Glen Dessary

Monday 5th to Wednesday 7th June 2017

The second week of my holiday in Scotland started slowly as I caught a bus from the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel into Fort William and after a wander around the town caught a train to Glenfinnan where I headed into an avenue lined with rhododendrons. Sometimes I hardly see any of these Himalayan flowers that are highly invasive in this part of the country, but this year the hot weather had brought them all out in full flower, which makes for a pretty display but only if you ignore how invasive it is. Passing over the main road I took the private road opposite into the valley of Glen Finnan and under the iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct. I was in this beautiful valley in 2012 when I walked around the Corryhully Horseshoe in unseasonably hot weather, but the weather was not so good for this walk with generally overcast skies. Slowly I made my way along the road up the valley with a heavy rucksack on my bag with enough food to last me the whole week. I had a pleasant stroll through this carefully maintained tree-lined valley eventually passing the relatively posh Corryhully Bothy climbing up the valley on a rough, stony track that heads all the way up to Bealach a’ Chaorainn.

Rain caught up with me before I reached the top of the pass where a soaked bog greeted me while the wonderful path that I had enjoyed in Glen Finnan also disappeared leaving me to wander down the horribly boggy valley on the other side. The ground was saturated with only a faint semblance of a path that you would never want to walk upon and went on for hour and hour with no sign of improvement. Eventually at one point I had no choice but to cross the river, which fortunately was not too difficult, but instead of staying on the other side I recrossed the river and found myself on precipitous slopes when it passed through a ravine. When the terrain finally opened out my problems continued. I could not find a good path through the conifer plantation ahead of me and I was left to wade through knee-deep bogs between the trees until I finally and with blessed relief reached the forest track through Glen Pean. I was really fed up with the terrible ground conditions in Gleann a’ Chaorainn and had little strength left for the prolonged walk along the forest track that brought me into Glen Dessary and finally brought me to the A’ Chuill Bothy where I spent the night.

When I got up in the morning it was pouring it down with rain and it never stopped all day. I had planned on repeating a walk that I’d originally done in 2008 when the long distances involved had forced me to start heading back without climbing Sgurr na Ciche. I had enjoyed the ridge over Garbh Chìoch Mhòr and was disappointed with missing out on the last Munro and with the poor weather. Unfortunately the weather was now much worse, but not wanting to waste the day I crossed the valley and with difficulty crossed the swollen Allt Coire nan Uth and began climbing the grassy slopes of Sgùrr Còs na Breachd-Iaoidh. This was not a great walk in the pouring rain up a steep, uninteresting, grassy ridge that frequently had me questioning what I was doing on this wet, Scottish mountain when I could have been anywhere else. I was becoming really fed up with Glen Dessary and was depressed at the prospect of spending the whole week in this miserable place with no sign of an improvement in the weather. I had no motivation to stay any longer in this abominably boggy place. Eventually I reached the summit of the Corbett where after a momentary glance at the narrow ridge of Druim a’ Chuirn I headed back down the way I had come.

The bad weather and boggy ground had turned me off the whole area, which is undoubtedly a shame as in good weather I’m sure the place is delightful as I remember enjoying the ridge of Garbh Chìoch Mhòr in 2008 despite low cloud. I had necessarily spent a long time in the A’ Chuill Bothy so I was sorry to leave it, but I had had enough of the valley so the following day I set off out of sodden Glen Dessary. The weather was showing signs of improvement although there was still a lot of cloud about and it was rather windy so I felt more than justified in getting out of this sorry place. I like a good footpath that makes walking easier but these are not to be found in Glen Dessary where the walking is always hard work through bogs and thick mud. Several times on this holiday I’ve said to people that I’m not a Munro bagger, but the only reason I’d come to Glen Dessary was to bag the Munro that I’d missed in 2008. When am I going to listen to myself? I enjoy walks on good footpaths through mountains in good weather, but I don’t enjoy going up mountains just for the sake of ticking the summit. I guess we can say that I don’t need to go up Sgurr na Ciche.

Rather than stay in the area I retraced my steps back towards the horrible valley of Gleann a’ Chaorainn finding a better, dryer path through the trees, over the River Pean and into the valley staying on the other side from my previous route. This turned out to be no better than the west bank that I had taken two days before with very boggy ground that seemed to have been churned up by a quadbike so eventually I was motivated to cross the river back onto my outward route. During the course of the walk up that horrible valley rain fought with blue skies for supremacy until gradually the weather slowly began to improve and sunlight finally made an appearance this week. This route over the pass and into the oblivion that is officially known as Glen Dessary is part of the Cape Wrath Trail and I met quite a few people in the bothy who were undertaking this trail and also quite a number coming down the valley towards me who were undoubtedly also attempting this most challenging of long distance trails. At one time I had been planning to attempt to do the trail myself until I eventually decided to make a prolonged stay in this area instead. With that not working I’m not sure I want to attempt the Cape Wrath Trail if it means returning to this horrendous valley.

Towards the top of the pass the improving weather meant there were some relatively good views down the valley and I couldn’t help wondering whether I ought to have stayed in Glen Dessary where I might yet have got a good walk up the mountains that I had come to this valley to visit. However I no longer had the will to be in Glen Dessary so it was with enormous relief that I passed over the windy bealach and down into lovely Glen Finnan that is so markedly different to Glen Dessary it is astonishing to see the contrast. Slowly as my sanity began to return to me after the horrors of Glen Dessary I made my way down the valley through the warm weather under the railway viaduct and past all the tourists back onto the main road. Passing the Glenfinann monument I continued along the course of the Cape Wrath Trail for a short spell beside the Callop River before heading across the main road once again, under the railway line and headed up Gleann Dubh Lighe until I eventually reached a bothy. These three days in Glen Dessary had been a nightmare, but in Gleann Dubh Lighe I found release from what had been plaguing my mind.