KYQ4: Ben Hee

Ben Hee from path to Beinn Leoid

Friday, 28 May 2021

Ascent: 800 metres
Distance: 13 kilometres
Time: 3 hours 17 minutes

Ben Hee 775m 1hr 44mins

After a cold, rain-replenished May, we were promised a mini heatwave and some dry weather. I intended to go to Rum and find some accommodation before discovering that the late boat back on Saturday had been cancelled owing to an exceptionally low tide. These rare days are too good to miss so I decided to head north and climb my final two Corbetts in Sutherland, Ben Hee and Beinn Leoid. I had started running again the previous week and logged 30 kilometres to prepare for some hard walking.

It would be a 500-mile round trip so I made an early start on Friday at 6:45am. It was also the start of the May Bank Holiday so I decided to give the A9 and the roadworks north of Perth a miss. On a glorious late spring morning and in homage to my old walking friend, Mark, I took the shorter but slower route via Killin, Fortingall, Tummel Bridge and Trinafour, a route that mesmerises you with all that is best about Scottish scenery and is usually absent of traffic. That was the case and as I emerged on the A9 at Glen Garry, I was doubly pleased because the traffic was light.

The Cairngorms looked perfect in the clear blue skies but travelling north a blanket of white clouds hung over the route until Bonar Bridge. Inverness flew past and although there was a lot of traffic along the Cromarty Firth, I made Lairg by 10:15am, stopping to buy some energy drink that I figured may be necessary to keep me going over the next 30 hours, which were going to be brutal. I parked at the large gateway to a forestry track at West Merkland, there was already a VW Golf parked despite the no parking notice so I sidled in beside it leaving sufficient room for the largest of timber lorries to enter.

I started walking at 11:15am, dogs were barking at the house and children were playing in the garden. It is a well-constructed track that runs up to Bealach nam Meirleach and after a couple of kilometres, a path strikes upwards alongside the Allt Coir' a' Chruiteir. It is narrow, boggy in places and occasionally disappears as landslips have dumped it into the burn. The gradient is fairly gentle until 450 metres when it climbs more steadily towards the southwest broad ridge of Ben Hee. A party of three were nearing the ridge and it prompted me to keep going on what was becoming a warm day. The final 150 metres of climbing is a bit of a slog over rocky ground but I was walking easily benefitting from all those morning walks up Lime Craig and recent runs.

I arrived at the same time as two of the party of three walkers from Linlithgow, the man accompanying them rolled in a few minutes later. They were still exuberant about their walk over Foinaven on the previous day. We chatted for half an hour as we ate and drank. One of the two ladies had completed a double finish of her final Munro, Beinn na Lap near Corrour, last year. Lockdown had prevented her scheduled finish so she converted the height of the hill into the number of times she would have to climb her stairs to achieve the altitude gain and persuaded her walking club to do the same. They used Zoom to ensure no cheating and more importantly to celebrate with socially distanced champagne. She did the real thing later in the year by climbing Beinn na Lap after lockdown although she admitted it wasn't such good fun. It is only a matter of time before the Munros will be able to be done on a treadmill at home, how they will simulate the rain, wind, and ticks is another matter.

The Linlithgow ladies were now on a crusade to climb the Corbetts. It is always inspiring to meet people like these on the hills and hear of their ambitions. I left them sunning themselves and made an exit over Sail Garbh to the northwest, which is a fine viewpoint to the Meirleach lochs and further away, Ben Hope and Ben Loyal. It was deep grass on the descent but I made reasonable time and was down by 3pm. I wasted no time driving a couple of miles down towards the start of the next hill, Beinn Leoid.