With a reasonable forecast I decided to climb a couple of lesser visited hills west of the head of Loch Shiel. I left my car on rough ground on the south side of the A830 Fort William to Mallaig Road west of Glenfinnan at grid reference NM856813. I crossed a locked stock gate, the bridge over the Allt Lon a’ Mhuidhe then the private level crossing of the Fort William to Mallaig railway line.
Once on the south side I walked south-east planning to make a direct ascent of An t-Sleubhaich but soon cancelled that idea as the long grass was wet and the ground a bit waterlogged after heavy rain a few days previous. I thereafter located the grassy path, it was also a bit wet, and headed south-west just below a ridge line. This took me away from my planned hills but the thought was that higher up I might be able to cut across the hillside.
The path later turned south, became less obvious, and later disappeared.
There didn’t appear to be a suitable route to traverse east so I continued south to a small lochan, climbed into Coire a’ Choin Duinn then to a col south of the Corbett Top, Beinn Odhar Mhor. At 690 metres I was away higher than my targeted hills at 533 and 530 metres and further away from An t-Sleubhaich than I had been at the start.
It was a steep drop east, avoiding some crags, into Coire Odhar, losing several hundred metres in the process.
I crossed the Allt a’ Choire Odhair then later turned south-east and climbed through some rough ground onto Meall a’ Bhrodainn. The highest point of this Tump was an outcrop.
The descent north-east was fairly steep at times and passed to the west of Lochan nan Sleubhaich, then there were lots of outcrops to avoid as I climbed north-east onto the summit of the Hump, An t-Sleubhaich, marked by an outcrop.
Despite the interesting approach route I had no intention of reversing it so descended west, initially easy enough, then it was hard work through very rough ground including tussocks and a few small gullies. This took me to the edge of the well spaced trees at Doire Dhamh, some of which had been blown down. Low down there was a large stretch of long grass with hollows, which was wet underfoot but by this time my feet were wet anyway so it didn’t make any difference as I aimed for the railway crossing and the locked gate.
- Time taken – 5.75 hours.
- Distance – 10.25 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 855 metres.