Late September. The Tower Captain and I drove* up to Glencoe to join a small party of old muckers who’d already been there most of the week.
(*Well, he drove, I took photos out of the window obviously).
On the Saturday, we dragged ourselves away from the drama of the Ryder Cup* and headed around the coast to Glen Creran, parking one car up the valley in the car park near Elleric, before returning to park the other near Druimavuic from where we began our traverse of the longish ridge of Beinn Sgulaird.
(*Not as tricky for me as it was for some of the others. I hate golf. Although I do enjoy watching Europe beat the USA)
Now Beinn Sgulaird was a new Munro to me. Not something that happens very often. I think the last new one I ticked off was Stuchd an Lochain back in 2011. I didn’t think much about that novelty last September, but this evening I dug out my old Munros map/tick-list and have enjoyed looking it over and wondering about some of the other Munros I’ve yet to climb. I’ll never finish them all, which I’m totally happy with, in fact there are many I’ve climbed before that I’m really hankering after revisiting, but it is nice to grab a new one now and again.
If I remember right, the reason we’d lit upon Beinn Sgulaird in the first place was that it was one of UF’s remaining four unticked Munros. He’s obviously much more single-minded than me. And braver. I’ve done some summits in the Skye Cuillin, but on the whole I’m content to leave those hills to people with a better head for heights than me. And better balance, come to that.
We did Stuchd an Lochain mostly in mist. This was another cloudy day, but we had much better views than we did that day.
There was a small, but easy to follow path, and although I never move very quickly, we made steady progress.
The cloud on the ridge was swirling about and offering partial views, which was very atmospheric.
I don’t seem to have taken a summit photo. I’m not sure why not, but we were in the cloud for a while, either side of the summit.
The Prof was adamant that from the top we should turn-tail and retrace our ascent route, since there had been a good path. He was in a minority of one however. Old, wiser heads prevailed. Well….older anyway.
Any trace of a path, faint or otherwise, soon disappeared. Never-the-less, to begin with the descent into Coire nan Tulach was great. It was rough going, yes, but rocky and interesting, with expansive views and a real, remote wild feel to it.
But the lower we descended, the more tussocky and awkward the going became. We skirted around Stob Gaibhre and then dropped off the ridge down towards Glen Ure.
I fell over, which was annoying. Then I fell again, but this time it was more than annoying. It ought to have been an innocuous affair – I pitched forward onto a large tussock – but the impact was on my sternum which was extremely painful and which took me almost a month to recover from. Maybe I cracked a rib. Certainly breathing was uncomfortable for the rest of that day and the one which followed. I’ve always been prone to tumbling now and again, but it seems that these days I don’t bounce like I used to.
Maybe the Prof was right about our choice of descent route.
Just don’t tell him I admitted that.
Fortunately, once we hit the track in Glen Ure the rest of the walk became an easy and very pleasant affair, although I think it did spit with rain a little.
Back in the car park, UF, for reasons only he knows, decided to settle an argument with a tree by backing his car into it. I think he lost, although said collision didn’t seem to slow him or his speedy vehicle down any on the drive back around to Glen Coe.
A mostly brilliant day. Some views, a new tick, an interesting gnarly ridge, great company and rounded all off with another fabulous meal at The Laroch in Ballachulish (which is highly recommended).
MapMyWalk gives a little over 10 miles, and almost exactly 1000m of climbing (which is definitely an underestimate).
Beating The Bounds 
Looks really good up there. Not in the car park though
Not sure what said tree had done to offend UF.
From the armchair, the misty conditions make great viewing.
Much as I like a bit of sunshine, when there are breaks in the cloud, that’s pretty good too!
Very moody weather in those shots (I’m not a fan of golf either – a good walk spoiled as well as the countryside)
Sour grapes on my part – when I’ve played (mini-golf only) I quickly lose patience. In decent sports (like football, or tennis, or squash or…) if you make a mistake, you get on with the next point or whatever, but in golf a bad shot has tedious consequences. Drove me up the wall.
Never much fun falling in the tussocky ground, tough stuff to walk through for sure, especially heading downhill through it
This was very rough going. I have a habit of falling over, but it seems the days when I could laugh it off might be behind me!
A fine day even if the weather didn’t quite play by the forecast. Although as you say, swirling clouds and views that come and go can be just as impressive.
Even though with hindsight we should have retraced our steps it’s nice to to an end to end walk. I’ve done An Grianan on a ferociously windy day and can confirm it’s a fine little mountain
I stand by our choice – there’s no way we could have known what that descent was going to be like, and mot of it was very fine. Turning around would have involved going over all of those up and downs again, which even the Prof might have baulked at.
“How many summits are there!” 🤣
😂🤣😂