KYQ4: Cranstackie and Beinn Spionnaidh

Cranstackie in cloud

Tuesday, 27 April 2021

Ascent: 1060 metres
Distance: 12 kilometres
Time: 5 hours 48 minutes

Cranstackie 800m 2hrs 5mins
Beinn Spionnaidh 770m 3hrs 23mins

The escape from lockdown on 26 April provided the chance for a trip to the far north to climb some Corbetts that have been put on hold for three years following a house move, a new garden and Covid. We had travelled up on Monday, I had hoped to climb Ben Hee but the good weather of the past week had broken and the hills were lost in grey cloud and the rain would have meant Aileen having to wait in the car for 3 hours. I had factored this in as we left in the morning so we drove on to our Airbnb in Oldshore Beg. The prospects for Tuesday were not much better but I needed to get on with things after failing to climb Ben Hee so I left at 10am to climb the two most northerly Corbetts. I was not really looking forward to the day, I found a parking spot just a few yards down the track to Rhigolter. The easy walk along the track gave a false sense of what was in store.

A rough track climbs steeply from Rhigolter and ends at a fence beyond which a steep boggy slope has to be climbed for a couple of hundred metres. The sort of climb that questions the very concept of hillwalking: steep, rough, boggy, unrelenting and no doubt swarming with ticks. Eventually, a corrie is reached and provides 20 minutes of easier walking until it ramps up climbing to the bealach between the two hills. At least it wasn't raining yet but the hills were lost in cloud.

From this point, the north-easterly wind kicked in and after the initial grassy slopes, the final pull towards Cranstackie was over a massive boulder field with the wind making balancing on the rocks somewhat precarious. There was nothing to see in the grey of the summit so I returned immediately. I was facing into the teeth of the wind and a heavy sleet storm had set in. I am normally comfortable walking over boulders but the wind and wet provided double jeopardy and it took a lot longer than normal to reach the bealach between the two hills.

The early part of the ascent of Being Spionnaidh was on easy grassy slopes and good progress was made until I reached another boulder field for the last 75 metres of ascent. A cairn at the south end of the ridge was deceptive, it didn't seem quite right so I was pleased to discover on my OS maps online that the trig point was a further 400 metres to the north. As I was walking across a figure appeared out of the gloom, a hill runner from Skipton who was not only attempting the two hills but hoping to get across to Foinaven, I was impressed. After a couple of minutes of conversation, he had to leave to stop getting cold, he was in shorts and had only a flimsy rain top.

I found the summit and then started looking for a reasonable descent route through the rock field to the west of the summit. It was slow going again and I was down to 600 metres before I finally escaped the rocks. Thereafter it was a romp down the long grass with a surprising number of sheep on the hillside. I took a direct route down to the farm and cluster of buildings at Rhigolter. Hills of the north, rejoice was not a suitable epitaph for a day like today.

I met the farmer who had just returned from moving some sheep, he seemed keen to talk to someone after the months of lockdown in a solitary place in a solitary job. Apparently, lamb prices were very good but his biggest grouse was about the behaviour of people in Durness who had partied and spread Covid and this had reached Kinlochbervie. He was also concerned about the number of designer dogs that had been brought into the area, they were untrained and had killed some of his lambs. He had threatened to shoot these dogs and had taken his rifle out to deliver his promise but there had been children nearby so he had demanded payment for the lambs that had been killed. He was keen to explain the importance of dogs to the working farms and he bred collies for this purpose.

After about half an hour he was still in full flow, it is good to talk post-Covid, but I excused myself and returned to the Airbnb where the beach provided an alternative way of enjoying this wild country.