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.