KYQ4: Sguman Coinntich

Nice pins on Vanessa Trig Point Sguman Coinntich summit

Thursday, 27 August 2020

Ascent: 1330 metres

Distance: 24 kilometres

Time: 8 hours 56 minutes

Sguman Coinntich 879m 2hrs 27mins

Faochaig 868m 5hrs 7mins

After a week of rain and wind, there seemed to be a brief respite with the northern highlands supposedly dry with a cool north easterly wind dispersing the August midges. I trust the Met Office forecasts so decided on a two-day raid for some of the more inaccessible Corbetts near Loch Duich. Unfortunately, the forecasts were about as accurate as Matt Hancock, who has been the government's specialist in making unfulfilled promises into an art form during the pandemic.

I left home before 7am for the 165-mile drive to Killilan, a small estate settlement at the head of Loch Long and the start of the remote Glen Elchaig that leads to Iron Lodge. The early part of the drive to Ballachulish was on near empty, rain-drenched roads but by 8:30am the camper vans were beginning to swarm and the drive to Dornie was in a slow cavalcade of trucks and motor homes. I had never been to Killilan before and the sheer scale of new developments on the 5 miles alongside Loch Long from Dornie to Killilan surprised me. Highland Council has always been generous in allowing development in the countryside and this was very evident.

I parked at the well-specced car park at the entrance to the Inverinate Estate formerly owned by Wills Tobacco but now owned by the King of Dubai. It is about 600 metres from the car park to the pristine landscapes of the estate buildings. There is a post box and telephone box from where a path runs alongside the burn and eventually reaches a track climbing alongside the Allt a' Choire Mhoir. It is a steady climb over rough stony ground. It was sheltered from the wind but clammy with grey clouds offering no prospect of the Met Office being correct. I crossed the burn by Teanga Dubh, a tongue of land between two burns, and then began a long steepish climb heading south-east to the ridge of Sguman Cointich that was lost in cloud. The rain began before I reached the ridge at 750 metres. The fine views back down Loch Long had disappeared and the map on my phone had to be safely placed in a waterproof bag and secured in a pocket.

Visibility by the summit was down to about 50 metres but the famous Vanessa Trig Point that stands on it last legs was a welcome sight. I hunkered down below the summit and had a cheese roll, orange and some water. I knew that the next leg of the walk would be a hard slog with no paths, some boggy ground and a couple of stiff climbs to reach Faochaig. A couple of hundred metres along the ridge I came across a weather station, just what I needed but it proved difficult to get the latest Met Office forecast, so I assumed wet and cloudy and stopped to put on my waterproof trousers, which I dislike but there seemed no joy in having wet trousers for the next five hours or so.

As I descended the east ridge I emerged from the cloud but could not make any sense of the formless shapes ahead. For quite a while I had assumed that the slopes of Sron na Gaoithe were the lower slopes of Faochaig but when I reached the top of this ridge I realised I had another kilometre to go before I could start the final climb. I had dropped down to 650 metres as I rounded the top of Coireag Searrach and started the final pull up to Faochaig. It was still raining and the summit was in the cloud.

It had taken longer than anticipated, partly a result of having to stop and confirm my bearing every ten minutes or so. Another wet summit but a chance for some food and a drink before what would be a long and probably very tedious descent. It was 4:30pm and I assumed I could make it back by 7:30pm, sufficient time to find a campsite and dry off. I had to use a compass to find my way back off the hill, visibility was less than 50 metres. I skirted to the south of the Sron na Gaoithe ridge making for the gap in the crags between Creag nan Eilid and the escarpment further to the west. There was a path starting above Loch nan Ealachan that seemed to take a good line down to the glen. The guidebooks had recommended the stalker's path down to Carnach, I now know why.

The drop of 200 metres to the Loch nan Ealachan was through rock bands, feet squelching through the bog to a path that was a bog pitted with rocks, cavorting through the terrain like a late-night drunk. At least I was out of the cloud and for an hour the rain subsided so I could take off my waterproof. I hit the track along Glen Elchaig at about 7pm, it was just 6 kilometres back to the car on a freshly asphalted track, thanks to the King of Dubai. I had seen no one all day and that remained the case all the way back to the car. I stripped off my sodden gear, towelled myself dry and became a feast for the midges.

I had no dry gear for tomorrow, did I want to spend a night in the tent with a few thousand midges? Where was the wind that the Met Office had forecast? As I reached the A87 I decided that I would prefer to drive home rather than subjecting myself to the torture of a wet night with midges, a sure sign of age! The other advantage was that the roads would be free of motor homes. And so it was, the journey back, even in the dark and constant rain was 45 minutes quicker than the dance with the traffic on the way up in the morning. I was home by midnight.