KYQ4: Strathconon Corbetts

Sgurr a' Mhullinn and Meallan nan Uan from Bac an Eich

Tuesday, 5 June 2019

After some miserable summer weather, Tuesday was the only day forecast to be half reasonable in the week ahead and I was keen to climb some more Corbetts. I figured that I could drive up to Strathconon near Contin on Monday evening and start early the next day to climb the three Corbetts located at the end of the glen. It would require two separate walks and, according to the guide books, would take a total of 11 hours. In the past, I could confidently take 3 hours off these guide times but I was doubtful that my hill fitness was up to this or to even attempt the two outings in a day.

It was raining all Monday and I didn't fancy camping with the midges in the wet before a long day on the hills. I found a cheap Airbnb in Strathpeffer, a room in the tower of a villa. It was a mere 7' x7' and accessed by a ladder that was optimistically described as a stair. It was drier than a tent but not a place from which to attempt any nocturnal visits to the bathroom on the floor below, so I restricted myself to a pint in the nearby golf club bar where I had a reasonably priced meal. The breakfast was excellent and I was on the move by 8am for the drive from Marybank along the Strathconon single track road. Apparently, it is the longest 'strath' in Scotland at 17 miles. With folk heading for work and then the school run, I was going against the flow of traffic so it took almost an hour to reach Strathanmore, the start for the first two Corbetts of the day.

My Airbnb tower, a good value folly

Walk 1 Meallan nan Uan and Sgurr a' Mhuillinn

Ascent: 1034 metres

Distance: 10 kilometres

Time: 4 hours 28 minutes

c Meallan nan Uan 838m 2hrs 10mins

c Sgurr na Mhulinn 879m 3hrs 10mins

There is a parking place just beyond the forestry houses at Strathanmore, there was a car coming the other way that had pulled in to let me pass so I continued instead of holding up the local by attempting to manoeuvre into the tight parking spot without reversing into the adjacent ditch. I had to turn round and used the drive of a newly converted house in a former church just up the road, The American owner came out to stop her dogs barking at me and we had a friendly discussion, she seemed pleased to have a visitor to her remote abode, however fleeting or accidental. It is a beautiful glen with lots of well-maintained properties but with a 45-minute drive to get to the main road at Marybank it is far too remote for me.

The walk begins at the car park, a narrow boggy path snakes its way past a plantation before petering out. There is then another 200-metres of climbing through more boggy grass to a broad plateau at about 400 metres. It had started raining and continued for most of the morning, there was a cool breeze so the waterproof jacket served a double purpose and there was no overheating. It was the sort of slog that can put you off hill walking and then there are another 250 metres of the same type of ascent but steeper to reach Creag Ruadh, the prominent outlier of the Corbett. From here on, it is a delightful grassy ridge towards the conical peak of Meallan nan Uan, although there was not much to see in the clouds. It is not much of a cairn with a loose pile of stones marking its well-defined summit. Nothing was visible and it was raining hard so I had a quick drink before continuing the walk.

Sadly, most of the surrounding hills were in the cloud so I abandoned any thoughts of continuing to the head of the horseshoe where the two tops, Sgurr a' Choire-rainich and Sgurr a' Ghlas Leathaid, are considered fine viewpoints towards the Fannaichs and Fisherfield. It was slippy descending to the bealach at Coir' a' Mhuilinn where I crossed the burn and began the steady climb to Sgurr a' Mhuilinn with little visibility. I was beginning to move more easily as I eased into a familiar rhythm but there was little to see other than the cloud ahead. The Met Office forecast had predicted no more than 10% chance of rain and excellent visibility. It is very unusual for their forecasts for the hills to be so inaccurate.

It had cleared slightly by the time I reached the summit but it was still raining. It was not worth stopping so I began the descent down the south-easterly ridge. Although steep in parts it easy going. I crossed the raging burn at the bottom of the ridge by jumping onto a wet rock midstream and by fully swinging my other leg had the momentum to land on the other bank safely. It had been risky but I had reached the stage where getting any wetter was only marginally possible so what the hell. Surprisingly and despite the rain and boggy ground, my new Goretex trainers had kept my feet dry. I was back to where I had started the climb to Meallan nan Uan and it was a quick but boggy descent to the car. I changed shoes and ate some lunch before making a ten-minute drive to Inverchoran in heavy rain for the second walk of the day.

Start of climb at Strathanmore

Strathconon from Creag Ruadh

Meallan nan Uan from the Creag Ruadh

Meallan nan Uan summit

Looking back to Creag Ruadh from Meallan nan Uan

The bealach between Meallan nan Uan and Sgurr a' Mhuillinn

Walk 2 Bac na Eich

Ascent: 776 metres

Distance: 14 kilometres

Time: 4 hours 57minutes

c Bac na Eich 849m 2hrs 48mins

It was almost 2pm when I began the second walk of the day. I found a parking spot at the entrance of the private drive to Inverchoran Farm. There is a bridge across the impressively wide river Meig that was in full flow. The grounds of Inverchoran Farm are well kept with a field of Clydesdale horses on one side of the drive and an enclosure full of deer at the other side. The road to the farm passes by the house, which has a no entry sign that I observed to my cost. I diverted by way of the adjacent byre that is now a holiday let but then had to ford a bloated burn to reach the track up the glen. I had wet feet and I had not even completed the first kilometre.

The track rises steeply through a gorge resplendent with birch trees that help hide the conifer plantations on the other side of the river. After a kilometre or so the track drops to the river and another ford. I looked for easier crossings but my feet were already soaking so waded across and began the long walk along a path that follows the Allt Gleann Chorainn, crossing lots of smaller burns disgorging the runoff from Bac na Eich. It was raining for most of the ascent and many of the mountain tops were in the cloud. I was walking on remote, tired from the morning walk but determined to complete the Strathconon Corbetts in the day.

After 5 kilometres the path climbs steeply up a vehicle track at the head of Gleann Chorainn and a stalker's path joins to the right. It gains another 100 metres but is largely overgrown before it begins to drop down to the river Meig. There was a small cairn at the high point and from here it was necessary to take a bearing and climb another 300 metres over mainly grass and lichens to the summit. Earlier in the day, I had found this sort of climb a struggle but I found a steady pace and the sight of the trig point at the summit reeled me in. At last, the rain had stopped and for the first time all day, I spent some time at the summit admiring the hills of the morning as a rainbow glided down Strathconon. The white fluffy remnants of the clouds rolled across the summits and distant hills that had been invisible a few minutes earlier loomed as dark wavy blue shapes lit up by shafts of sunlight.

I decided against returning by the same route, it had been tedious and contemplated either taking a direct descent to Loch Toll Lochain below or following the ridge down to Sgurr Toll Lochain. With the skies brightening I chose the latter and it was a reasonable route although peat hags slowed things down along the ridge and the descent down the sharp eastern slope of Sgurr Toll Lochain tested the quads and knees. Thereafter there was an easy traverse down to the glen. I forded the burn as the heavens opened and gave me a soaking during the final couple of kilometres back to the car. The rain was too heavy to strip down outside so I had to change my entire clothing inside the car before beginning the 200-mile journey home. I was pleased that I had managed the two walks in just over 9 hours and thought I would struggle to stay awake on the drive home. On the contrary, the A9 was quiet and it was one of the rare times that it was possible to put the car into cruise control and give my feet a rest. I made it home by 11pm feeling pretty good considering the toil of the day.

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