Beinn Sgritheall NW Top

Mon 9 Jun 2014

As Richard was out with me the day before, and no longer does two days in a row, I decided to go off round the peninsula of Glenelg to pick this top off. I also decided it would be a lovely spot to drop Richard off to amuse himself – he ended up visiting the pub at Glenelg, having a good look round the village, and a walk down to the ferry jetty to take a quick trip across to Kylerhea on Skye. The weather was beautiful – hot and sunny…

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I drove around to the furthest edge of the first large forest at Mam na Staing where a good forest track sets off east for Loch na Lochain – an ingenious name I’m sure! The forest track is around two miles so you can make rapid progress towards the hill. You also occasionally get a quick glimpse of it – it looked vertical and forbidding to me! We didn’t see the hill when we did it before and Richard was taken ill in the bad weather during the steep climb to the summit so I didn’t really have happy memories of it…

Incidentally, this track could easily be cycled, saving you four miles of walking if so desired. The start point is a good few hundred feet higher than Arnisdale too 🙂

In forty minutes, I arrived at the little 3-sided hut Richard and I had used on our return last time to shelter from the weather to get warm drinks. The hut marks the edge of the forest and the start of the bog – there is the pretty Loch na Lochain to look at though and it makes a great foreground for photos of Sgritheall.

You can head either side of the loch so I picked a route to the west and south on the way out. This turned out to be horribly wet so I determined to head straight across east and north of the loch for the hut on the return (as we did before). I headed up onto the low ridge of Creag an Taghain and followed it pathlessly across rough ground to the small lochan at the start of the path up Sgritheall’s steep west ridge.

Looking Back…

I’d been studying the hill during my approach and was musing about leaving the main route in a small, shallow corrie between the main Munro summit and the NW top. There was a very bouldery stream to follow upwards but the angle looked much less steep and it looked okay. There were also quite a few grassy patches which I could try to patch together to avoid the boulders as much as possible – it wouldn’t be totally possible though.

The sun was beating down and it was quite hot but it was lovely and clear so I wasn’t complaining. I was thinking back to the first time we’d done the peak when we’d had a terrible time getting up onto the west ridge from near Arnisdale. I can’t remember whether we found the marker cairn for the path up the steep, craggy and very rough side or not but we certainly didn’t manage to follow it. We had an hour of flogging up steep and loose rocks, craglets, heather with holes in it, boggy bits and, by the time we reached the shoulder, one of my hands was pouring blood from handling sharp rocks! That was when I studied the map on the shoulder before our return and decided we were heading out on the simple forest track and walking the three or four miles back round the road to the start!

I was therefore pretty surprised to find two guys getting it even more wrong than we did up ahead! They’d flogged up the extremely steep and loose side to join the ridge about half-way up – one of them looked totally knackered… But it was my turn to surprise them, and two guys descending above us, however when I turned off the path and headed for the bouldery burn between the two peaks! They all looked suitably bewildered…

I turned off here…

Instead of slogging up here!

I headed across easy grass to the burn and was pleased to find it was flowing quite lustily above ground at that point and could therefore be drunk from. I did have my coffee with me but, on such a hot day, I prefer nice, cool water – I scooped a flask-cupful out and drank it eagerly – lovely!

I headed off up various grass patches above the burn but it wasn’t great going and I often had to tackle small boulderfields instead. I was soon very out of breath and feeling a bit knackered myself. No matter – I could see it wasn’t far to go to the col.

When I reached the col, I was surprised what a beautiful grassy hollow lay between the various peaks. My NW top was up very easy grass and not far away – there was a NE ridge which curved round north and then west to the bog I’d come up from. I’d originally been going to descend that way but it was quite a bit longer and, Richard not having all that much to do at Glenelg (apart from perhaps booze in the pub!) I decided I couldn’t really extend my walk around it. I decided to head back the same way after a break.

NE summit from NW Top

Munro from my top

I had a little fight with myself while I drank a coffee and munched a fruity, oaty-bar to try to persuade myself to add in the main Munro peak and descend the normal route. In the end, three things put me off. General laziness/lack of fitness, the lack of a path up the boulders to the summit, and the realisation that, in missing the main summit, I was only behaving the same way as folks missing out the NW Top! I know we also missed it out originally but we did the Munro in horrible weather – rain, clag and a freezing gale – and Richard was pretty sick by the summit.

Decision made, I happily headed back down the burn of boulders – they were actually easier in descent for a change and I found sticking as far as possible to the burn itself was easier and provided more grass – it was quite fun really. You did have to be careful you didn’t fall through a weak spot into the underground burn though!

The route in from the descent – through the forest to the coast

Before leaving the delightful re-emerged burn, I had another good cupful of water and rejoined the path – still being watched in amazement by the two guys who were doing the main Munro – they probably thought I was nuts and had missed the summit…

Loch Hourn from Descent

The route past the loch on its eastern side was much quicker and quite a bit drier than the outward route and I was soon back at the hut and forest track. I ended up taking a full hour less than I said I would and surprising Richard just as he was heading to look around the small church in Glenelg village. We adjourned to the pub and then, rehydrated, I decided to drive us round to the ferry jetty as Richard had seen seals there…

Richard’s photos from Glenelg:

Beautiful pub garden

The Old Barracks

The Turntable Car Ferry – operated by hand! – for people who can’t reverse apparently…

Lovely Seals 🙂

Stats: 2864 feet of ascent, 8.5 miles, 4 hours