Meall Buidhe

Thursday 7th June 2012

Despite expecting bad weather to finally break my holiday, bright sunshine continued as I once again set off alongside the Inverie River through the wild Knoydart peninsula. There are three Munros (mountains above three thousand feet in Scotland) in the Knoydart area, and I’d walked up two of them over the previous couple of daysm which left the final Munro, Meall Buidhe, for my last day in Knoydart. This is not a big mountain (in terms of area), and in fact its name translates as ‘yellow hill’. Nearby is a mountain that translates as ‘yellow mountain’, that being Beinn Bhuidhe, which is a much more expansive mountain even though it’s only a Corbett (a mountain in Scotland between two and a half and three thousand feet). I considered including Beinn Bhuidhe in this walk, but eventually abandoned the idea, and harmed what could have been a great walk. When planning for this holiday I had thought of making Beinn Bhuidhe one of my targets for a walk and I think it would have been a great walk, but not if I’d tried to tag it onto its neighbour Meall Buidhe. Ultimately this walk was decided the day before when I didn’t walk along the ridge between Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe, and that was decided by not walking between Sgurr Coire Choinichean and Ladhar Bheinn. What a convoluted mess!

This walk started just like the previous two with a walk along Gleann an Dubh-Lochain, a stunning valley that I was beginning to appreciate in many ways. Before reaching Dubh-Lochain I branched off the main track onto a path that crosses the Inverie River before making its way over the Màm Meadail pass. I soon turned off the path and crossed the Allt Gleann Meadail stream making my way straight for the western tip of Meall Buidhe. My Harvey Map indicated a path up the steep ridge, but I had difficulty following it at first, and even needed to consult my GPS at one point. Eventually, I managed to find the slender path that climbs the steep ridge of Druim Righeanaich and finally reached the top of the crags, only to see what lay ahead of me: long grassy slopes that led all the way up to the summit. This is the sort of thing I love in descent but in ascent I find it just too tedious as they seem to drag, so I was soon thinking that I should have done this walk in the other direction. The views behind me along the lush-green valley to Inverie and out to sea were stunning, but I would have appreciated them more if I was looking at them all the time rather than only when I stopped and turned around.

The clear skies were a soft blue while the sea was a lovely deep blue across the Inner Sound all the way to the mountains of Rùm on the horizon. The views were enchanting in the good weather. Very slowly I made my way along the grassy ridge all the way up to the summit. This holiday started with me having a lot of problems with fatigue while going uphill, possibly due to lack of sleep or simply because of the heat. Despite getting plenty of sleep and with cooler temperatures I was still not climbing the hills as quickly as I once did. Rejecting the possibility that I’m getting old, I assume I’m just not as fit as I once was. My legs were lacking the strength to haul myself up the hills very quickly, which is probably due to a lack of exercise, particularly of the hill-walking variety, when I’m not on holiday. My walking companion around Loch Ossian did a lot of running and despite being a little older than me was easily able to climb the mountains. Maybe age does have something to do with it – if I want to continue going up mountains in the way that I’m used to, I can no longer get away with sporadic walks up hills. I may even have to take up running …

Very, very slowly I made my way up to the summit of Meall Buidhe where I had my lunch with the typical stunning Scottish mountain panorama all around me. I couldn’t help thinking that this was the last Munro of my Scottish holiday this year; I wouldn’t be seeing the sweep of Scottish mountains as far as the eye could see again until next year. Not far from where I was sitting, just across the Carnach valley, are the Munros of Sgurr na Ciche and Garbh Chioch Mhor where I went for a long tiring walk in 2008. These are difficult to reach mountains that required a long drive beside Loch Arkaig before a long walk along Glen Dessary. I managed to get as far as Garbh Chioch Mhor in poor weather but had been forced to to turn back before reaching Sgurr na Ciche because of time and the remoteness of the location. On that occasion I never saw the illusive Munro, but now I could clearly see the sharp-peaked mountain. I wonder if I will ever finally reach the top. There are people who would not be happy until they have bagged every Munro in the area, but I’ve never been that concerned about bagging Munros. All I’m interested in is a good walk over good terrain with good views.

On leaving the summit of Meall Buidhe I crossed over to the south-east top, a Munro Top, and had a quick look along the ridge to Luinne Bheinn. I’ve heard that the ridge between Meall Buidhe and Luinne Bheinn is a navigational challenge, even in good weather. I might have had a great walk along that ridge, which I should really have done the day before, but should I have corrected that by turning left at this moment onto the steep rugged ridge? We’ll never know. I turned right down the south-eastern ridge towards Sgurr Sgeithe. After the ground levelled off the path I was following disappeared and I was left with a steep, pathless, crag-filled slope all the way down to Màm Meadail, so gingerly I made my way down the ridiculously steep grassy slope. By the time I got down to the pass I didn’t feel like prolonging the walk over Beinn Bhuidhe, where there appeared to be no path, so I just followed the good path all the way back to Inverie. I was just too tired to want to attempt the broad ridge. Beinn Bhuidhe should be climbed as the sole target of the day and not tagged onto another. It’s just a shame that I didn’t plan this walk better as the walk that I did would have been much better done in the opposite direction. My walks in Knoydart could all have been better organised, but I still managed to climb all three Munros in the area, plus a Corbett, and all in brilliant weather. I shouldn’t complain.

Sgurr Coire Choinnichean and Luinne Bheinn

Wednesday 6th June 2012

While the rest of the country was suffering from torrential rain in June, the west coast of Scotland was escaping it all so I was once again setting off for a good walk in brilliant weather. Although it clouded over later in the day, the weather for this walk never deteriorated so much that it prevented me from walking up a Corbett and a Munro in the stunning scenery of the Knoydart peninsula. This walk was dictated by the need to return to Inverie in the middle of the day to buy some food, specifically the local venison from the community shop that was not open early or late enough for me to visit before or after a walk. Two shorter walks were therefore required rather than one long walk. To start I climbed the Corbett that I’d failed to include in my ascent of Ladhar Bheinn the previous day. Sgurr Coire Choinnichean is the steep mountain that overlooks Inverie Bay and I had decided that the best route to take up it would be straight up the ridge from Inverie, and did I soon regret that?!! This was a ridiculously steep climb through lush-green bracken and past-their-prime bluebells up a sort of a path, but was really just a struggle up an impossibly steep slope.

As I climbed higher and higher I stopped frequently for a breath, but also to get a glimpse of the increasingly stunning view that was appearing behind me. By the time the gradient eased the ridge was narrowing and the view across Inverie Bay was awe-inspiring. In the superb weather and after climbing so high so quickly I had stunning views across the bay towards Loch Nevis and out to sea. As the ridge narrowed it grew craggier and more exciting with steep drops down either side to the valley floors far below me. There was a fabulous path along the glorious ridge with stunning views under blue skies and above blue seas that made every step a joy. When I reached the summit of the Corbett I bathed in the awesome scenery and stunning views and then turned around to enjoy that great ridge all over again. Beyond the summit the ridge widens as it undulates tediously over Meall an Ullt-fhearna down to the col where I’d joined the ridge the day before, so I felt there was no hardship in missing out on this grassy ridge. Instead I returned along the narrow ridge over the western top and turned right once the ridge broadened again and descended the wide grassy slopes around the top of Slochd a’Mhogha.

The grassy slopes above Inverie Woods took me to a forest track that led me all the way back into Inverie where I bought some venison stakes, and took them to the bunkhouse where I was staying, before setting off along the track I’d taken the day before beside the Inverie River. After having my lunch beside Dubh-lochain while dark clouds began to spread across the sky I slowly made my way along the well-made path that leads all the way over the pass of Màm Barrisdale. For those walking into Knoydart this would have been the main route into the area, starting from Kinloch Hourn and passing Barrisdale Bay before climbing over the pass. This was a very well-made path, well-graded and with clever, subtle engineering in places, but is sadly now in need of repair. At the top of the pass I turned right onto a narrow path that follows a broken line of fence posts across the southern face of the Munro, Luinne Bheinn. Despite dull, overcast views, this was a great walk with great craggy scenery, but it soon became obvious to me that the path I was on was not going up to the top of Luinne Bheinn. A quick check of the map confirmed that the line of fence posts that I was following would soon start to descend into Coire Odhair, so I abandoned the faint path and climbed up a steep grassy rake.

This strenuous climb brought me near to the eastern top of Luinne Bheinn, which has three prominent tops. I was fascinated by this and enjoyed exploring the complex summit ridge. The western top, which overlooks the Dubh-lochain valley, has a fine cairn at the top, but is not the Munro, it is not the summit. My map indicated that the middle top is the highest, so I set off along the ridge until I reached a much smaller cairn that is actually the summit of the Munro. The eastern top is slightly smaller than the other two, but there is a bit of a drop before a small scramble leads up to the top. In addition to Munros there is such a thing as Munro Tops. These are Scottish Mountains above three thousand feet with a drop of more than thirty metres, but not distinct enough to make them Munros. The western top doesn’t count, despite its cairn and its prominent view from Gleann an Dubh-lochain. The central top is a Munro, but the eastern top, thanks to its drop, is a Munro Top. I’m not actually interested in Munro Tops (I’m not really interested in Munros), but the path across to the eastern top seemed too good to ignore and the views from this top, along the summit ridge of Luinne Bheinn and across Barrisdale, were worth the effort.

With rain looking likely I passed back over the summit of Luinne Bheinn and descended the steep rocky north-western slopes to the col with Bachd Mhic an Tosaich. I found a great path down the craggy slopes but it faded into nothing at the bottom of the crags so, deciding that the fence-post path I had used earlier was a sure guide back, I descended the grassy slopes until I reached my outward route. It was now straight forward for me to return to the excellent Barrisdale path and follow that all the way back into Gleann an Dubh-lochain. The rain that had looked imminent from the top of Luinne Bheinn never really materialised, despite the heavy rain that was plaguing the rest of the country. This was a long day with two great walks up two great mountains in the fantastic Knoydart area. Both mountains have interesting summit ridges, which made up for the long walk-in required to get to Luinne Bheinn. After my second day in Knoydart I was really beginning to appreciate the fun that can be had on the mountains in the area.