Inveraray Weekend

12-15 July 2024

Gail, Chris, Ken and Sandy all took advantage of the warm, dry and clear conditions on the way to Inveraray. Gail knocked off Ben Vorlich (the Loch Lomond one) and on arrival at the hostel pitched her tent and hoped the midges wouldn’t show up.

Chris and Ken travelled down together and climbed the Corbett Meall an Fhudair from Inverarnan; as expected two of the fittest in DHC arrived first at the hostel.

Sandy enjoyed the ferry trip from Gourock over to the Cowal peninsula and then climbed Cruach nan Capull; a very rough, pathless Graham and fought through shoulder height bracken to reach the top but was rewarded with views to Arran.

Saturday was to be an unusual day. Ken and Chris wanted to tackle two Corbetts – but they were not connected! They did share the same parking spot at Butterbridge and Gail set off with them to firstly climb Binnien an Fhidhleir. Chris realised early that he had ‘lost’ his phone (and we all know how much Chris likes his tech)! Chris also wanted to walk the whole mountain by going to end of the ridge to take in a lower top. Fearing that time was against them they crashed directly down the very steep and rough hillside. Gail had decided one hill was enough and walked down more sedately and later to comment that she was ‘broken’.

Meanwhile Sandy had climbed a Graham in Hell’s Glen, Cruach nam Mult. Some members may remember that this was the summit we ‘missed’ on our last DHC trip to this area. Sandy then drove the short distance to meet up with the others for the afternoon hill.

Firstly though, we had the issue with Chris’s phone. A search of the car proved fruitless but then Chris remembered that Helen would be able to track his phone and sure enough ‘find me’ was amazingly accurate and Chris and tech were reunited. A trick I need to learn.

So the three of us set off to climb Beinn an Lochain, a splendid Corbett with a great path that very quickly took us to the 901m summit. This hill looks almost impossibly steep from the road but the path makes light work of the climb and for the first time over the weekend we met other walkers. Ken also spotted a Ring Ouzel and the lofty summit gave great views down to the Rest and be Thankful and the Arrochar hills.

Gail had decided to leave us to visit her sister but she had alerted us to a Blues Festival that was taking place in the village and so after dining the three men spent an hour listening to the bands in the garden. Yes, warm enough to be outside late in the evening and no midges.

Chris left us on Sunday morning to attend an orienteering event leaving Ken and Sandy to continue climbing rough mountains in perfect weather. We drove down by Lock Eck where Ken climbed Beinn Bheula and Sandy tackled Beinn Ruadh from Puck’s Glen. A combination of Sandy’s route taking longer than expected and the fact that Ken is very fit and fast meant that Ken had a fairly long wait to get picked up again – sorry Ken!

As the weather continued to hold Ken and Sandy arranged to stay another night in the hostel.

The mainly very rough and trackless country we had tacked on the previous days led us to looking for a short day on the way home on Monday. We found it in Glen Lochy between Dalmally and Tyndrum.

Ken blasted up and down the steep side of Beinn Chuirn in record time while Sandy walked up Beinn na Sroine on the north side of the glen. We got the timings right this time and arrived back in the glen at roughly the same time.

Gail also attempted Beinn Chuirn on Monday but using the sensible Cononish route. However, Gail suffered a minor injury on the upper slopes and correctly decided to return rather than risk carrying on solo.

And so, in a wet and cold summer, we had managed to pick a great window of weather. Dry and warm all weekend with great visibility and no midges. Between us we had ticked off 14 hills; Ken leading the way with five new Corbetts.

Sandy Reid