The previous day we had cycled up Glen Elchaig to climb the Corbetts, Aonach Buidhe and Faochaig, so today’s return to Glen Elchaig was to ascend the Munro, Mullach na Dheiragain. The starting point was the car park west of the hamlet of Killilan, reached along a single track road from the A87 Kyle of Lochalsh to Dornie Road, west of Dornie Bridge.
In a headwind we set off on our bikes along the tarred road through Killilan and into Glen Elchaig. After a few miles the tarred road was replaced by an estate track and not far along it we came to a locked gate in a deer fence. It was just possible to get the bikes through the adjoining kissing gate. The now undulating route continued up the glen above the River Elchaig then later on the north-west side of Loch na Leitreach. After the house at Carnach the vehicle track ran through Srath Duilleach to the house at Iron Lodge.
The bikes were left at the side of the track above this house before descending to Iron Lodge where we located a muddy vehicle track at the side of the property. Fortunately the mud was short lived as the gradient soon increased and it was a steep climb through the zigzags passed the Allt Sgairt Lair Waterfall.
Eventually the gradient eased and we continued east on the now undulating track above Loch an Droma then an unnamed lochan.
On reaching the junction of tracks we took a right but the condition of this track soon deteriorated as it crossed some wet ground, churned up by quad vehicles, to reach a bridge over the Abhainn Sithidh.
An initially boggy track then continued towards Gleann Sithidh but we soon left it and climbed steadily east towards Creag a’ Choir’ Ard avoiding the rocks and higher up entering a small gully where the ground was a bit steeper.
A cold wind was blowing on the summit of Creag a’ Choir’ Ard where we had some grand views of the surrounding mountains as well as down to the west end of Loch Mullardoch.
A short drop took us to the Bealach Sithidh then it was a long steady climb to reach the Munro Top, Mullach Sithidh.
From here we lost a bit of height before the final climb to the summit of the Munro, Mullach na Dheiragain, marked by a cairn. It had taken us five hours to reach this summit so it was time for a break while taking in the surrounding views which included some of the Glen Affric Munros.
Afterwards we returned to Creag a’ Choir’ Ard, descended north-east then west below the crags, before heading for the Abhainn Sithidh and returning to Iron Lodge where the midges were attacking us. On the route back to Killilan we cycled through swarms of the little devils!
- Time taken – 9 hours.
- Distance – 40 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 1555 metres.