[Trip Index] [Munro Index] [Home] Glen Creran - 31st March 2006   Beinn Sgulaird Map On the days leading up to this trip I'd been looking at the weather forecast on the BBC web site and every time I looked it had been pretty discouraging: heavy rain, heavy rain and rain for the 3 days. In the event, however, it wasn't that bad at all. I left work at 4.15 on the Thursday and drove north, making good enough time to get to my favourite layby at Moffat by 10.30. I spent a fairly patchy night, sleepwise, but rose at 5.30, set off at 5.50 and was in Tyndrum by 8.20. The plan had been to get the train from Bridge of Orchy and do Sgor Gaibhre and Carn Dearg but as it was teeming down by now, just per the forecast, I didn't have the heart to commit to that. It wouldn't have been fun sitting in the railway station at Corrour for 7 hours waiting for the train back again. Instead I worked out Plan B which involved driving round to the West coast, parking at Elleric and having a bash at Beinn Sgulaird if the weather improved. There wasn't a long walk-in for this hill and as a singleton I was hoping it would be possible to do it in a reasonably short time. I had one of those fine veggy breakfasts at the Green Welly to set me up for the day and then drove over to Elleric where I then watched the raindrops chasing each other down the windscreen for an hour. I'd got ready, donned my boots and so on but after an hour I was getting sufficiently disheartened to think about taking them off again and going to look for a Pencil Museum. Instead I decided to give it another 10 minutes and was rewarded by it clearing up. From that point on I wasn't troubled with rain for the rest of the trip. Beinn Sgulaird and Glenure Farm First of all I set off up the wrong road and followed it for half a mile before realising it was never going to turn in the right direction. The other road had been marked 'Private Access' which is why I'd not taken it, but now I think it must just have meant no cars. Anyway by 12.30 I was finally away on the right road and made my way over to Glenure Farm and over the bridge as Cameron advises. He then tells you to continue SE up the mountainside. Well I did just that and found it horribly steep and even dangerous in some parts. I certainly ended up having to make some fairly committing moves. The terrain there was steep and grassy with a lot of crags, getting stonier the higher up I got. I had to use my knees to scramble up some places, a technique all the best books and pundits deplore. It worked though. Some sections were a bit dicey and would have been difficult to reverse out of had the need arisen. Also, of course, the degree of steepness there meant that the ascent was extremely knackering. What you should do, for the record, is swing round to the West and ascend over there where it's less craggy and (slightly) less steep. Still, I eventually got past the steep section and then just had a small climb up easier slopes to reach the col between Beinn Sgulaird and a small eminence to the NE of it. Thence to the top (3.30). There was some light cloud around the top so no decent views to be seen. Some snow under foot too, but not as much as on Stuc a Chroin the previous month. Not enough to make me put the crampons on, although I had brought them with me. The 'top'. Hmph! I wasn't prepared to return the same way I'd come so I did the sensible thing and swung round in an arc, heading initially NW in order to avoid the steep crags. All went well , a lot easier though a bit longer. The lower slopes were covered in long wet grass which was quite slippery. The final descent back to the cart-track was through lightly wooded terrain, still steep but now with the additional hazards of leaves and mouldy twigs to negotiate. I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the car (5.53). Where Cameron gets the idea it can all be done in 3 hours beats me. The local red deer offering their opinion Overall a nice afternoon with no rain and even some sun later on. I spent the night at Mike and Chris Richardson's B&B, 'Strathassynt', in S. Ballachulish (£30). He wasn't a Scot, sounded more like a Geordie. Obtained an average veggy lasagne & chips in the Laroch Bar across the road, washed down with a Guinness. Addendum I have now discovered there was a further peak obscured by the cloud, just beyond where I got to. I have seen a photo of the correct summit cairn and now have to do it all over again. Oh... bollocks.