I was making good progress along the single track A838 Lairg to Laxford Bridge Road and as dawn made an appearance I was along the side of Loch Merkland when a stag came out of the ditch into the path of my car. Fortunately the stag rolled and didn’t go over or under my car so the damage wasn’t serious although it will be costly. (was) A couple more deer had the same intentions before I arrived at my starting point for the ascent of the Corbett, Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill, Kinloch, at the south end of Loch More, where I parked at the start of the access road to Aultanrynie.
The walk commenced along this access road passed an old cemetery and to the house at Aultanrynie where just prior to this property a vehicle track headed north-east up the side of the Allt an Reinidh.
I utilised this track as it zigzagged uphill before the gradient eased and it headed in a south-easterly direction below then round the east side of Meallan Liath Beag Far South Top where it came to an end to be replaced by a quad vehicle trail.
I left the track here and climbed this hill where I had some good views along Loch More to Ben Stack. At the same time there was some thin cloud floating around causing a few brocken spectres.
After taking some photos I headed over to the Tump, Meallan Liath Beag South Top, then onto Meallan Liath Beag.
Beyond, the gradient increased and the ridge narrowed a bit before I reached Carn Dearg’s South-West Ridge. A descent south-west then north-west took me round the crags above Coire Loch then it was a short climb to the summit of Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill East Top. There was then a loss of several metres to the col with Sail Rac when most walkers then head for the summit of the Corbett, Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill.
However before that I had three Graham Tops to climb so I continued round the head of Coire Loch with a fairly steep ascent to the summit of Sail Rac. It was then a tricky descent north-west across lose boulders then a climb to Tatha nam Beann where there were good views of Arkle and Foinaven.
I returned to Sail Rac and this time descended north-east where more boulders were crossed before climbing Meall Garbh. Then again it was back over Sail Rac to the col with Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill before ascending over some stony ground to reach its summit.
After a break sheltering from the wind I descended south, lower down crossing some wet ground, before ascending the Tump, Meall Reinidh. I then walked east to cross the gully of the Allt an Reinidh followed by some peat hags before rejoining the vehicle track used earlier that day.
- Time taken – 8 hours.
- Distance – 21.5 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 1425 metres.