'April shower, Beinn Dorain from the summit of Beinn Odhar'
‘April shower, Beinn Dorain from the summit of Beinn Odhar’
Most years my partner and I take two weeks holiday at the start of May. We always head into the Highlands and spend much of our time walking the hills. As this is usually a fairly intensive period of activity, prior to the holiday, we try and get out regularly in order to build up our fitness levels. As part of this we nearly always make for the steep grassy cone of Beinn Odhar that rises to just over 900m near Tyndrum in the Southern Highlands.
To the summit and back from Tyndrum is really only a short afternoon walk, but it is very steep and offers great views all the way up ..if you’re not too shattered to appreciate them that is. The route follows the West Highland Way for a couple of kilometres until it crosses the railway line by a bridge. At this point we just head straight up the obvious and very steep grassy ridge / slope. After a way, you pass through the remains of some old mine workings that are perched precariously on the side of the hill. Further up still, and the slope suddenly eases to form a large level step on which sits a beautiful isolated little loch …a great place to sit and get your breath back. Above the loch are the final steep boulder strewn slopes leading to the summit.
We’ve been up this hill a number of times and have experienced it in all sorts of conditions, but the most memorable time was a few years ago on a day of typical heavy April showers. In between these showers the tops were mostly clear but they were a fearsome sight as they approached. As we stood amidst the remnants of winter snow, we watched just such a shower envelop our bigger neighbour Beinn Dorain. This painting was one of two that I did around this time based on this amazing view. The painting has recently been exhibited at The Gallery on the Corner in Edinburgh and has just sold.
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