Glenfinnan Munros: Sgurr Thuilm and Sgurr nan Coreachan

Glen Finnan viaduct

Sgurr nan Coireachan looking over the broad ridge from the 852m crag

Sgurr na Ciche/Garbh Chioch Mhor from the ridge between the two munros

The undulating ridge between the two munros - Sgurr Thuilm at the end

Sgurr Thuilm with Sgurr na Ciche behind

Loch Arkaig and Sgurr Mhurlagain from Sgurr Thuilm

Stanier Class 5 on Glenfinnan viaduct

Saturday, 24 May 2014
Ascent:      1495 metres 
Distance:   23 kilometres
Time:         6 hours 29 minutes

Sgurr nan Coireachan     956m      2hrs 20mins
Sgurr Thuilm                  963m      4hrs 20mins

We were up early, Gregor and I dived out of the tent pitched by the river at Drumsallie and packed furiously, John was equally anxious to make a speedy escape . The midges were as fierce as I can ever remember, where is the wind when you want it. My hands looked like they had been painted by George Seurat with the red spots persisting all day. It was only a couple of miles to drive to the start of our walk at Glenfinnan but the midges were still in spate. We quickly threw some food and kit into our rucksacks and put on our walking gear. We began the walk at pace to escape the clouds of ravenous female midges that were breakfasting on us, our breakfast would have to wait. The estate manager was driving down the glen in his Land Rover and asked us the purpose of our visit, all very friendly. There had been a large increase in walkers and he was conducting an informal survey. It seemed that the Cape Wrath Trail was providing a third of the walkers, the rest heading for the two munros that we had scheduled for today.

We were passed by another early morning munroist on a bike, he was on his fifth round and seemed to be pedalling well on it. At the bothy we stopped and searched our rucksacks for some breakfast, I found an apple and constructed a cheese roll. Then another half kilometre and we were at the start of the path up to Sgurr nan Coireachan. It ascends by traversing to the east of the hill towards the outlier, Sgurr a' Choire Riabhaich. A lovely ridge leads up from here to a stiff climb leading to a knoll at 852 metres. As we sat taking a drink an eagle appeared above and went through its repertoire of aerial manoeuvres. I normally expect to see two eagles a year but this was two in two days.

We arrived at the summit in glorious sunny conditions and the views were pretty good too. I managed to get some water from some nearby snowmelt and we chatted for a while, it was still morning. The walk across to Sgurr Thuilm involves four intermediate summits and an undulating walk, rocky at first but becoming increasingly easy as the final slope to Sgurr Thuilm is reached. By the time we arrived at Sgurr Thuilm, walkers began to appear from the other direction. We met a couple at the summit and had a long discussion about running. He was the treasurer of my old running club and tried to persuade Gregor to join them. John and I had been telling him to join a running club for years, he has the potential to be a very good runner.

Our next objective was to get down and home by 7 p.m. so we could shower and eat before the European Cup Final. Gregor went charging off as I stopped to fill up with water and was not seen again until we reached the car. We followed the grassy ridge down Drum Coire a' Bheithe, fairly steep most of the way and still very boggy lower down but nevertheless a quick descent. I caught up with a fit-looking older walker as he reached his mountain bike and we chatted for a while, he was completing his third round despite an artificial knee but thought that he would leave it at that. He told me that he had been passed on the hill by a young man going like a bat out of hell, which sounded like Gregor. John was making a more sedate descent as his knee was giving him some trouble after three days of Munro bashing.

There were a number of walkers coming up the glen on the Cape Wrath Trail. I kept a good pace over the 6-kilometre walk out down the glen but just missed the steam train returning across the viaduct from Mallaig. Gregor had heard it and managed to get up to the viewpoint to get photos. I marvelled at the viaduct, designed by Sir Robert McAlpine and the first major structure built of unreinforced concrete. It was built in 1897 in just a year. I remember discussing it during a previous outing (1998) with a Scottish Office colleague responsible for the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI). He remarked that it would take at least five times as long to build under a PFI, not because of design or engineering problems but all because of the time delays from legal and finance negotiations. We made it home by 6:30 p.m. with the traffic in Fort William and Glencoe all going in the other direction.

Route - clockwise