Beinn Damh

Thursday 11th June 2009

The bad weather of the previous day continued for this walk with sometimes quite heavy rain, but by the afternoon it had cleared, unfortunately just in time for me to come off the mountain. The natural mountain for me to have done on this day was Beinn Eighe, the third of the three giants of Torridon, but that is a little too far away from the Youth Hostel for me to walk there (and besides the weather was not really right for an ascent up such an expansive and complex mountain). Instead I went for a walk up Beinn Damh, a hill to the south of Torridon and separate from the giants which are all on the northern side of Glen Torridon.

Starting early once again I set off along the road over the river and through the village of Annat to the Torridon Inn. Near the inn I took a path that climbed through dense rhododendron bushes and up a steep wooded valley. Despite the intrusion of these foreign, invasive plants this was an entertaining climb along a good path that passes a spectacular, tall waterfall. Just after climbing steeply out of the woodland I took a left forking path across a burn, the Allt Coire Roill, and into the immense, boggy, heather-clad valley of Coire Roill. The path soon became faint and eventually I lost it as I climbed higher up the boggy valley into the hills. The sunny start had soon dissolved into a cold, cloudy and windy day and then it started raining heavily. Trudging ever higher into the corrie I eventually reached the top of the pass, Drochaid Coire Roill, where I crossed below a buttress and up the hillside into Coire an Laoigh. The climb up onto Stuc Toll nam Biast looked such a steep climb I was wondering how I would get up there, but a faint path up the steep hillside made the climb both much easier than had appeared at first and a pure delight.

On top I had to clamber across loose stones before scrambling up the ridge to the summit of Spidean Coire an Laoigh, a Corbett, which misses out on Munro status by 42 feet. While I had my lunch at the summit the clouds cleared nicely to reveal the stunning craggy mountains of the Coulin deer forest, but it wasn’t long before the summit was enveloped in cloud again and it started raining. After lunch I walked through the mist along the northern ridge, veering towards the 868m northern top but the ridge seemed to be just an interminable boulder field with nothing to see in the thick mist except boulders. Frustrated at the pointless effort I was wasting I eventually veered left before I reached the top and headed down to the continuation of the ridge on a wide grassy saddle. Beyond this col are two tops, the second of which has a trig point and, according to Ralph Storer, a stunning view. A steep climb brought me over the first top, Meall Gorm, and a little beyond onto the second, Sgurr na Bana Mhoraire. Just when I thought my efforts would be unrewarded the clouds parted to reveal picturesque views out to the sea across Loch Torridon.I took loads of pictures of this view, but frustratingly only one came out, fortunately it’s a good one. After returning to the bealach I took a badly eroded path down the hillside back into the valley and onto my onward route through the woodland and back along the road. Despite the bad weather I did actually quite enjoy this walk even though it was over a smaller hill than others that I had done during this holiday. The trudge through the valley wasn’t too bad, but the climb at the end onto the summit was fabulous with great views that I’m sure would have been even better in good weather. The boulder field on the northern ridge was annoying and frustrating, but I enjoyed going over to the viewpoint at the trig point even though it involved climbing up and down one hill and up another. The weather was varied for this walk with the worst I had experienced all holiday, but it ended with glorious sunshine and a lovely afternoon as I walked back to the Youth Hostel.