A’Chràlaig

Saturday 3rd September 2016

Ever since I started coming to Scotland for my walking holidays, I have used Ralph Storer’s “100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains” as my inspiration. The day before this walk I completed walk number forty-four in the book, Ciste Dhubh, and now I attempted to do walk number forty-five, up A’Chràlaig, the highest mountain in Kintail, which begins at the point where forty-four ended, at the foot of An Caorann Mór. The path through this valley heads from Loch Cluanie to the top of Glen Affric, but I didn’t take this path and instead I veered off at a small pile of stones near the start following a narrow path that climbs the steep, grassy and very boggy ground up the slopes of Fuaran Mór Chluanidh. It had rained hard overnight, which added to the already saturated ground and made this a very wet path with even more rain falling as I started climbing. The faint, but clear, path follows a pretty, little stream that cascades down a rock channel and provided me with a pleasant distraction from the drudgery of the relentless climb.

As I neared the top of the path the weather began to improve significantly so that by the time I reached the top of the ridge there was fantastic weather before me with glorious blue skies north towards A’Chràlaig and across Coire a’ Chait eastwards towards the complex mountain chain of Sgùrr nan Conbhairean. I was basking in fabulous sunshine and could clearly see the ridge leading towards the summit of A’Chràlaig laid out before me that promised a great mountain walk, however behind me Glen Shiel was shadowed by very dark clouds that ominously foretold what was to come. After all the poor weather that I had endured on this holiday it was great to be on a mountain in glorious sunshine, but it wasn’t to last. As I started along the ridge I was hopeful that the dark clouds over Glen Shiel would lift and I would have a fabulous day, but it wasn’t long before the ominously dark clouds had enveloped everything to the south of me and soon I was surrounded by clouds once more with rain following soon after.

My glorious day had been ruined and instead I was walking along the ridge with no views, and I was getting wet. After the promise that had been shown by the sunshine, it was very disappointing to once again be walking in bad weather. As I neared the summit of A’Chràlaig the ridge narrowed becoming craggier and would have been a fun walk in good weather, but despite an easing of the strong winds that had plagued me all week the rain and low cloud meant I still had to take extra care as I made my way along the ridge. On the way I passed many small cairns and any one of them could have been the summit as in the poor visibility I would have no idea, but I kept going past all these false summits until eventually I reached a large, grand cairn that undoubtedly sits at the summit of the Munro, A’Chràlaig, but it was still raining. It can be difficult to know when you’ve reached the top of a mountain in poor weather, especially when there many cairns on the route, but this cairn is so big and impressive there is no mistaking it for anything but the summit of a big mountain.

After a pause at the summit while I regretted not being able to enjoy the views, I continued along the ridge, which now became more rocky and interesting with a few instances where I needed to put my hand to rock. The rain was making the rocks slippery so I had to be very careful as I made my way along the narrow ridge until I eventually reached the grassy dome of Stob Coire na Cràilaig where I had my lunch beside the small cairn at the top of this hill and pondered my options. There is another Munro further along the ridge, Mullach Fraoch-choire, which is on Ralph Storer’s route that I was following, but a series of rocky pinnacles called Na Geurdain have to be negotiated on the way. I was wary of tackling this jagged ridge in such poor weather and with limited visibility, plus Ralph Storer admits that it’s difficult to get off the ridge once you have reached the Munro with the most pleasant descent route actually being to return all the way back to the top that I was currently sitting on.

Since it was still raining when I had finished my lunch, and considering there was a tricky, rocky ridge to negotiate, I decided it was more prudent to come down off the ridge from where I was, on Stob Coire na Cràlaig. The weather on top of the ridge really demanded this decision, and a good walker should always be prepared to change their plans due to the weather. I will be able to come back to Kintail another time to go up Mullach Fraoch-choire in better weather conditions, but if I’d attempted that ridge on this occasion I may have had an accident and never been able to return. I kept repeating these thoughts to myself as I made my way down the steep, grassy slopes of Stob Coire na Cràlaig, however half way down the slope I came out of the clouds and the rain stopped. Soon the sun came out and the clouds began to lift from Ciste Dhubh on the other side of the pass. As I stood there contemplating the view before me of the lifting clouds I glimpsed a small herd of deer grazing on the hillside below me. I reflected that since it is deer-stalking season they were lucky that I had walking poles in my hand and not guns.

As I slowly moved down the hillside the deer moved off and I found the path that goes over the pass joining it at almost the same point that I had joined it the day before. Although the cloud struggled to clear from the tops of the Munros, it stayed dry for the rest of the afternoon while I descended An Caorann Mór on an exceptionally boggy path that eventually improved. I had been hoping for better weather on this walk and I didn’t get it, and more than that I got the worst weather of the day at the wrong time, when I was on the mountain ridge. This is a great ridge but unfortunately I wasn’t fully able to appreciate it because of the rain, and I was wary of the pinnacles as I am not keen on exposed locations. As a sole walker I do feel that I have to be more cautious than others. I don’t have a safety net if things go wrong, so consequently I take fewer risks when walking than others may take. One of these days I may actually need some sort of a safety net, but so far the thought that if I do get into trouble I’m done for has kept me out of trouble.

I was disappointed that I had abandoned this walk before reaching the second Munro and was consequently back at my car early. I tried to make the most of the mid-afternoon sunshine that had been robbed from me on the mountain by going for a stroll around Loch Cluanie after I had reached my car. I had great views across the valley towards the mountains that I had climbed over the last two days. Ciste Dhubh was hiding behind Am Bàthach and Mullach Fraoch-choire was hiding behind A’Chràlaig, but I still enjoyed getting these grand views towards these grand mountains. The weather had been very changeable with sunshine interspersed with rain on these walks, and they had both finished disappointingly early, but there was some good ridges on both walks and great views. When I first came to Glen Shiel I knew that I would need to return many times to do all the walks that Ralph Storer describes in the area, and even though I have now done almost all of those walks I know that Glen Shiel will still draw me back many more times.