An extra day required more than usual in order to get up to Dundonnell for an early start on Friday. Arriving at the Smiddy around 8pm on the Thursday evening we had some snacks and a few drinks by the fire.
Friday morning Ken kindly dropped us off at the start point a couple of miles down the road at 8:30am and we headed into “Gleann Chaorachain”, an approximate 3 hour walk towards the river crossing. Due to the long dry spell the river was very low and we managed to cross it without any issues and with dry feet. We started the Fisherfield 6 with the demoted “Beinn a’ Chlaidheimh”, a big long slog up the East side, negotiating lots of crags on the way up, summiting just before 3pm with great views back to the impressive “An Teallach” ridge and across to the also impressive “Beinn Dearg Mor”.
Our plan for this weekend was to camp on the summit of “A’ Mhaighdean” but as the day progressed we were becoming doubtful that we would reach our proposed site that evening but we had all weekend in the hills so this was not such an issue for myself and Andy however Graeme had family commitments on Sunday therefore he took the wise decision to depart the trip having bagged the Corbett. Graeme headed back the Smiddy from the little Lochans at “Am Briseadh”, dropping down to the river and following the same route back out. Andy and myself continued on up the Boulder field to Sgurr Ban, past a rather cool shelter, summiting at 5:30pm. We didn’t waste any time at this summit and pushed on to the next for 6:45pm “Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair”, a rather steep, loose path all the way up.
Camp set up for the night at 7:30pm on a perfect little piece of flat ground just before the bypass path of “Meall Garbh” with a great view of “Slioch” and a nice sunset over our final Munro “Ruadh Stac Mor”.
Next morning we were packed up and away for 8am, bypassing “Meall Garbh” ( looking back to our campsite ) and a short walk onwards to our 3rd Munro “Beinn Tarsuinn” for 9:30am. Another great looking mountain with a nice flat area & ridge walk.
As we descended we were now running low on water so we found the smallest of springs from which we pumped / filtered a few litres of water, enjoyed a coffee break & 2nd breakfast. Now by my time markers on these Summits I’m sure you will agree we are not the fastest, especially with camping packs so we were surprised to meet this dude at 11:40am who had “ran” the same route as us, leaving Dundonnell early that same morning.
Now what can I say about “A’ Mhaighdean”, this was such a beautiful summit, in almost perfect conditions. The views all around were spectacular, it would’ve been a tremendous campsite however at 1:30pm we were a good 5 hours behind our guesstimated schedule, therefore it was a superb location for a late prolonged lunch enabling us to enjoy the setting to the fullest.
Onwards once more to the final target of the weekend, a small descent down before a little scramble up onto “Ruadh Stac Mor” summit for 4pm & a rucksack selfie.
Our walk out took us between the two bodies of water “Lochan a Bhraghad” until we reached the path following the river back to Shenavall Bothy with a nice view once again of “An Teallach” past the trees on the riverbank. Arriving at 8pm the Bothy was pretty much full so we had our second and final camp and some laughs with the others and “Eddie” the Dug.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed we were up early on Sunday, packed and on the move from Shenavall by 8am, ready for the 2.5 / 3 hour walk back out along “Allt a Chlaiginn” closely followed it seemed most of the way by the local Cuckoo ( who made a fly-by appearance ) until we joined our original path in at “Loch Coire Chaorachain”.
A quick phone call to Ken 10 minutes out from the road and Ken came back to collect us with his own stories of a night spent in the Dundonnall Hotel with some locals of the fairer kind :O)
What a weekend.
