Walked with Andy Coleman up the Coire Dubh path at a fair rate. From the turn onto the
Coire Mhic Fhearchair path we started looking at the work he had done
on it. The boulder pitching and their use
of treaders (like stepping stones) was particularly good.
12.00 at the Coire Mhic Fhearchair, the cloud was coming over the Triple Buttress
and I wondered whether to press on, but I’m glad I did. Had a bite
to eat and then climbed the left hand skyline of Ruadh Stac Mor, the
highest point of Beinn Eighe. It looked like a lot of boulder scree,
but it wasn’t all that bad, with a couple of vegetated sections to
help. It was quite interesting to notice a faint path developing on
these two bits. Obviously I was not the first.
Good
time to the top (1.00), stops to
photograph the triple Buttresses and have a bite of lunch. I skirted Coinneach Mor and traversed in increasingly
prevalent cloud to Spidean Coire nan Clach. I hadn’t remembered
that the trig point was so far back from this top, and traversed a
couple of hundred metres in the clag beyond it to the highest point.
Back
at the trig point, I dropped off down many small, naturally-formed
zig-zags towards a side peak, a cairn at a col marked the top of the
steeper descent into Coire na Laogh. This was uncomfortably steep and
tending to erode into a gully where the path had been. It was 1975
the last time I’d been up here!
Further
down, the pathwork re-started, and again it was the
beautifully-crafted stonework of John Jewel. On long, thin piece of
sandstone in a water bar looked like a piece of planed wood! Pleased
to be down to the road for 3.15. A couple of miles’ road walking
was saved because the first car to come along stopped to give me a
lift!
Area :
Cuillin and Torridon (Liathach)
This area is on the west coast of Scotland and its most well-known mountains are probably Beinn Eighe (1010m) and Liathach (1055m). The area is bordered by Loch Maree and the A832 to the north and Glen Carron and the A890 to the south. It should not to be confused with The Cuillin which is on Skye and listed in the Western Isles region. The mountains list contains all peaks above 800m.
