With no new walks available I thought I’d post my account of a wonderful holiday I had in Scotland, which was originally written in 2005. I am starting with a walk in the Crianlarich Hills where I experienced, perhaps for the first time, the glories of Highland walking with ferocious weather (probably the worst I’d experienced up to that point), difficulties in navigation, and some truly spectacular mountain locations.
Tuesday 19th July 2005
I was in Scotland to do some walking in the Southern Highlands and apart from the West Highland Way, which I did last year, I had not really done any walking in Scotland before and I found it very different to walking elsewhere in the country. It's a lot bigger and a lot less crowded; I didn't see anyone all day, but that could have been because of the weather. I was in an indecisive mood about where to walk on this day; the bad weather was putting me off walking up a big mountain, so in the end I decided to head off into the hills directly behind the hostel that I was staying at thinking that they would be easier. I was staying at the Crianlarich Youth Hostel, which is next door to the railway station on the West Highland Line from Glasgow to Fort William. The location was very handy for me which was better than I would get later in the holiday. Crianlarich is a small community on the junction of the A85 and A82 trunk roads served by a small general store, which I used for all my culinary needs despite its slightly higher than town-centre superstore prices.
Right behind the youth hostel is a Community Woodland and I started the walk by climbing through that and into the forest beyond. I was following the instructions given by Ralph Storer in his book "100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains", specifically route number six. Storer's instructions took me along forest roads until I came to an old path beside metal and wooden posts, which Storer describes as "execrable" and suggested that you avoid it as much as possible. I must have forgotten his advice because I walked up the whole boggy, water-logged length of it, even though Harvey maps mark this route as marshy ground. Therefore, it was with considerable relief that I eventually reached the tree line and climbed onto the open hillside to my first goal, which has the very un-Scottish sounding name of Grey Height. This was merely the start of the ridge around the head of a valley (or corrie as they say in Scotland), Coire Ardrain, so I continued the climb up the ridge to Meall Dhamh before beginning the ascent of the Munro, Cruach Ardrain (a Munro is a Scottish mountain above three thousand feet high). The path I was following didn't go straight up the mountain, but instead took me across the steep western slopes of the mountain and eventually deposited me at the southern end.
This suited me fine as I headed away from Cruach Ardrain down the hill towards another smaller Munro called Beinn Tulaichean. As I approached the summit the weather threw everything it had at me: there was biting rain and extremely strong winds that made it difficult to walk. In desperation I sought some shelter against a rocky outcrop and despaired of the conditions, and anything else I could think of; eventually I poked my head up and gingerly made my way to the summit cairn, which turned out to be surprisingly close to where I had been sheltering. Returning to my shelter I had lunch while gazing upon the glorious views that were miraculously now revealed to me as the weather cleared in the lee of the hill affording me with tremendous views across to Loch Voil. Setting off again I headed back up to the top of Cruach Ardrain, once again battling against the winds that were trying to stop me as I crossed the col between the two Munros, this time to little effect. Climbing up Cruach Ardrain from the south, I followed a path to the south-westerly summit cairn and in the wind, rain and low cloud I could have easily thought that I was at the top of the Munro, but having been warned by Ralph Storer I descended the dip beyond and found a sharp rise that took me up to another summit cairn, this time the true summit of the Munro.
The continuation of the walk was to descend steeply down the path beyond the summit to what Storer calls a bealach (the Scottish name for a col or saddle) and then up to Stob Garbh. At this point I lost the path and had to find my own way around the rock faces onto the top. My compass was heavily used at this point as I found my own way along the top of the ridge to the summit cairn. Stob Garbh apparently used to be a Munro but was subsequently demoted for having too small a re-ascent (or possibly due to its proximity to Cruach Ardrain) making my tally for the day just two Munros and a Munro top. Heading off in the right direction I discovered a path and continued along the ridge over Stob Coire Buidhe towards Crianlarich until my progress was halted by a fence that Storer makes no mention of even though it is marked on a map. Turning to my left I tried to find a stile over it, but I could find none so when I came to a t-junction of fences I decided that the only way I would be able to get down was to climb over the fence. Descending the steep grass slopes beyond I now had no path and no idea where the path I had been following had gone. When I approached the crag, Creag na h-Iolaine, I discovered a steep, bracken-covered slope that I could not easily get down and led me to start thinking that perhaps crossing the fence had not been such a good idea! With considerable difficulty I descended the steep slope through the bracken without knowing where I was putting my feet until eventually I reached the tree-line.
Ralph Storer's instructions hadn't said that the descent would be this difficult! He had said that there was a "clear" firebreak, but I could see none even when I made my way to where I thought the map indicated there was a firebreak, but none could be found. Instead I had to try and descend the hillside under the trees, weaving around the trunks, which was relatively clear beneath the dense conifers. By following a stream down I made my way to a forest road, and ironically a firebreak appeared on my left just before I reached the road. After an energetic hour spent trying to get past fence, cliff, bracken and trees I slowly made my way along the forest road back to where I had started and passing once more through the Community Woodland I returned to the youth hostel. All in all, this was a good, enjoyable walk, even if the weather was a little rough at times, but I had coped, which was another victory for me over bad weather. The problems at the end of the walk are best forgotten as being beyond my control, unless they are the norm for Scotland...
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