KYQ4: Fuar Bheinn and Creach Bheinn, Morven

Looking up Glen Galmardale towards Creach Bheinn

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Ascent: 1563 metres
Distance: 16 kilometres
Time: 6 hours 23 minutes

g Beinn na Cille 652m 1hr 35mins
c Fuar Bheinn 766m 2hrs 45mins
c Creach Bheinn 853m 3hrs 52mins
Meall Odhar 794m 4hrs 32mins

The benign weather of the past week suggested a couple of sunny days in the west highlands. John and I agreed to make a two day trip to Morvern and Ardgour to climb the Kingairloch horseshoe with two corbetts and a graham and then to climb Beinn na h-Uamha in Ardgour. I booked the bunkhouse at Ariundle near Strontium. The Arundel Centre is run by an enthusiastic elderly woman who has created a local craft centre with workshops for wool spinning, dying and weaving. It also has a friendly restaurant serving good food with an emphasis on local produce.

We vdrove to the Coran ferry, the grey skies of central Scotland gradually giving way to bright skies we descended from Rannoch Moor and the hills of Ardgour glinted in the shafts of morning sun. It is a wonderful drive from the ferry down the single track road to Kingairloch. The famous wild goats were not at home but the views down Loch Linnhe were enough to create a mood of eager anticipation for the walk. We parked at Glengalmadale on some open land by the bridge and walked a kilometre along the road towards the headland overlooking Loch a' Choire with its fish farm. From here we began the steep ascent to the outlying Graham of Beinn na Cille. It was an uncompromising slog up steep slopes with gravity acting in harness with long grass and heathers in hindering progress. There was a cool easterly breeze but the day was becoming brighter and the views behind us over Loch Linnhe to Lismore and Loch Creran were stunning.

When we reached the summit of Beinn na Cille we had some food, it was cool in the breeze and hats and gloves were needed. We could hear the workings from the massive Glensanda quarry 3 or 4 miles to the south west hidden behind the impressive looking Beinn Mheadhoin. It made me examine the rocks beneath us, a pinkish granite that is part of the Strontian granodiorite group. There is a longish descent of over 200 metres down grassy slopes punctuated by granite boulders to a slightly boggy bealach before beginning the climb to Fuar Bheinn. It was easy going although the 320 metre climb up to Fuar Bheinn took longer than it should have as we absorbed the views and lost the impetus of the earlier climb.

There was no intention to stop again, it was quite cold so a glance at the views sufficed before we began the next descent, which involved skirting round some rock bands before reaching the next bealach and then heaving our way up another 300 metre climb to the summit of Creach Bheinn. We had spotted a lone walker ahead and it gave us some incentive to keep moving at a reasonable pace. We arrived at the summit, an untidy stone circle, about 5 minutes behind him.

He was from Perth and an experienced walker and we began the descent together, all of us rambling on about cherished walks for the whole of the descent. We stopped at the 'camp' just below the summit, which various books describe as being a look out place for Napoleon or a place where the Ordnance Survey camp was located when surveying this rugged part of the Highlands. Shelter was provided by two robust walls at either end of a rare area of flat land and it looked as if the OS had constructed tent sites within stoned areas similar to the bivvy pods on Skye and other ridges. Despite having reached the high point of the round at Creach Bheinn we still had quite a lot of climbing to complete. It is a 100 metre climb to the next top, Maol Odhar, and then another 80 metres to Meall nan Each, a summit that is perfectly perched on the delightful ridge back to Glengalmadale.

The afternoon had mellowed, the wind had dropped and as the sun began to sink we enjoyed the spectacular coastal views down Loch Linnhe. The grass and heathers sparkled like gold in the angled sunlight and we had clear views back to the horseshoe that we had almost completed. We stopped a couple of times to peer over the edge of the ridge towards the sea in the hope of seeing some goats but they were absent friends today. We regaled each other with accounts of trips to other parts of Scotland: St Kilda, Fisherfield, Knoydart, Shetland, Foinaven and all the other memorable places that have 'floated our boats' as we criss-crossed the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

The final descent to the car park at Glengalmadale was unrelentingly steep and laced with drainage channels that provided me with a couple of unintended somersaults. We were down by 6pm and after saying farewell to our friend, we drove round to Strontian in the fading light. We had booked in at the Ariundle bunkhouse, a recent find that serves good food and is well located for the exploration of the remote rough terrain of Ardgour, Morvern and Sunart.