Ciste Dhudh

Friday 2nd September 2016

During my first walking holiday in Scotland, back in 2004 when I did the West Highland Way, I bought a copy of Ralph Storer’s “100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains” and ever since then this has been my inspiration whenever I have been in Scotland. This definitive guidebook has directed me up over a hundred Munros and more than ten years later I am still working my way through that book. When I first came to Glen Shiel, in 2008, I was astonished by the huge number of walks that Ralph Storer describes in the area, and I knew at the time that I was going to be returning to Glen Shiel many times over the following years. Eight years after first coming to Glen Shiel I was back again and still attempting to do all the walks described by Ralph Storer in the area, starting with walk number forty-four: Ciste Dhudh. This walk actually goes over two mountains: one a Corbett, Am Bathach, which is a mountain between two and a half and three thousand feet high, and the other is the Munro, over three thousand feet high, that lends the walk its title.

The weather continued to be unkind to me on this walk as it was throughout this holiday. I couldn’t believe how lucky I had been three months before when I was in the Cairngorms as I’d enjoyed fabulous weather, but now Scotland was reverting more to its usual weather with strong winds and frequent rain. At the start of this day it was pouring with rain, again, as I drove up gorgeous Glen Shiel to a small layby just beyond the Cluanie Inn for my walk up Ciste Dhudh. Once the rain had stopped I started to climb the wet, muddy, grassy slopes of Am Bathach heading straight up from the road and before too long the sun had come out. I was more than happy to see the sun and embraced it warm-heartedly by lathering up with sun cream in anticipation of sunny weather all day, but I was being far too naïve as unfortunately the weather was very changeable on this walk, and the sun did not stay out. At this point it was looking great with the sun glistening on Loch Cluanie behind me and the hills around the top of Glen Shiel basking in the sunshine.

It wasn’t long before it started to rain again so I had to put my waterproofs back on and traipsed up the hill onto the summit ridge with the two tops of Am Bathach in view before me and Ciste Dhudh hiding in the dark background behind. The rain continued to fall as I made my way along the ridge over the southern top and over the summit of the Corbett. My map indicates a cairn on the first top, but when I got there it seemed to have vanished only to appear on the actual summit after crossing the interesting, grassy ridge in between through the wet, miserable conditions. During the long descent from the summit, Ciste Dhudh had been brooding under dark clouds and I wondered if the weather was ever going to improve. However before I reached the bottom of Bealach a’Chòinich I glimpsed a hint of blue sky and literally jumped in the air for joy! By the time I was at the bottom of the pass the sun had come out and the rain had stopped. After crossing the complex, boggy bealach I had gorgeous sunny views behind me of Am Bathach and the Munro of Aonach Meadhoin to me left, which was being illuminated gloriously.

Despite the fabulous views the ground under my feet was saturated, which made for a tricky ascent as it was difficult to get a grip on the steep, boggy ground. (Actually Ralph Storer doesn’t recommend doing this walk in wet conditions due to the steep grassy slopes.) As I climbed the slopes of Ciste Dhudh, strong, cold winds began to blow that forced me to keep away from the top of the narrowing ridge and keep my eyes firmly on the ground to be sure of my footing. Strong winds had plagued me during the previous day on a narrow ridge and once again I was unable to enjoy a great mountain due to the weather, even though the sun was shining. There is nothing you can do to counter strong winds, which makes them really frustrating. Even though the sun was shining I was still wrapped up in my waterproofs as protection from the cold winds struggling to keep going along the narrow ridge, so I felt as if I wasn’t really being able to enjoy the spectacularly ridge as much as I could have done due to the wind. Keeping my head down I continued to climb the narrow ridge until eventually I reached the summit cairn of the Munro, Ciste Dhudh, where I had my lunch.

I could see rain falling in the distance around me, but while I was at the top of Ciste Dhudh I was in an oasis of sunshine with fabulous views. The top of Glen Affric was looking fine, but the best views were to the west towards the Five Sisters of Kintail, which were looking picturesque seen from behind rather than from their usual vantage of Mam Ratagan and I couldn’t help thinking that the Five Sisters looked better from this direction, even if only for the novelty. Even though it was only lunch time Ralph Storer’s route now directed me to come down off Ciste Dhudh and head back towards my car, which I was loathed to do since the weather seemed so good, but there seemed little alternative. With hindsight, I think I could have returned to Bealach a’Chòinich and climbed the long slopes of Sgùrr an Fhuarail to reach the Munro of Aonach Meadhoin. This would have made a good round of An Caorann Beag, but instead I descended steep, grassy slopes to the top of An Caorann Mór. Ahead of me was the steep slopes of Mullach Fraoch-choire and I briefly considered climbing up there, but when I saw how steep the grassy slopes were I turned right at the top of the pass and headed towards the road down the valley on a boggy path that eventually improved.

The biggest problem with this walk was that it was too short, even though Ralph Storer had said that it would take six and a half hours and I finished the walk in not much less than that. The rain returned during my long descent down the valley, which maybe justified my sticking to the proscribed route. The fantastic weather that I’d enjoyed on Ciste Dhudh was now a distant memory with the miserable weather of Am Bathach soon reasserting itself. The long descent gave me time to reflect on this walk and the two mountains that were climbed on it, one a Corbett and the other a Munro. I had enjoyed the ridge walk on Am Bathach, despite the rain, and the ridge on Ciste Dhudh was spectacular despite the strong winds. The sun came out, once again, before I reached my car and since there was still a lot of the afternoon left I drove down Glen Shiel and up Ratagan Pass to the usual vantage point for the Five Sisters of Kintail. This fabulous chain of mountains was looking majestic sitting in the dappled sunshine, but I still wondered whether the view from the other side with no houses or roads in sight was not better.

Beinn Sgritheall

Thursday 1st September 2016

Before this year I had not been to the top of a Scottish mountain for two years and even before that I had already begun favouring long distance walking as opposed to climbing mountains. However on my last holiday in Scotland, in May/June, I was fortunate to enjoy good weather that gave me the opportunity to go up a few mountains and I was in awe of the experience. I had forgotten how great it is to be at the top of a Scottish mountain in good weather, so when planning for this holiday I wanted to go up as many mountains as possible, but I have found that the reason why I had fallen out of favour of going up mountains in Scotland is because the weather is often poor. The top of a mountain in good weather is the best place that anyone can be, but in bad weather it can be the worst. On this holiday I got some rather poor weather that put my memories of good weather earlier in the year firmly into the dim and distant past. I was in Scotland specifically to go up mountains, but I was experiencing weather that didn’t make me want to be up there.

When I left Torridon at the beginning of this day the weather was pretty awful and after driving over several mountain passes on single track roads I eventually reached the delightful, but isolated coastal village of Arnisdale on the shores of Loch Hourn. It was still raining with low clouds everywhere, so there wasn’t a soul in sight. This is the sort of miserable weather where no one in their right mind would go out and I sat in my car also not wanting to go out into the terrible weather. I questioned my sanity as I finally got out of the car and set off up the footpath that begins near the village climbing the steep hillside above. My bold move was soon rewarded as the rain stopped and held off until the end of my walk and afforded me with a much better day than I had feared. I was climbing Beinn Sgritheall, a Munro that has very steep slopes that fall precipitously all the way down from the summit to the shores of Loch Hourn.

The path above Arnisdale was very steep, very boggy and badly eroded, which made this quite a struggle for me to climb the grassy slopes even as the views slowly began to improve across Loch Hourn towards the beautiful Knoydart peninsula. Ladhar Bheinn though, and the other Knoydart mountains, were firmly enclosed in clouds as I slowly dragged myself up the steep slopes into the mountain pass of Bealach Arnasdail. To my right were the steep, craggy slopes of the Corbett, Beinn na h-Eaglaise, but my attention was on the Munro, Beinn Sgritheall, to my left, that was showing me steep grassy slopes and looked impregnable. A thin path took a good route up the steep slopes until it deteriorated into a crawl straight up, but the climb was more than compensated by the improving views as the clouds lifted from the surrounding hills to reveal the quintessentially Scottish view of row upon row of mountains as far as the eye can see. By the time I reached the 906 metre eastern top of Beinn Sgritheall, the views east over the top of Beinn na h-Eaglaise and towards the mountains of Kintail were amazing.

The views all around me were fabulous despite the grey, overcast skies with even the Knoydart mountains now clear of clouds. Ahead of me Beinn Sgritheall beckoned me on with a seemingly easy ridge to traverse, but as I neared the bottom of the col between the two tops I was blasted by ferocious winds that knocked me off the top of the ridge northwards and forced me to desperately find some shelter in order to recover from the shock. I took this opportunity to have my lunch in this cold and windy location before girding my loins for another attempt at the summit. I may have had clear views but the weather was still very poor as I struggled against the tremendous winds on the narrowing ridge. I was still battling against the strong winds when I reached the spot where the ridge becomes precipitously narrow and exposed falling three thousand feet almost straight down to sea which forced me to be very careful as I fought against the wind up the steep, narrow ridge until eventually I reached the summit of the Munro of Beinn Sgritheall.

The best of the views were now west out to sea towards the Isle of Skye with the ridge below me descending steeply with a good path that weaves cunningly through the steep crags. It was an absolute pleasure for me to make my way slowly down this great path with those fabulous views before me. I was now sheltered from the wind so the hardships that I had endured during the ascent were forgotten as I basked in this wonderful descent down the craggy slopes with that great view towards Skye before me. Eventually I reached the small lake of Lochan Bhealach Ràrsaidh where I veered left off the ridge onto a path that heads down the steep slopes below Beinn Sgritheall. Initially this was a great path through gorgeous purple-flowering heather with good views looking up to the top of Beinn Sgritheall, which was dramatically showing off its sheer slopes, but it wasn’t long before the weather began to reassert itself with clouds slowly descending onto the top of Beinn Sgritheal again. I was fortunate to have had clear views from the summit on this poor weather day.

Lower down the path entered a young wood and weaveed a fascinating, though steep, course through the trees, but on the other side of the wood the path deteriorated becoming boggier and was dominated by bracken so that I was enormously relieved when I eventually reached the road some distance west of the village of Arnisdale. This had been a challenging walk on paths that were not in the best of conditions, though the descent was not as bad as the ascent. Many guidebook writers recommend doing the walk in the other direction, but I had decided to stick with Ralph Storer’s route and I’m glad that I did because the walk benefitted enormously by having that view across to the Isle of Skye on the descent. Beinn Sgritheall is a good mountain with a memorably steep climb and sheer slopes that were quite an experience, especially in strong winds. Poor weather at the start of this walk had not made me want to go, but once I was on this steeply-sided mountain I was richly rewarded with stunning views that reminded me that Scottish mountains can be great places to be even when the weather is poor.