The previous day I was in Glen Moidart to climb the Hump, Creag nan Lochan, and to check out the initial route for the ascent of the Grahams, Beinn Gaire and Croit Bheinn noting there was quite a bit of flooding.
I returned to the car park at the end of the public road in Glen Moidart, accessed from Ardmolich on the A861 Lochailort to Salen Road, and walked back up the glen noting that the rivers and streams were back to normal.
On approaching the power station there were some cattle in the vicinity and on the track so we took a short diversion round this building but the cattle decided to pursue us and had to be chased away.
We crossed the Glenforslan River via the bridge and before reaching the ruins at Glenforslan left the track and commenced the ascent of the south-west ridge of Beinn Gaire.
A stock fence was crossed and higher up we avoided a gully spotting more cattle but they were far enough away not to be a problem.
Beyond the gully the ground was rough and undulating and here the dog briefly set off after a fox. Beinn Gaire’s summit cairn was reached although a nearby rock was obviously higher.
After a break here we made the long descent across more undulating ground to the Bealach a’ Choire Mhoir meeting a chap heading up the hill from Glen Aladale where he had camped. From the bealach it was a steady climb through some rocks to reach the cairn marking the summit of Croit Bheinn disturbing a couple of stags resting nearby. Here we took another break with some good views of the nearby mountains.
Our plan was to return over Beinn Gaire but we decided to avoid its reascent. We headed back towards Bealach a’ Choire Mhoir then descended into Glen Gluitanen crossing some rough vegetation. There was a slight improvement in the underfoot conditions once in the glen with a few animal trails to follow.
At the Bealach na Lice we had to stay high to avoid the gully then we were back in Glen Moidart. It was a long walk down this glen with more rough walking occasionally making use of animal trails which made things slightly easier.
We returned to the ruins at Glenforslan and here encountered the cattle again but managed to chase them off although the dog got rather excited. The estate track was then followed back to the start.
- Time taken – 9.5 hours.
- Distance – 19.75 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 1030 metres.