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Mullach nan Coirean Stob Ban Map Stayed Ballachulish, £21. Aye, well that's my recollections of it. Here is Andrew's account: Despite a hard day yesterday we embarked on a challenging circuit on the western fringe of the Mamores - along the valley to the edge of the forest where a fence protects it from deer, then a right turn up a very fierce ascent, approximately 1:1, up to the northern ridge of Mullach nan Coirean. This ridge led right up a narrow trek to the summit where we met a chap from near Blackpool who appeared to know the circuit quite well - he explained how after work this last few weeks he'd been driving into the Yorkshire Moors/Dales to do a climb each evening. Easy walk along the ridge in brilliant sunshine but then a gruelling climb up the quartzite cap of Stob Ban which has marble-like slabs all over the summit.
At the top we caught up with a Yorkshire gent in a colonial style hat, with his Italian mate. The track down double-backed down this quartzite and there were some awesome views down gullys to the north, some of the best views we've had. Eventually this track led to the stalkers' track which had come all the way up the Allt Coire a Mhusgain and still the sun shone down with unmitigated ferocity. This path (often a gouged-out, foot-wide, foot deep trench) dropped very quickly so that the view back up to Stob Ban was spectacularly aching on the neck.
There were some grand views to the left of the deep cleft in the rocks through which the 'allt' flows downwards. By this time my feet, sensitive from the very start of the walk, were raw and each step on stones or grass or packed path represented a severe test of pain. Then we drove to Ballachulish where at last we found B&B (£21, the most we've ever spent) at Lyn Leven, a guest house. In the Laorach, just part of the old site of the station (the trackbed now built on but the site of the station still close) I chatted to two brothers, originally from Bolton - one worked at Salford Uni, looking after the computers 'and repairing them when the students break them.' He lived at Daffcocker. They'd been fed up with the extreme heat of this week and decided to avoid walking (Friday), so they'd spent the day in Fort William pubs! They've walked up the West Highland Way, something a lot seem to be doing. The view from Stob Ban gives a most interesting watershed prospect - to the left is Glen Nevis, at the end of which is Fort William. To the right you can see the track leading down to Kinlochleven and the reservoir above the town - a great distance away. | ||
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