Glen Nevis

Wednesday 7th September 2016

When I drove away from the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel at the start of this day I didn’t have a clue where I was going to be walking. It was raining when I got up with low clouds that were not an encouragement to go walking anywhere. I had a lot of poor weather throughout this holiday and I was becoming fed up with it. It is so much nicer walking up mountains in good weather, and in comparison there is no fun in being at the top of a mountain in bad weather. Although it wasn’t very windy it was still drizzly and murky; it was just plain wet and miserable. I moped around the hostel for a while trying to decide what to do, and then sat in my car for twenty minutes trying to make a decision and eventually set off down the valley road towards Fort William still not knowing where I was going. Before reaching Fort William I saw a sign for the Braveheart car park and immediately made a decision to park there and do a walk in Glen Nevis. This car park is named after the famous Mel Gibson film because it was constructed to take the film vehicles while scenes were being shot in Glen Nevis.

There are a number of way-marked walks through the woods that line Glen Nevis and start from this car park while the one that had caught my eye was the longest, the green-marked walk to Dun Deardail fort. The walk follows a wide forest track and is soon joined by the West Highland Way as it climbs above the valley floor towards the ancient hill fort. The forest track was very tedious to walk upon as it is very wide and it very gradually took me up the side of the valley into the clouds until eventually I reached the top of the pass that leads out of the valley. At this point the way-marked trail turns off the West Highland Way and keeps to the top of the ridge heading towards the vitrified Iron Age fort. Just before I reached Dun Deardail I noticed that I had risen into an eerie gap above the valley fog but below the clouds. I was in a curious bubble with dramatic views across the valley to the slopes of Ben Nevis opposite, but on top of the earthworks that are all that remains of the hill fort I was once more enveloped in cloud.

After returning to the junction with the West Highland Way, I made my way back down into the valley exploring the various narrow, unmarked, seemingly abandoned paths that maze through Glen Nevis Forest and were considerably more interesting than the forest track that I had taken earlier. When I eventually reached a track near the bottom of the valley I decided to head back to my car before heading to the Nevis Gorge, where I was keen to return. As I was driving up Glen Nevis I was astonished to see the clouds begin to break, the sun start to appear, and my heart began to sink. The afternoon was revealing itself to be warm with glorious sunshine, which is just the sort of weather for being at the top of a mountain, but I was stuck at the bottom of Glen Nevis. If I’d spent the dreary morning climbing a mountain I could have now been basking in the fabulous views from the top.

I still didn’t know where I was going to walk or how to make the most of this unexpectedly good weather, but in the meantime I stuck with my idea of walking through the stunning Nevis Gorge. Less than a week later a serious rockfall forced the closure of the path through this gorge, but fortunately I was able to enjoy this fabulous path that is described by some as being the best footpath in Scotland. Thankfully the path has now been reopened thanks to the heroic efforts of the John Muir Trust. By the time I reached the meadow at the top of the gorge overlooked by Steall Falls it was very humid and I was cooked in my waterproofs, so I stopped to have my lunch and cool down while continuing to ponder where I was going to walk. Across the river is the Munro An Gearanach and I decided that would be my target, but first I had to get across the river. On previous occasions that I have been up An Gearanach I simply stepped across the river, but there had been a lot of rain recently and it was unlikely that I would be able to cross now without getting my feet wet. There is a wire bridge but that appealed to me even less than wet feet.

Therefore, once again, I didn’t know where I was going to go walking so I just wandered up Glen Nevis towards the ruins at Steall where I noticed a path that branches off to climb towards the Munro Top of Sgurr a’ Bhuic. Finally I decided on a walk and followed the clear, though boggy, path beside the Allt Coire nan Laogh heading for a prominent prow of rock ahead of me eventually losing the path as I made my way steeply up the hillside. The views behind me of the Mamores were stunning in the sunny, humid conditions and I was having a fabulous time even though I secretly wished I was already at the top of those mountains. I have a fondness for the Mamores and would love to return to this area to reacquaint myself with the fabulous ridges that connect these great mountains. On the other side of Glen Nevis I continued to slowly climb the steep slopes until I eventually reached the top of the prow with the heat pouring off me. I could hardly move a muscle as I hauled myself up the final few steps to the tip of the western ridge of Sgurr a’ Bhuic with the summit of the Munro Top still some distance away along a rocky ridge. Slowly I dragged myself along the stony ridge that reminded me fondly of the Grey Corries.

At the summit of Sgurr a’ Bhuic the Grey Corries themselves came into view, but the glorious sunshine that I had been enjoying had gone as clouds now covered the sky and everything was dull and grey once more. Beyond the summit, the Grey Corries still looked inviting while the sprawling mass of Aonach Beag dominated the view to my left, and behind me Ben Nevis gazed upon all it commands. All the peaks in view were clear of clouds and were teasing me for my lack of preparation, but I was now amongst them, at the top of a peak more than three thousand feet high, even though it is a only a minor top of Aonach Beag. Sgurr a’ Bhuic may only be a top, but it is a Munro Top so it felt like a proper mountain and I had finally achieved something on this changeable day. This was my last three thousand footer of the holiday, and based on the stunning, albeit grey, views from the summit I considered it a good one. Happy, I made my way down to the col with Stob Coire Bhealaich dropping down to the forming stream soon picking up a path that I followed all the way back down to the ruins of Steall Hut at the bottom of Glen Nevis. Considering that most of this day I had no idea where I was going to walk and was really making it up as I went along, it eventually turned out quite well. When the day started I would never have imagined the weather that I enjoyed in the afternoon, or that I would manage to climb a peak more than three thousand feet high.