KYQ4: Sgiath Chuil & Meall Glas

Sgiath Chuil from Auchessan

Friday, 2 April 2021

Ascent: 1335 metres
Distance: 15 kilometres
Time: 6 hours 14 minutes

Sgiath Chuil 921m 2hrs 20mins

Meall a' Churain 917m 2hrs 42mins

Beinn Cheathaich 937m 3hrs 55mins

Meall Glas 969m 4hrs 21mins

Good Friday has always been a day for walking. It had been inculcated by my grandparents, when a ride on a Ribble Bus to Longridge Fell and a picnic of ham rolls, a boiled egg and some Longridge Pop (water) was the annual outing. Today, the hard overnight frost promised a gloriously clear morning. I was away by 7:45am although the roadworks on the A85 slowed progress and it was almost 9am before I started walking. I had planned to climb Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas, two munros that are within the Council area. These hills are always tough with few paths and much boggy ground whether climbing from Glen Dochart, as today or Glen Lochay.

I had last climbed them on 30 December 2008 from Glen Lochay with Gregor. It was grey, cold and wet and my feet were giving me some pain. It was in the good old days when you could phone the Doctor and get an immediate appointment. I did exactly that on returning home in the late afternoon and got an appointment at 5pm. The Doctor could find no obvious reason for the feet problem but discovered that I had atrial fibrillation and put me on medication. I was fairly devastated and it was the day that I finally decided to retire before it was too late to do the things I wanted to do on retirement.

The guidebooks said 7 to 9 hours and the last visit had taken 5 hours 30 minutes, I thought that 6 hours should suffice as I needed to be home by 4pm. I found a parking space at the start of the narrow road to Auchessan. It was below freezing but the views were stunning. I crossed the river Dochart, flowing full with a morning mist hanging over the upstream loch. The scattered houses at Auchessan were quiet and the farm boasted a cornucopia of old machinery as I passed through and began the walk up the track and then the path that climbed steadily alongside the magnificent Allt Riobain. The path squelched constantly after recent rains and I was glad that I had put some gaiters on. It took just over an hour to reach the dam at 490 metres. The sun had started to give the day some heat so I removed my jacket and had a brief stop for water and a snack. The next 450 metres were just a long slog up to the summit of Sgiath Chuil. Considering how long it had been since a long walk, I kept going without any stops and reached the summit on my planned schedule.

Its rocky summit provides a fine viewpoint over Glen Dochart and the massive Ben More but over the last half hour the sky had clouded over and I was exposed in the strong northerly breeze. Time to put on the jacket, hat and gloves. I found some shelter, took a few photos and had a drink before starting the easy traverse across to the nearby top of Meall a' Churain. Walking into the teeth of the wind was a reminder of how quickly conditions change on the hills.

Next was the 300-metre drop down exceedingly steep slopes to the bealach between the two Munro tops. I took a direct route and whilst enjoying the activities of a couple of ptarmigan, I happened upon some crags that had to be circumnavigated. It would have been easier to take a less steep descent from Sgiath Chuil. It was a relief to reach the peat hags at the bealach. I had figured out an ascent route to Beinn Cheathaich using a few snow patches as waypoints and I proceeded steadily until the last 100 metres when I decided to head directly for the summit rather than take my original planned route to the north ridge which had a snow cornice that I decided to give a miss.

Beinn Cheathaich may only be a Munro top but it has a presence and a trig point. From here it is a couple of kilometres along a ridge with a few dips before the final climb to Meall Glas. About halfway along I met a German woman, the only other walker of the day. She had ascended Meall Glas up the steepish and ultra boggy land to the south and was desperate to find a path for her descent. I described the route off Sgiath Chuil with the boggy but picturesque path and she seemed relieved, although less so with the 300-metre steep climb to Sgiath Chuil.

There are fine views to be had from Meall Glas although Ben More was now in the cloud and the excellent visibility of the morning had lapsed. I took 15 minutes for some food, finished my water and plotted a descent route. I found a good line through the crags and the only bother was the boggy ground, it seemed endless and there were no obvious paths until I got down to about 500 metres. A narrow path appeared and I began to follow it as it followed one of the steep-sided burns, I lost my footing on a steeper section and somersaulted down the bank. As I stood up I could feel a searing pain in my adductor muscle, my trousers and jacket were soaked from the bog and I still had 3 kilometres to walk back. Fortunately, as I began to walk the pain subsided but I slowed my pace until reaching the track that served another dam at about 350 metres.

I was down just after 3pm and after discarding wet boots and jacket began the drive back on the A85. There were two long delays for roadworks, one that looked like a wall construction near Lix Toll and the other to stop a landslip in Glen Ogle. The traffic was far heavier with lots of motorhomes, motorbikes, and open-topped cars. A McLaren sports car zipped past going at a speed nearer to 100mph than the speed limit. Altogether it had been a great day to reacquaint with the Munros although I wished that my grandparents could have come along with a picnic.