Walna Scar

Saturday 6th August 2011 

After my disappointments in Scotland I was desperate to go up a mountain so I quickly planned a day trip to the Lake District. The mountains I had in mind were the Coniston Fells but while planning my walk I noticed the Dunnerdale Fells to the south. I had never been south of the Walna Scar Road before whereas I've already been to the top of all the Coniston Fells. I was still in two minds when I caught a train to the south Cumbrian town of Ulverston (birthplace of Stan Laurel) where I caught a bus to Coniston. Now it was decision time: do I walk up the Coniston Fells and satisfy my mountain craving, or do I walk over the lower hills south of the Walna Scar Road that I’d never been over before? In the end the weather decided it for me. It was overcast with rain threatened when I arrived in Coniston so I set off along the excellent Walna Scar Road. 

At Boo Tarn I was very tempted to go up a mountain after all by turning to the right and climbing up the Old Man of Coniston following in the footsteps of Sean McMahon of StridingEdge.Net, but eventually I came to my senses. As later events proved, if I had gone up the Old Man I would never have been able to complete the walk. At the foot of the zigzags that lead up to the top of the Walna Scar Pass I actually did leave the path. To the north of the Walna Scar Pass is Brown Pike, a relatively small fell that even Wainwright didn't honour with its own chapter in his guide books, but it is a fell and it is bigger than any of the hills south of the Walna Scar Road. As an added interest there are some disused mine workings on the eastern side of Brown Pike so I climbed up to the old miners' tracks and investigated the remains, marvelling at the well-made tracks (which are mostly all that's left). At the end of one track I came on an awesome view of the seldom seen Blind Tarn. Hidden away behind Brown Pike this small lake would only be seen by people looking down from the ridge above, from where it would appear small and insignificant. From where I was standing it looked delectable. 

Climbing further up the steep fell I eventually reached the summit of Brown Pike where I had my lunch. While eating I gazed out over the nearby fells all the way to the Scafell Pikes. Even in the low cloud it was an awesome sight. There were many people passing me as they made their way along the ridge towards Dow Crag and the other Coniston Fells and I couldn't help thinking how old and tired this route was. I have walked along all the main ridges in the Lake District, so they no longer hold any appeal for me. It is the more unusual ascents or off-path routes that interest me now. So after eating I dropped down to the Walna Scar Road and crossed over to the barely trodden ground beyond, south of the Walna Scar Road, where there are no Wainwrights and the highest point barely touches two thousand feet, but as with the rest of the Lake District what they lack in height they make up for in complexity. 

The first and highest top beyond the Walna Scar Road is Walna Scar itself, but before reaching the summit the clouds descended which made navigation trickier than it should have been. With only faint paths to follow I made my way to the summit and across to the neighbouring tops of White Maiden and White Pike. Once the clouds had thankfully lifted I was able to enjoy myself by taking full advantage of every bit of rock I could find while descending the southern ridge of White Pike before dropping steeply down to the boggy saddle of Yauld Mire. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment as I picked my way across the complex terrain over the small top of Pikes and onto the top of Caw. Just as I approached the trig point however it started to rain and this continued as I took a challenging and very steep descent to the ground below. Spurning the insignificant hills around Fox Haw I followed a bridlepath past them onto a road and the rain finally stopped as I crossed the road and climbed the bracken covered terrain to the deliciously prominent top of Stickle Pike. I was now mindful of the clock so I quickly made my way over the insignificant Tarn Hills to Great Stickle, the last top of my walk where the sea now dominated the views ahead of me.

Dropping down once more I entered a dense area of bracken that was really tricky to traverse. Every path seemed to be crossing the ridge rather than traversing it so eventually I had to wade through the dense growth without knowing where I was putting my feet. When I finally reached the edge of the bracken field I sprinted along a path over the low hill of Raven’s Crag and steeply down to the road. My GPS was telling me that I still had many miles to walk before I reached a railway station but with only one hour left until the train was due. There ensued a mad dash down the road and an even madder dash walking beside the busy A595 because it was quicker than following footpaths. The sun came out during my dash so by the time I reached the station with minutes to spare I was roasting in my waterproofs. This was a very different walk to the ones I usually do in the Lake District, and all the better for it. After crossing the Walna Scar Road I hardly saw another person, which just goes to show there's a lot more to the Lake District than the popular routes. It can be difficult to find off-the-beaten-track routes in the Lake District, but once I was there I found that they were worth the effort.

The Machair of Uist

Thursday 7th July 2011 

After the washout of the day before I woke to good weather again, but unlike the previous day the weather stayed good. I had a strong temptation to do the walk I’d tried to do the previous day again, going up Beinn Mhor (which wouldn’t have been a bad idea), but in the end I did a pleasant, but long walk down the west coast of Uist between the beach and the grassy, fertile plain of the machair. Some of this grassland is farmed, but a lot of it has been left fallow and at this time of the year it was filled with a dense covering of wild flowers, mainly white clover, buttercups and a few daisies. I walked from the hostel to the beach at Bun na Feathlach and then along the dunes between the beach and the wide plains of the machair. This went on all day with me trying to pick out my route along farm tracks, roads or through the pathless grasslands. Sometimes a path was easy to find and at other times it was quite tricky trying to make progress through the dense growth. On occasions I descended onto the beach and walked beside the sea for a while before climbing back onto the dunes. The weather was generally good all day with varying cloud cover and only occasional light showers, but the eastern hills never lost their clouds and there was even a thunderstorm over the hills later in the day. As I journeyed south I passed the cemetery on the headland of Rubh’ Àird-mhicheil, past the ruin of Caisteal Ormacleit and onto the headland of Rubha Àird a’ Mhuile. This rocky promontory is very occasionally used for weapons testing but not on this day as the herd of Hebridean cattle testified. Going around the cattle I visited the deserted, ancient settlement of Dùn Dùlan before dropping back down onto the beach. There was an abundance of wildlife throughout this walk from the many varieties of wild flowers in the machair to the birds that swarmed around the coastland. 

After some hours I ventured off the path and through an area of the machair abundant in rabbit holes back onto the main road where I visited the South Uist Museum (called the Kildonan Museum). After lunch I spent some time looking around the museum getting a taste for what island life was like a hundred years ago. Back across the machair I walked further south negotiating a route through a golf course until eventually I stopped off for one last visit to the sea. Eventually I climbed back over the dunes and walked across the machair to the village of Daliburgh where I caught a bus back to the hostel. At the end of the walk I saw a sign for the Machair Way, but I never saw any other trace of this waymarked route and a look around the internet has failed to find much of a sign of it, which is a pity as it would be a lovely route. This was a pleasant walk through the peaceful and secluded landscape of the Isle of Uist and I especially enjoyed looking at all the flowers that were growing in the machair. 

The day after this walk I caught a ferry back across to the mainland to start my journey home. This was a good holiday where I saw some really different scenery, but it also didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. My week on the Isle of Skye went completely different to how I’d planned and with hindsight I wish I’d been able to go up more mountains than I did. As fabulous as the Outer Hebrides are they can’t really compete in the mountain stakes, but instead they have other charms. The hills of Harris are unique and the atmosphere of Uist is eerily special, but they don’t compare with a good Munro. Next year I’ll have to quench my insatiable desire to be at the top of mountains that the Outer Hebrides has been unable to satisfy.

Beinn Mhor

Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th July 2011 

After a fabulous weekend spent in the awesome hills of Harris I walked back to the main road and caught a bus north to the Isle of Lewis. Despite the sunny weather I didn’t have much of a walk planned; instead once I reached Stornoway I caught another bus to Callanish to visit the Callanish Standing Stones. These five thousand year old stones are an impressive sight particularly in their location on the western coast of the largely deserted and flat, boggy terrain of the Isle of Lewis. After spending several hours exploring the various standing stones in the area I returned to Stornoway where I spent the night. I had considered doing a walk the next day up to the Butt of Lewis, the northernmost point of the island, but the hostel I was staying in was unable to accommodate me for another night. So after spending the morning looking at the famous Lewis Chessmen in the Lewis Museum I caught a bus south through Harris to the port of Leverburgh. After a short ferry crossing I arrived on the small island of Berneray where several buses took me south through North Uist and Benbecula to South Uist. After a wet arrival in South Uist I had hoped for dryer weather the next day when I wanted to tackle the highest hill in Uist and when I got up the weather looked good as the tops were clear and it wasn't raining, so despite a poor weather forecast I set off. A short walk down the road from Howmore, where I was staying, brought me to just after the bridge over the Abhainn Roag where I took a landrover track across the moor. This soon ended and I ventured across the grass and heather moor towards the grassy dome of Maola Breac. As the terrain became rockier and the ridge narrowed I veered towards the main peak until eventually I reached the northwest top of Beinn Mhor.

By now I was completely engulfed in clouds and the rain that had been promised was pouring down. Carefully I made my way along the ridge as it narrowed interestingly, however the wet and windy conditions prevented me from taking full advantage of the terrain. Instead I kept on a lower path that keeps below the summit ridge all the way to the trig point at the summit. There I had my lunch crouched in the wind shelter that encircles the trig point. In good weather I’m sure the top of Beinn Mhor is an amazing place with awesome views all over the Uists, north and south along the length of the isles, and across the western machair plains to the rugged eastern slopes. It is the eastern view that I most missed as without it I didn’t really get a good appreciation of the attraction of the hills of Uist. I had originally planned on following Ralph Storer’s guidebook over the lower hills of Ben Corrodale and Hecla but in view of the weather I turned around and descended the way I had come. 

Back on the road, since the rain had stopped, I decided to walk several miles north along the road until I reached the community of Stilligarry where I turned left onto a side road that goes to the beach. This track crosses the machair, the flat expanse of semi-fertile grassland that dominates the western side of Uist. At this time of the year the machair, where not farmed, is full of wild flowers that offer a spectacular display and compensated for the disappointments of my walk up Beinn Mhor. Lewis had held little interest for me since has few hills and is mostly flat marshland that is in stark contrast to its neighbour, the isle of Harris. I was quick to put Uist in the same category as Lewis but I have a feeling that would be a gross injustice. In the few days that I spent in Uist I wasn’t able to take in even a small part of the islands, and that which I saw was not in the best of weather. From the map, the best part of Uist must be the uninhabited eastern slopes of Beinn Mhor which I never saw because of the clouds. I’m sure better conditions would have allowed the wonders of Uist to have been better displayed.

Tòdun and Sgaoth Àird

Sunday 3rd July 2011

  

For this walk I set off along the fabulous Tarbert path that I’d taken previously to get to the picturesque village of Reinigeadal, where I was staying. Until twenty years ago this path was the only way to get there, and it’s a great walk to have to take, weaving around the headland on a brilliantly engineered path. Soon after passing the abandoned village of Gerraidh Lotaigear I veered off the path to climb the steep hillside to my right away, from the sea and slowly up to the summit ridge of Tòdun. This was a tough pathless climb through heather and up steep rock faces, but after a lot of effort I eventually reached the summit ridge and there I had an enjoyable walk along the narrow ridge that took me up to the trig point at the summit. Wide views of the tremendous hills of Harris could be seen during the ascent but just as I neared the top the clouds dropped which obscured my view from the summit.

On the other side of Tòdun I descended the wide northern slopes all the way down to the road. This was an enjoyable descent as I soon emerged from the clouds and I was able to pick my route across the pathless terrain, slowly descending with great views along Loch Seaforth before me. After a short walk along the road I came off onto a track that used to be the old road to Tarbert and was an excellent track to walk on, part of the Harris Walkway, and I had a great time walking along this track, in the sunshine, with An Cliseam behind me and Sgaoth Àird before me. Near the summit of the pass, Bràigh an Ruisg, I had my lunch, and after eating I resumed my walk along the track down into Gleann Lacasdail, but my eyes were constant straying onto the hills to the right that top on Sgaoth Àird. 

I couldn't decide whether to go up the hills to my right or continue all the way down to Loch Lacasdail, but eventually, just before I reached the shore of the loch, I veered off the track without a moment’s thought and started steeply climbing the hill of Sròn an Toistear. This was a really steep climb that looked suicidal from the top, but somehow I managed to weave my way up the terraced hillside. With hindsight an easier route would have been to follow the Abhainn Dhìobadail into the shallow corrie of Glen Dibidale where shallower slopes would have led onto the hilltop, however the route I took was exhilarating until the gradient finally eased at the end of the ridge where easier slopes led me along the ridge all the way to the cairn at the summit of Sgaoth Àird. The view from the wind-swept summit was just awesome, not just across Bealach na Ciste to An Cliseam, but also south across the wide lochs of Tarbert.

From the top I descended the wide grassy slopes to Bealach Garbh and crossed into the vast rock strewn landscape of Beinn na Teanga that lies just to the north of the ferry port of Tarbert. Slowly I made my way across this vast and complex area descending over Goromul while carefully picking my route down. This walk frequently saw me walking across pathless terrain and I actually liked it for that, it added to the fun, but the slow descent over Goromul and Torsacleit was tricky as the land sometimes led to sheer cliff-faces where there was no easy way down. Eventually I veered to the left into Gleann Lacasdail down a handy ramp to the Harris Walkway track that I’d taken earlier, and this led me on to the road from Tarbert. Now all I had to do was walk along the path that I’d previously taken a couple of days before, but that would have been too simple. 

After a tiring climb to the top of the pass (imagine having to do that every day!) I veered off and walked along a well maintained path down to the deserted village of Moilingeanais which my guide book claims is being used as a summer home. Since the secluded bay had the air of trespass about it I returned to the path only to find that the excellent path that I had previously been on doesn't continue north. Although the OS map and my Cicerone guide book confidently indicates a path, all I found was a narrow, very muddy trail across steep bracken covered slopes high above the sea. This was a really tricky path, quite dangerous and I was relieved to finally reach the footbridge over the Abhainn Ceann na Locha where I rejoined the path to Reinigeadal. But I didn’t stay on the path long as the OS map indicates alternative paths near the main one. These are eroded so are not very safe to follow now, which made them really fun to walk along. The longer diversion, after crossing the Abhainn Kerram, is quite brilliant, features some nice bits of scrambling and after the path becomes indistinct the route is marked by a series of cairns across the bare rocks. This was a fun variation that eventually took me back onto the regular path to Reinigeadal. This was a long but really satisfying walk in the fantastic hills of the Isle of Harris along some good tracks and across some excitingly wild and pathless terrain.