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Spring colours

A remnant for the old Caledonian Forest

A remnant for the old Caledonian Forest

What a difference a few days make.  After last weeks very grey and cloudy walk on Tinto, this week we saw the Scottish landscape at its very best under almost clear blue skies.  The colours everywhere were stunning and although we only walked a fairly small hill we managed to spend over nine hours in the process.  It was such a stunningly beautiful day that it just demanded that we keep stopping to look and take in the scene.

I really love this time of year with winter still very much around, (we set off with frost covering everything and the bigger hills white with snow) but summer closing in rapidly.  It was great too that even setting off from Irvine at just after 06.00 there was light in the sky and the sun rose over the Glasgow sky-line as we crossed the Erskine Bridge heading north.

We were making for Tyndrum but not for Meall Odhar which had been our original target last week, but for its neighbour across the glen, Fiarach 652 m.  We’ve never walked this hill and it was only last week while pawing over the map with my magnifier looking for the route up Meall Odhar that I spotted it and started looking for a route to it too.  It’s basically the high point of a large area of wild upland ground  that is surrounded on all sides by the higher hills, Ben More, Ben Challum, Beinn Dubhchraig and Ben Lui …to name but a few.  It’s a fine location that just demands a perfect day ….and what better than a clear, cold early spring Wednesday in March?

Ben More from Fiarach

Ben More from Fiarach

As we wanted to stretch our legs a bit more this week, we decided to park the car in the village of Tyndrum and walk back along the West Highland Way the few kilometres to the big bridge crossing the river flowing out of Cononish Glen.  This is a beautiful little section of the West Highland Way ….a proper little footpath the meanders its way along through mixed woodland and alongside streams .  The views from this path alone were superb and we got good views of the hill we were going to walk.  From the river bridge we left the WHW and followed an estate track that lead over the railway and then lead around the flanks of Fiarach for a couple more kilometres to a large area of conifer plantation.  On the way it went through a fabulous area of the old Caledonian forest that made this truly highland scene even more so.

At the start of the plantation it was simply a case of making our way up the open hillside, at first along side the trees and then climbing above them.  I have to say that I’ve never been too impressed with these conifer plantations but on this occasion I was pleasantly surprised.  We stopped level with the top corner of the plantation and sat down in bright sun to catch our breath, give the aching calf muscles a rest and to take in the views.  As we did we were aware of all of the bird song coming from the dense trees to our left.  One bird in particular ….we think it was probably a Thrush, was singing at the top of its voice and it made the place even more special.

Nita at the summit of Fiarach

Nita at the summit of Fiarach

A little higher up and the steep slopes eased and we came into the first big patches of snow.  It’s a hummocky area of grass, moss, small crags and numerous little lochs and pools.  The biggest of these, Lochain Fiarach, was almost completely frozen and had varying amounts of snow lying on it …where it was just ice, it was a beautiful shade of blue, green, and grey and this turned paler to white around the edges ….it reminded me of the ‘white’ sandy beaches we saw last year on the west coast of Harris.

Despite the generally featureless nature of the ground up here, the summit itself was a surprise ….set atop a craggy little spine that rose 30 or 40 metres above the rest of the moor.  It made a great setting and a wonderful place to stand and take in all the bigger snow capped peaks around.  The nearest of these, Beinn Dubhchraig looked particularly massive and Nita could make out three tiny figures plodding up the heavily snow covered slopes towards its summit.  We  stopped numerous times to sit and look and enjoy the colours, textures and patterns …and were impressed  to find two other visitors to this little hill ….a pair of what we think were Golden Plovers.

The summit of Fiarach from Lachain Fiarach

The summit of Fiarach from Lachain Fiarach

This really was a fine day …..it had a similarity to the wee hill, Ghlas Bheinn on the edge of Rannoch Moor that we tend to visit most years.  I definitely think we’ll be back to Fiarach again next spring.

A walk into winter

Looking towards Beinn Dubhchraig

Looking towards Beinn Dubhchraig

It doesn’t seem any time at all since we were hauling our way up the steep slopes above Cononish in bright very warm conditions with midges and flies buzzing all around and sweat running down our faces, heading on our way to Beinn Dubhchraig.  On Sunday we were walking up Beinn Chaorach instead and looking across the glen to Beinn Dubhchraig, Ben Oss and Ben Lui ….but in very different conditions.  Now, just a couple of months later, everything above about 400 m was white with fresh snow.

Towards Ben Challum

Towards Ben Challum

It wasn’t a complete transformation to winter though, as, with it still being only mid November, many of the trees in the glens below still had leaves …some showing the full array of autumnal colours and others still almost completely green.  Even the grass was still quite green making for a stunningly beautiful mix of colour as we drove up the side of Loch Lomond under an intensely blue sky.

Ben Challum from Beinn Chaorach

Ben Challum from Beinn Chaorach

Once away from the sound of the road, it was a very peaceful scene, (very appropriate, it being Remembrance Sunday) the only sounds, the crump of the snow under our boots and the occasional call of a circling Raven overhead.   With the daylight hours being somewhat short at this time of year and our starting out late due to the icy roads, we didn’t have that much time.  I reckoned we’d have to turn back at 14.00 at the latest and at about 13.40, still a good 15 minutes from the top, we decided to call it a day and sit and have our lunch.  The views really couldn’t have been better with the great snowy bulk of Ben Challum close by, and Ben More and the Glen Falloch hills to the south east.  A glance to the right as I sat eating my sandwich and I could see Ben Lui and it’s neighbours …..it really was very clear.

Towards Ben More

Towards Ben More

Our timing proved about right as the sun was setting behind the hills by the time we were back on the main track and as we descended back to the West Highland Way in the base of the glen, it was once again a very cold and quite dark scene with the white snow covered hills almost glowing against the darkening sky and a bank of low mist forming.  The final couple of kilometres back along the West Highland Way to the car was the most difficult for me …trying to follow Nita as she picked her way around patches of ice in the gloom.

It hadn’t been a long day but a very fine way to start the winter…..apparently they’re forecasting cold weather again next week.

‘Mists clearing Beinn Dubhchraig, winter’

31 'Mists clearing  Beinn Dubhcharig,winterr', Acrylic, 2005, 30 x 30 cm, sold

‘Mists clearing Beinn Dubhchraig, winter’

‘Mists clearing Beinn Dubhchraig, winter’, Acrylic, 2005, 30 x 30 cm,

If you’ve seen my Face Book page in the last few days, or read the latest blog, you’ll know that on Sunday we walked Beinn Dubhchraig near Tyndrum in the Southern Highlands.

I thought then that it would be appropriate to use this small painting as my Artwork of the week.  I did this back in 2005 and it was based on a view of the mountain we had on a very wintry day from Ben Challum.  The snow everywhere was quite thick and the early morning mists were breaking and lifting from all the big hills around.

Wrong!!!


'In Glen Lochay'

'In Glen Lochay'

As we walked back along the track in Glen Lochay last Sunday afternoon, we met a chap who was looking for his wife.  They’d been descending from Beinn Heasgarnich and had somehow drifted apart.  At this very minute Nita spotted a loan figure on the hillside close to the path about half a kilometre ahead …and after a check with the monocular it turned out to be the lady in question.  The gentleman set off to catch her up and later we met them sat on a rock discussing which of them had taken the correct route and which had not!  The wonders of navigation?!

HOWEVER, ……we could not feel smug about these folks minor predicament.  Far from it in fact.  We were at the time returning from our own much larger piece of navigational bungling.

Now then, you may be reading this and imagining this was one of those typical grey, misty, wet and windy west highlands days and under such circumstances a few errors in route finding can perhaps be accepted.  But to my shame, I have to report that this was the finest day of the year so far.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky,  there wasn’t even any haze …the air clarity was superb and the mountain stood out clear and beautiful.

 

'In Glen Lochay'

'In Glen Lochay'

Our plan,(not even patched together, more like plucked out of the air at about 11 pm on Saturday evening) was to drive to the end of the road in Glen Lochay and then walk Creag Mhor.  This hill along with its neighbour Beinn Heasgarnich are two of the Munroe’s in the southern Highlands that we’ve yet to walk, but I’d previously checked them out in the guides and seemed to remember them being relatively straight forward….no problem on what was to be a clear and beautiful day.  To make matters worse we changed our start time back an hour ….we’d both been working all day on Saturday and were working again on Monday.

'In Glen Lochay'

'In Glen Lochay'

So then, there we were after our late rise and a fairly long drive, setting off on our walk at about half past ten.  The glen looked stunning in the bright sunshine and the hills looked amazing. We’d realised that morning that we’d not got a large scale map of the area …only the usual 1: 50000 Land ranger maps …and Creag Mhor sits right on the edge of two of them!  Even with my magnifier I struggle to see these and am normally organised enough to print up enlarged sections of the route ….but of course didn’t bother this time …Nita could see the map.

To be honest I’m really not quite sure how we went wrong.  We had to walk 5 km along the glen and then ascend steep slopes to gain Sron nan Eun, and from there follow a path along the ridge to the summit.  We’d decided simply to return the same way.  Instead, we walked beyond Sron nan Eun and tackled the much steeper and very craggy Sail Dhubh.  I can only put it down to the fact that on top of our lack of planning and preparation we were just taken up with the beauty of the situation.  We’d only been in the glen once before and that was on a rather grey day …and on that occasion we’d only walked a couple of  kilometres before crossing the River Lochay and heading up Sgiath Chuil.  On Sunday as we walked up the glen we had amazing views of Ben Challum looking steep and dramatic and with patches of snow higher up.  It was just wonderful and navigation was the last thing on our minds!

Not that alarm bells weren’t starting to ring in my head …we’d taken much longer to do the 5 km than I’d estimated and I certainly had no recollection of there being any mention in the guide book about unduly steep ground and the need to find a way through large crags!  Indeed, as we approached these very dramatic crags it appeared that the only way up was to tackle a fairly long and wet looking gully that disappeared up into deep shade.  This was certainly not what I’d had in mind and was rather too severe for me …and at the base of the gully I sat down and refused to go any further!  Nita said she’d go and take a look and after a short time she returned to say that it ended in a wet and slippery bit of rock.  Apparently there was a way around it by traversing out on a grassy ledge but she said she’d not guide me up that …to which I replied that I’d not go even if she did want to take me!  And so that was it, we moved into the sun and just sat down to enjoy the wonderful location.  We certainly weren’t going to get to the top now.  In times like this when you just know you’ve dropped a clanger, it’s time to get the GPS out and find out exactly where you are and exactly how big a clanger it is you’ve dropped.  As clangers go, well, this was of epic proportions …we were on the wrong bit of the hill completely!

'In Glen Lochay'

'In Glen Lochay'

I guess that if you’re going to get lost then it’s best to do so on a beautiful spring day with lots of hours of day light and this rather amusing episode only goes to show that you must never become complacent when it comes to the hills.  With us heading up to Assynt shortly, this was a timely reminder that we need to tighten up our procedures again and not get lulled into a false sense of security by a warm clear day and a fine forecast.

Despite all this, we had a wonderful day.  We saw a little bit of Scotland we’d not seen before and off course we saw no other walkers for much of the day …no one else would have been stupid enough to go that way!

Photos by Anita Groves

A modest little mountain, a massive view

Beinn Dorain

Beinn Dorain

Well then, we did get out on the hill again last week as planned. We headed for a very modest little hill tucked in at the side of Ben Challum, not far from Crianlarich. It’s called Beinn Chaorach and it’s no more than a long grassy whale-back that rises to a little over 800m, but it is in a perfect location, offering a wonderful view all around. It also has one other important benefit ….especially on an Easter bank holiday weekend …it’s not very popular with most walkers and so you usually have the place to yourself.

We didn’t leave particularly early as the forecast was for cloud and patchy rain clearing as the day progressed. It made more sense to have a late start and to make the most of the lighter evenings. This worked out well as the cloud was well down on the tops when we arrived with just occasional breaks….but it looked promising for later in the day.

We left the car at the side of the A82 (the normal starting point for the Munro, Ben Challum) and followed the West Highland Way for a couple of kilometres before heading off towards our hill along a rough estate track. The heavy snow of earlier in the week was still much in evidence with the hillsides splattered with big snow patches all the way up from track level to around 750m above which there was a more overall cover. The estate track leads around the end of Beinn Chaorach and then along the glen between it and Ben Challum. All the way along were the remains of deep snow drifts and virtually every gully and hollow were filled with snow creating wonderful patterns on the hillsides. The cloud was rising as we wandered our way along the track and although there was more sun we were also caught in a couple of snow showers that drifted in from the west and made everything very atmospheric.

Ben Challum

Ben Challum

After a couple of kilometres the path enters a large fenced off area …protected by both a standard and electric fence. These were to keep deer and sheep out to allow the vegetation to regenerate naturally. Thankfully there was a stile but the track only continues for a short distance and from that point on it becomes a very rough walk indeed to get to the stile another kilometre away at the far side of the enclosure. At this end of the glen there are numerous small streams to cross and each one was covered with snow. We could hear the water underneath but it took some careful prodding with the walking poles to locate and avoid falling through the snow and into the water. We didn’t escape completely unscathed ….my partner Nita followed me across one such snow covered stream ..and ended up to her knees in snow with her boots in the water. That’s what comes of the guide following the blind man I guess! She went back to leading straight after that.

Ben More & Stob Binnein from Beinn Chaorach

Ben More & Stob Binnein from Beinn Chaorach

From the far side of the enclosure it’s just a short walk to the wide beallach and this opens up a vast panorama of snow covered and very shapely peaks, Beinn Dorain, Beinn an Dothaidh and Beinn a’ Caisteil to name but a few. From here we climbed gradually gaining the far end of Ben Chaorach and following its broad and increasingly snowy back all the way to the old trig point marking the summit. The snow up here was much firmer and made for good walking. It looked particularly good too as the wind had scoured the surface creating numerous little ridges and subtle eddies …every one of them now picked out by the late afternoon sun. The bigger view all around was quite breathtaking but our gaze was drawn to the peaks of Ben More and Stob Binnien, caked in snow and looking every bit of their 1170m. Wow! Just below the summit there was a large pan of smooth snow and as we’d not really had a lunch break, we decided that this would be the ideal spot. It was so quiet and as planned we hadn’t met a soul the whole day. At one point Nita had spotted some climbers making their way along the ridge towards the main summit of Ben Challum but there was no one over on this hill.

The walk off Ben Chaorach is so easy …even when you can’t really see where you’re putting your feet. It was one of the most relaxed descents I’ve ever done. Usually the descent is the difficult bit for me. It’s normally very slow and surprisingly tiring …much more so than climbing the hill in the first place.

From Beinn Chaorach

View From Beinn Chaorach

This though was a real pleasure and by the time we were back on the WHW there was virtually no cloud in the sky and we arrived back to the car in the beautiful late evening sun. It was a perfect day.