| | ||||||||
|
Sgurr Thuilm Sgurr nan Coireachan Map These two hills lie in Glen Finnan, a beautiful spot, which is famous for two things: 1. It was the place where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed and raised his standard at the start of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. A monument here commemorates the occasion and it makes a striking photograph - the stark stone column overlooking the bay and framed by mountains which sweep dramatically down to the loch on either side. The rebellion was to end in defeat at Culloden. 2. The elegantly curving railway viaduct which carries the line from Fort William to Mallaig. This too is very photogenic and appears on many a postcard. The viaduct was completed in 1897, constructed from concrete blocks, and local legend has it that when it was being built a horse and cart fell into one of the hollow pillars and were entombed therein. More recently the viaduct appeared in a steam train scene in one of the Harry Potter films. Throughout the summer steam trains take tourists along this line, a very beautiful stretch of countryside.
The weekend was going to be my last munro-bagging trip of 2005 and it was the first time I'd ever been up there in October. I had driven to Ramsbottom on the Friday night, the usual dire journey with masses of slow-moving traffic, and stayed at Andrew's flat for the night. Then on Saturday we drove all the way up to Mallaig as Andrew hadn't stayed there before. It's a small fishing port at the end of the 'Road to the Isles' from Fort William, a very pleasant place where we were able to find accommodation on the sea front at the Springbank Guest House for £18.50. That evening the only vegetarian option we could find in the pubs was pizza. We had some in the Steam Mill and I wasn't impressed - made me constipated for the next day or so. On Sunday we drove along to Glen Finnan and parked the car at the visitor centre car park - should have parked in the turn-off just before it. The weather didn't look very good - it was overcast and fine droplets of water were already hanging in the air. As we set off down the track we met a couple of men, father and son, who seemed to think we were nuts for setting off then. The father said he'd had angioplasty a couple of years earlier to cure his angina. He looked well enough. Both of them had just been made redundant from a paper factory at Fort William, after working there for 40 and 32 years respectively.
It was 10.00 when we set off up the track, initially through a lightly wooded area. The track itself was a good tarmaced single track road which followed the river for 2 miles, taking us below the viaduct and on to Glenfinnan Lodge. From there it became a rougher, unmetalled cart-track for another mile, as far as the wooden bridge over the River Finnan which marks the start of the ascent of Sgurr Thuilm.
The tops of the hills were once again shrouded in cloud and by the time we reached the top (1.20) after a straightforward climb up an undemanding, grassy slope, it was raining. Despite being October it had been very mild down in the glen - T-shirt weather - but up here on the summit it was very different. A piercing, cold wind was blowing the rain into our faces and as soon as you stopped moving for more than a couple of minutes the cold began to sink into you, despite the several layers we both now had on.
Not much by way of views there because of the cloud so we pressed on at 1.30, having taken a couple of photos and had a quick bite to eat. The route now lay to the west and comprised a 2-mile ridge walk crossing over four intervening hillocks before reaching the next Munro, Sgurr nan Coireachan. Inspired by cloud and cold and rain my poetical muse was not be denied and I found myself consistently thinking of our Grand Expedition as 'the Pillocks on the Hillocks'. Difficult to shed such a term once it's planted itself in your brain. The rain continued until we got to the top of the 4th hillock (Meall an Tarmachain) at which point it stopped and we at last got the occasional break in the cloud yielding a view of the ridge, the tops and the valley below. The ridge had been quite tiring with its 4 intermediate sets of ups and downs but we now slogged up the final slope to Sgurr nan Coireachan and gained the rocky summit at 3.40. Seems quite a slow time but that's what it took.
Now the guide book suggests descending via the SE spur which involves a substantial bit of re-ascent to get over a subsidiary, 852 metre peak called Sgurr a Choire Riabhaich. We were both ready to forgo this pleasure, however, and having descended as far as the bealach we peered hopefully over the eastern hillside in search of a way down. It was very steep - grass, rocks and crags - and we had to pick our way with care but it all worked out ok and took us down to the base of the corrie quite quickly. I was wearing a pair of waterproof (ha!) nylon overtrousers and glissaded part of the way down on my bum - it's an easy and quick way to do it as long as you're aware of the dangers ie going too fast and being unable to stop or sliding over a hidden rock and scraping your bits off. Care is obviously needed! Anyway it worked fine on this occasion, although Andrew took the more pedestrian approach.
At the bottom we yomped over a grassy, boggy watery area, grateful that the midge season was over as it looked the sort of spot they enjoy, until we came to a landrover track. We followed this back to the wooden bridge from where we'd started the first ascent and after that it was just a case of retracing our inbound route. One mile took us back to Glenfinnan Lodge (it's some distance up a hillside but a couple of lights flickering through the gathering gloom showed that it was occupied) then a final 2 miles brought us back to the car park (7.00). During the final stretch it began raining again and we were pretty soggy by the time we finished. We drove to Fort William and got B&B for £24. Had quite a decent meal of vegetable tagliatelle at the Grog and Gruel. | ||||||||
 | ||||||||
