Back through Coire Lair

Thursday 30th May 2019

For the last walk of my holiday in Scotland I set off from the Torridon camp site under overcast skies following overnight rain. The day before I had enjoyed fabulous weather but it had now deteriorated, though I was not too bothered by this as my plan was simply to walk back to the railway station at Achnashellach and so begin my journey home. At least it wasn’t raining as I walked beside the road across the foot of Glen Torridon into the small settlement of Annat where I expected to find the path that climbs into the Coulin Forest. Although I had taken this route out of Torridon in 2009 I couldn’t find the path, and my map couldn't help me either . After passing all the way through Annat I’d almost given up hope and thought I must have passed the sign when, just beyond Annat, I came across the path that is clearly signposted for the hill path to Achnashellach via Coire Lair. This is an excellent route that gently climbs above Glen Torridon into the mountains of the Coulin Forest while behind me grey views opened out across Upper Loch Torridon with the mountain giants of Torridon on the far side veiled under cloaks of cloud.

The Coulin Forest rejoices in many splendid paths that snake all over the area, but are never invasive or ruinous to the surroundings. Their narrow paths work with the terrain snaking around the boggy ground and over the rocks providing me with a good, dry surface to walk along even though the weather was less than perfect. Ten years ago I had brilliant weather for this walk and even though I was not so fortunate this time I still enjoyed the walk as I followed the path over the Allt nan Corp, past Carn Dhonnachadh and up the valley towards the Munro of Maol Chean-dearg that brooded darkly ahead. While remembering my walk up that hill in 2014 I passed between two small lochans to reach the grand mountain tarn of Loch an Eoin, and reflected that I didn’t need to reach the summit of a mountain to have an enjoyable walk. While passing Loch an Eoin I found some boggy sections of the path, and in those parts were cycle tracks that show the popularity of this area with mountain bikers, though I was tempted to wonder if it might be the bicycles themselves that have damaged the path. When I reached the top of Bealach na Lice the view opened out ahead of me down the bleak valley of Coire Fionnaraich and ignoring the path that descends into the valley, I turned around Meall Dearg and crossed the top of the valley.

The path up to Bealach Bàn is badly eroded and since I don’t remember it being in such a poor state last time I was at this point, it must have happened during the notoriously bad weather of the last five years, most notably in December 2015. It is a pity that some of the otherwise excellent paths in the Coulin Forest have been damaged and nothing so far has been done to repair the damage, and not forgetting the path up to the top of Coire Lair that I passed on the previous Monday that also showed similar erosion. I was now passing around the northern slopes of the Munro Sgorr Ruadh, with the low lying Meall Dearg to my left. There are startling runs of white quartzite stones down the western slopes of Stuc a’ Choire Ghrannda, below Sgorr Ruadh, that can be seen from far away including, as I could attest from the day before, from the slopes of Beinn Alligin. On a sunny day they shine out and attract the eye while the rocks behind towards the summit of the Munro are a much duller, red sandstone that do not have the same appeal especially in the increasingly murky weather that I was encountering on this walk. After crossing the quartzite scree runs I came round into Coire Grannda where I joined the route that I had taken the previous Monday on my way into Torridon.

When I reached the top of the pass between Coire Grannda and Coire Lair I stopped in a sheltered spot from the cold wind and had an early lunch wrapping myself up against the inclement weather. In 2009 I had turned left at this point to walk along the fabulous mountain ridge of Beinn Liath Mhòr, but I had no such thoughts on this walk as the weather was far too bad. The word that came into my mind when I set off from the top of the pass was that it was ‘primal’, that there was something about being high up a mountainside when the weather is that poor that reduces all ones thinking to the very basics of keeping warm and dry, and finding a safe route off the mountain. It is quite exciting and challenging to be up a mountain in those conditions and it is really satisfying when you succeed in overcoming the bad weather with adequate clothing and good navigation takes you safely off the mountain. In this case the weather barely qualified as being primal and I had a clear, though initially heavily eroded, path that easily took me back down into the valley of Coire Lair to warmer and more sheltered weather.

Once the gradient eased it was a pleasure to walk through Coire Lair and even more so when the terrain steepened once again as the excellent path drops over rocky ground. I absolutely loved zooming down that path, even though I had plenty of time I enjoyed every moment of the steep, craggy descent that brought into the Achnashellach Forest. Even though the weather was poor and I didn’t reach the summit of any mountain I thoroughly enjoyed this walk, which just shows that it’s not where you walk to, but how you get there, and the paths through the Coulin Forest are fabulous. The weather on my holiday in Scotland was mixed, as you should be expect, but I was overjoyed to find some good weather on my return to Torridon for a few days when I was able to walk up some of the great mountains that are in this area.