Glen Strathfarrar is widely recognised as one of the most beautiful glens in all of Scotland, situated north of Glen Affric and running adjacent to Glen Cannich (Loch Mullardoch), just as remote as Affric but lacking the others rugged wildness. Unfortunately, due to the inclement weather yesterday, I was unable to get a feel for it's remoteness, ruggedness or beauty. I have three hopes from my trips into the hills...Views...Solitude...Fitness. Some people may say that two out of three ain't bad, but I'm inclined to disagree. This was the first trip I have had this year where I have suffered from no views and everything else suffered as a result. No views equals too much emphasis on plodding, one foot in front of the other, an enjoyable experience turns into a slog...especially when the mist is as low as 600m and the precipitation (rain to you and me) starts at 800m. Just for good measure the wind picked up on the summits and I was being buffeted by gusts up to 50 mph. None of that ever matters when you have beautiful views to keep you going...all I had was misty greyness for company. Thankfully these days are few and far between for me, the last similar one being last October on Beinn Eighe, the worst one being as far back as 2010 at Loch Laggan.
All it means is that I will have to come back and try it again in finer weather...
I stayed with my friends Jacquie and Gordon in Muir of Ord the night before, giving me a short drive to Strathfarrar in the morning. The locked gates at the start of the Glen don't open until nine o'clock in the morning so I was able to have a later than usual start. The short drive also meant that I would be fresher than usual at the start of the walk...although clearly this was countered by the wine sweats I would start to suffer as a result of a night spent with the McCauley's!!
I queued with the other cars awaiting entry to the glen, receiving my permit from the gatekeeper, then drove the lengthy distance into the remote wilderness. There was one other car that parked alongside me in the grassy area between loch a' Mhuillidh and loch Beannacharan...the other two drove beyond us, I presumed to do the walk in reverse (time would tell). The mist was already hanging low and no sign could be had of the peaks ahead. I chatted away to the couple that emerged from the other car, slightly older than me from Sheffield, just finishing off a two week holiday in Scotland having been camping in Knoydart for four days. We set off on the obvious path heading north from our parking site, and meandered up the slopes following the flow of the Allt Coire Mhuillidh. The slope eased and flatter wetter ground was squelched across as the "path" grew fainter until we crossed a stream running down from Garbh-charn. At this point we said farewell and I set off at a faster pace up the slopes, disappearing into the mist, my final sighting of another person all day. The slope inclined ahead of me and the grass grew wetter...I was regretting not stopping to adorn Gaiters earlier...as I squelched my way higher. I managed to get one fleeting glimpse of the Mullardoch Munro's to the south of me before the mist enveloped me fully...
Reassuringly, they looked mist covered also. As I turned and walked into the thickening mist ahead of me my world turned grey for the next four and a half hours. I continued on my lonely furrow, keeping to the right of Coire Mhuillidh and the unseen steepening slopes of An Socach, veering NE towards my first target of the day Sgurr na Ruaidhe. I wish I had more to say about the climb up, the extensive views to the remainder of the ridge, the wonderful vista across to Mullardoch, the feeling of remoteness in the Glen...but the mist robbed me of that pleasure today. I followed the thinning faint path to the summit and located the cairn at 993m. The top was exposed to all the elements now and I could feel the wind pick up as I prepared to take Jelly McBaby's picture posing at the top.
We didn't stop long at the summit, the wind was strengthening by the second and the chill factor was increasing. I donned an outer shell to keep the wind at bay, struggling against the wind to get my left arm into the flapping sleeve. I descended NW from the summit cairn, out across spongy grass until I found another path meandering downhill to the bealach above Coire na Sleaghaich. The mist cleared for a nano second, certainly not enough time for me to get my camera out and fire off a shot or two, just long enough to see the path rising up the slopes of Shabhach towards Carn nan Gobhar beyond. A clear path wound it's way up through a short rocky patch, topping out again on grass, and then the mist cleared again before me revealing the summit cairn of Carn nan Gobhar on a plateau to my left. I traversed around the grassy slopes of Shabhach, through another patch of rocks, then more grass, then rocks once more, before finally locating the cairn off on a spur to the right, heading North from the path.
Carn nan Gobhar stands at 992m and promises excellent views ahead to the rest of the route...except today obviously!!
Jelly McBaby took shelter behind a rock on the summit cairn from the increasing wind. I stopped for a brief spot of lunch, then decided it was way to cold, so set off again in search of my next summit. I followed the path in a SW direction, skirting the top of Creag Ghorm, oblivious to all the lochans below me in the various corries. Down through rocks until the path veered through grass once more, becoming fainter again, disappearing at times in the gloom. I navigated across a wide grass plateau, then headed West along a narrowing rocky ledge, before finally turning SW to reach the summit of Sgurr a' Choire Ghlais 1083m. This is the highest point on the ridge and offers extensive views in all directions of Munro ranges climbed and yet to climb. I saw the cairns!!
The summit has a trig point sandwiched between two large boulder cairns. Unsure which would prove to be classed as the true summit Jelly McBaby elected to take no chances and got his picture taken on all three. It is no exaggeration to say that at this point the wind was almost knocking me backwards. I elected to avoid scaling down the NW crags and returned to the trig point to drop down slightly on grass then skirt around the crags West then North, picking up the path again heading NW. So far there had been approximately 2k between summits, discounting the walk into the first summit, but the last Munro lay slightly further away this time and threw in a top to be negotiated also. I traversed the wide plateau NW until it started to narrow around me...even in mist you can tell when this happens and sides start to drop away from you. I lost height gradually, then gained it again suddenly, as is the way of things on Munro's. The ridge became a ridge proper as it narrowed before me, forcing me to traverse a sharp drop to my right above crags and lochans below. The path topped out suddenly on Creag Ghorm a' Bhealaich and disappeared again. I took a sharp turn SW then West down grassy slopes again for about half a kilometre and then started to rise sharply above some crags and through rocks to reach the summit cairn on Sgurr Fhuar-thuill 1049m. By this point I had donned my hard shell jacket to keep the worst of the rain off me. Jelly McBaby had no such protection and had to shelter behind rocks to attempt to stay on the cairn.
There was no point in sitting at the cairn to celebrate my 4th Munro of the day, I was risking being blown off the blooming thing!! I headed NW once more and followed what promised to be a decent stalkers path around the slopes of Sgurr na Fearstaig, before turning South and dropping 400m down to Loch Toll a' Mhuic. As I approached the loch I realised that the mist had started to thin out and I had some visibility again...too late for any decent views of the Glen to appreciate it's remote location...but views none the less.
The route continued to drop beyond the Loch and followed an excellent path alongside the Allt Toll a' Mhuic for a further 3k until I could see the access road below. Parked at the edge of the road was one of the cars from earlier in the day. I could only surmise that they had left the car there and cycled back to the start point so would be up on the top behind me. Unfortunately they must have been rather slower than I was, because I was able to walk the entire 4 miles back to the car along the tarmac access road without them catching me. The only highlight of the walk back along this road to the car was passing Braulen Lodge, a magnificent building, complete with it's own tennis court.
I made it back to the car in 6 hours 45 minutes, at least 75 minutes of which were back along the tarmac road to the car...if only I could ride a bike!! Another four Munro's closer to finishing though, which doesn't yet feel like suitable compensation for the lack of views. I plan on heading out again next Monday and Tuesday, possibly with an old friend for company, and possibly with a camping trip to boot.
As usual the pics of my day out can be found here on my FB page https://www.facebook.com/john.stalker.31/media_set?set=a.10200370682376586.1073741838.1440975916&type=3
Here also is a link to someone else's walk report with the views I hoped to have Scottish Hills Forum
Due to the wet conditions all day, then walking back on tarmac for 4 miles, I returned with two blisters on my left foot...my first since Beinn Dearg (Atholl) in February 2012!!! Hoping for better luck on next trip...
I stayed with my friends Jacquie and Gordon in Muir of Ord the night before, giving me a short drive to Strathfarrar in the morning. The locked gates at the start of the Glen don't open until nine o'clock in the morning so I was able to have a later than usual start. The short drive also meant that I would be fresher than usual at the start of the walk...although clearly this was countered by the wine sweats I would start to suffer as a result of a night spent with the McCauley's!!
I queued with the other cars awaiting entry to the glen, receiving my permit from the gatekeeper, then drove the lengthy distance into the remote wilderness. There was one other car that parked alongside me in the grassy area between loch a' Mhuillidh and loch Beannacharan...the other two drove beyond us, I presumed to do the walk in reverse (time would tell). The mist was already hanging low and no sign could be had of the peaks ahead. I chatted away to the couple that emerged from the other car, slightly older than me from Sheffield, just finishing off a two week holiday in Scotland having been camping in Knoydart for four days. We set off on the obvious path heading north from our parking site, and meandered up the slopes following the flow of the Allt Coire Mhuillidh. The slope eased and flatter wetter ground was squelched across as the "path" grew fainter until we crossed a stream running down from Garbh-charn. At this point we said farewell and I set off at a faster pace up the slopes, disappearing into the mist, my final sighting of another person all day. The slope inclined ahead of me and the grass grew wetter...I was regretting not stopping to adorn Gaiters earlier...as I squelched my way higher. I managed to get one fleeting glimpse of the Mullardoch Munro's to the south of me before the mist enveloped me fully...
Carn nan Gobhar stands at 992m and promises excellent views ahead to the rest of the route...except today obviously!!
As usual the pics of my day out can be found here on my FB page https://www.facebook.com/john.stalker.31/media_set?set=a.10200370682376586.1073741838.1440975916&type=3
Here also is a link to someone else's walk report with the views I hoped to have Scottish Hills Forum
Due to the wet conditions all day, then walking back on tarmac for 4 miles, I returned with two blisters on my left foot...my first since Beinn Dearg (Atholl) in February 2012!!! Hoping for better luck on next trip...
