Hill walking friends contacted me as they noted the weather forecast for the weekend was good and had booked accommodation at Kinloch on the Isle of Rum, which included dinner. So on Friday morning I set off for Malliag to catch the lunchtime ferry with the intention the following day of climbing the Corbetts Askival, and Ainshval and the Graham, Trollaval.
On arriving at Kinloch Pier on the Isle of Rum we were met by the accommodation provider who transported our baggage while we walked round the bay to Ivy Cottage, located immediately north-east of the grounds of Kinloch Castle.
A guided tour of the Castle was about to start so my friends headed off there while I climbed the Hump, Barkeval. A path at the south side of the Castle, signposted the Rum Cuillin, led to a small gate then to the hydro power house. The path, which was wet and boggy in parts, continued up the west side of the Allt Slugan a’ Choilich soon emerging from the trees. Despite the underfoot conditions good progress was made to a hydro dam and water intake and beyond an old rusty deer fence with its missing gate.
The path then headed into Coire Dubh and on reaching an old dam I crossed the stream and followed a path on the north side of a tributary. Higher up the path became rather eroded before I gained the col just to the south of a knoll.
Gravel and rocks were crossed to reach the Bealach Bairc-mheal then I commenced the ascent of Barkeval across a mixture of vegetation, rocks and stones.
A cairn at the east end of the ridge was reached but this wasn’t the highest point, it was a further six hundred and fifty metres west along a slightly undulating and rocky ridge.
The sun had been out since we set sail from Mallaig and with a light breeze on the summit the conditions were ideal. The only downside was I didn’t have a lot of time to hang around as dinner was being served in less than two hours and it had taken me that length of time to reach this top. I returned along the ridge for a few hundred metres before making a more direct descent through heather, stones and gravel to reach the path beside the old dam in Coire Dubh. This path was then followed back to Kinloch arriving there with time to spare.
- Time taken – 3.25 hours.
- Distance – 9 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 625 metres.