The Central Mamores

More from my holiday of 2005 walking in Scotland 

Sunday 24th July 2005 

This was another brilliant day's walk in excellent weather among the Mamores of Glen Nevis. The cloudy start to the day had looked ominous, but thankfully the clouds soon rose above the summits to become another bright sunny day. As it was a Sunday there were no buses to take me down Glen Nevis so I had to walk all the way there, this time using the tracks in Nevis Forest to avoid the traffic on the road. The walk from Ralph Storer's book, "100 Best Routes of Scottish Mountains" that was the inspiration for this walk was route number 22, but I altered his plan significantly. Storer started the walk by going up Sgurr a'Mhaim, but since I did that the day before I decided that a change of plan was in order. On leaving the wood I took a path near to the lower falls, following the river and keeping to the southern bank even when the going became rough and I had to clamber over cliffs on the southern side of the narrow gorge, Eas an Tuill. It would, of course, have been infinitely more sensible to use the excellent path on the northern bank, but that was far too sensible and boring! Although it was nerve-wracking at times it was also tremendous fun, especially when I was standing on the cliff face looking down into the gorge and at the people on the footpath who were looking up at me. It made me feel so daring!

[Picture taken from http://www.ga-highland-walks.co.uk/blog/]
Once I was through the gorge I passed the spectacular waterfall of An Steall, in its picturesque alpine meadow setting, and followed a footpath that zigzags up Coire Chadha Chaoruinn to the top of An Gearanach, my first Munro of the day. There now followed a deliciously narrow ridge walk over An Garbhanach, which was every bit as fun as I expected. A sharp drop and a climb led me to a very proper looking hill called Stob Coire a'Chàirn, which apparently is a Munro despite not appearing to me to have enough re-ascent, which just shows what I know! A short ridge walk brought me to the start of a stiff climb up the steep rocky northern face of An Bodach. After a look around the summit I reflected that this was my third Munro of the day and sadly my last in the Mamores. As I descended the western ridge I looked around me at the fantastic rocky scenery and wished that I didn’t have to leave. The Mamores had provided me with some very enjoyable walking over the weekend and I now had just one hill, a Munro top, Sgurr an Iubhair, to go. I had enjoyed some truly great walking in the area and I was sorry to leave it. I resolved that I would have to return so that I could finish off the eastern Mamores that I had wasn't able to visit during this weekend; it'll feel like coming to see a friend.

After descending the last hill, Sgurr an Iubhair, I took the path down that Storer would have had me take the day before, into Coire a'Mhusgain. The time was now much later than it had been the day before when I had been at this point so it was clear that I was time to leave these lovely hills. I followed the interesting path as it weaves all the way down the narrow valley finally returning to the bus stop in Glen Nevis, but once again I was unable to catch a bus so an hour's walk back to the youth hostel was necessary in the hot, early evening sun. The next day I travelled to Aviemore, to spend some time in my favourite city of them all, Inverness, on the way to the Cairngorm Youth Hostel.