it. All in all I think I was very lucky with the weather on this holiday; only two walks were blighted by low clouds (both Fridays) and this was the only walk to be rained on (excepting rain off the mountain in Glencoe).

Totalling up I went up twenty-two Munros on this holiday, though three of them I'd been up before (and two of those were on this walk while the other was Ben Nevis). That brings my total up to 41 Munros. Only 243 to go!