KYQ4: Beinn Bhan, Applecross

Beinn Bhan and its Coires from the east

Monday,14 March 2016
Ascent: 791 metres
Distance: 15 kilometres
Time: 5 hours 44 minutes

c Sgurr a' Chaorachain 792m 1hr 3mins
c Beinn Bhan 896m 3hrs 34mins

This was the finest morning of the year so far as we woke in the superb cottage by Loch Carron. We decided to climb the two Applecross corbetts, Beinn Bhan and Sgurr a' Chaorachain. The drive round Loch Carron gave us the chance to see the north west highlands at their scintillating best. There were two couples so we took both cars to the foot of the Applecross road and dropped one there. The Bealach Bhan road was quite busy for an early March morning with a few cyclists testing themselves on gradients that used to defeat cars in the 1950's. My father had to reverse his ageing Rover 75 up the steepest section in the early 1970's on one of my parents many incident packed Scottish holidays.

Arriving at the summit we soaked in the views across to Skye and then booted up for the day's walk. Our wives continued on to Applecross to explore the shell sand beaches and to have an al fresco lunch in the excellent hotel whilst John and I began the climb up the track to the TV transmitter. I had been here a couple of years ago in the evening after travelling on the coast road from Shieldaig and I decided to run out to the corbett, Sgurr a Chaorachain, or so I thought. It was only on checking on a map later that I realised the cairn that I had reached beyond the TV mast, whilst almost the same height as the summit, was two kilometres of undulating ridge away from the true summit.

A couple of four wheel drive vehicles passed us going up the track to the TV mast before we turned off the track to head south to find the real summit. There were large patches of snow between the old red sandstone outcrops and the walking was illuminated by spectacular views into Coire a' Chaorachain including the massive cliffs that had been first climbed by Tom Patey and Chris Bonnington. Arriving at the summit was to reach the perfect perch for a long lazy lunch. It was still too early so we spun out the time taking photographs and then taking some food before the long leg over to Beinn Bhan. We retraced our steps to near the TV mast and then headed north for 3 kilometres over tricky rocky, boggy and heather strewn ground to Bealach nan Arr. It took a long time with constantly undulating ground, hidden dips, rock ledges, boulders and bog impeding our way.

The next leg was a 300 metre climb to the summit of Beinn Bhan climbing over rocky ground that was interspersed with long bands of soft snow. The gradient lessened as we climbed and eventually we arrived at the large cairn sitting on the long north to south summit ridge of Beinn Bhan. It had taken two and a half hours so we finished whatever food we had and began to take in the views and then explore the eastern edge of the ridge where the famous five corries scallop out the ridge. There were cornices all along the edge and the A' Chioch ridge looked unscaleable in the conditions.

We eventually and reluctantly started the long descent to the south, exploring the edge of the ridge and viewpoints as we dallied at each point on the ridge as the late afternoon sun cast longer shadows. We heard the distant call of a plover, the only wildlife of the day. The descent gets steeper the further along you walk but we remained in the sun until the last kilometre of the ridge. We had a further kilometre along the road to the car and were surprised at the amount of traffic returning from Applecross.

The views over Kishorn were impressive and generated a conversation about why Kishorn had been built as a deepwater site for the construction of offshore drilling rigs. I had been working with the economists in the Scottish Office who were evaluating alternative sites for rig construction and my contribution had been to tell them not to mess up this spectacular part of Scotland. They dismissed my arguments as giving too much weight to environmental factors, these were not perceived as important in the 1970's. Nevertheless no rigs were built here despite the initial site works being constructed. Nigg Bay and Ardersier were far nearer the oilfields in the North Sea and had a far better transport infrastructure for bringing in materials as well as accommodation for workers. And the damage to the environment would be far less intrusive, although Nigg Bay does now look like a graveyard for some of Andrew Gormley's sculptures on steroids.

But enough of bashing economists, they are fallible, unlike the walk today. It fulfilled the ultimate goal of well being that economists generally dismiss - sheer pure happiness.