Glencoe : 10-12th July
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
We were down to only three members for this outing, Chris, Roddy and Bill, staying in the Glencoe Youth Hostel. It’s been quite a few years since I last stayed here but it’s a great hostel (or maybe that’s just due to the welcome contrast with the Ariundle hostel in Strontian from two weeks earlier! – see last blog), an excellent location for many hills and just down the road from the famous Clachaig Inn.
The weather forecast was warm and sunny for Friday so all three of us decided to do a walk on the drive over. Bill went solo to climb Garbh Bheinn from Loch Leven which was reportedly “very tough”. Chris and Roddy arranged to meet at the Kingshouse Hotel to climb Beinn a Chrulaiste but after discovering the parking charges were £25 for over two hours we quickly re-arranged the parking spot for a mile down the road. It was a steep climb to the summit and the heat made it hard going but we were well rewarded with great views of the Buachaille Etives
The return route became extremely boggy after descending to the Allt a Bhalaich burn and our boots were absolutely saturated after continuous submersion. Although there was not a raindrop in sight and no need to dry wet clothes we decided to test the hostel claims about their drying room with our boots and socks (It was a good one by the way!).
Contribution from Roddy follows.
There had been talk of doing Aonach Eagach and its famous ridge for the Saturday, since the weather was looking calm and sunny over the weekend. This would have done a visit to the noble and emotive glen justice. However, Saturday was the long walk day and with cloud down about 800m and shrouding the Munros (and with one of the party - Roddy - untested in Grade 3 scrambling) [Editor’s note: Walkhighlands puts this as Grade 2/3 whereas BMC have it grade 2] it was a suggestion of Bill’s to do another, less testing route. While Chris had an objective in mind with his own far-flung Corbett, Bill’s plan would mean taking in a Corbett first, and then the Munro Sgor na h-Ulaidh. Having had an extensive walk the previous day, Bill could then call it after the Corbett, as to whether to do the full route. However, having hardly left the lay-by, it was clear that someone else was walking the same route and would be about the same pace. After talking, it seemed the right thing to do to merge the two parties. So, Roddy, Bill, and now Steve Murray, a walker from Harrogate who was on Munro 257, set out first to climb Meall Lighiche. The top to this was reached after an ascent through rough grass and a fairly simple ridge but the cloud was down even here. All three descended and Roddy and Steve went on to summit Sgor na h-Ulaidh on the other side of the glen, while Bill followed the river down, walking back to the hostel.
Summit View
Before this, all three had looked up at the horseshoe containing the Munro and joked that the best place to descend from the cloud was to turn left at the pink rocks. As it happened, after a strenuous ascent and a walk along the ridge, there was a large cairn of pink rocks showing the way down and Roddy and Steve returned, a few other walkers on the way, and headed for the Clachaig Inn.
Back to Chris.
On Saturday Chris decided to solo climb the remote Corbett Fraochaidh, starting from the public car park in Ballachulish. Quite a big day for single Corbett with a distance of 23 km and climb of 1,250 metres. Thankfully it was a cooler day than Friday with the cloud base at about 750 meters. This made for pleasant walking and great views down to Glen Creran, of Loch Linnhe and back towards the River Laroch from the undulating mostly grassy ridge. It was only the last 0.5 km to the summit that was in cloud so pretty fortunate really. I only saw one other person, a dog walker near the start, the whole day.
On Saturday evening we had the customary visit to the Clachaig for our evening meal. As expected, it was absolutely heaving with tourists, and we just had to join the long queue for the bar to place our orders.
Roddy again
On the Sunday, a required early return home for Roddy left only a couple of hours to do a short scamper up a steep eroded path by a gully opposite the Clachaig. A varied and absorbing sortie to Glencoe indeed!
Glencoe is certainly an awe-inspiring place with some fantastic walking but I’d say next time it would be better to avoid the holiday season as all the roads and car parks were extremely busy, but fortunately still not the hills.
Chris with thanks to Roddy
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