Today we parked close by the same spot with the waters now well ruffled and a good deal higher. The route from here is obvious from the map, sliding between coniferous and deciduous trees. The ridge is quite steep on the north and it is pleasanter to make the effort to stay on it, although one could easily take a boggy beeline for the summit instead.
The pride of this hill is its magnificent full length vista of Loch Laggan. With the western hills rather hazy today, the sharp outline of Binnein Shios was particularly prominent with the more pointed summit of its neighbour Binnein Shuas peeping over the top. We descended westwards, alongside the sizeable summit lochan and dropped into the very flat Glen Shirra which separates this hill so sharply from Creag Meagaidh and its satellites.
The summit plateau of Creag a'Choire Ghlais is completely flat and mossy, unmarked by any cairn, so I was glad that the mist had dispersed by the time I reached it, although the clarity revealed another hill northwards which looked convicingly higher, despite the assurances of the OS to the contrary.
The col between Creag a'Choire Ghlais and Creag Mhor is one of the boggiest in Scotland and well riven by peat hags. No wonder that the path goes through well above it. Mist had come down again by the time I reached the top of Creag Mhor and the only feature of interest was a golf club and two new golf balls lying inside the shelter which surrounds the trig point. The lack of a view was of little consequence for I was already drunk with delight at the vast panoramas which I had enjoyed all day from these remote hills.
We parked as near as we could get to West Merkland, at the north end of the loch. Here we sat in the car and debated whether to start the walk or not. Since it was pouring with rain and the forecast promised no improvement until the afternoon the discussion seemed little more than a time killing formality but after a few minutes big patches of blue sky began to appear. Without this delay the idea of going straight onto the hill from the car and approaching Carn an Tionail by way of Loch Eas na Maoile would not have occured to us. This route, although probably longer in time and effort, added an extra delight to the day for this loch, little more than a mile from the road, has an atmosphere of complete remoteness.
Carn an Tionail is a long broad and grassy ridge, very steep on the eastern side, with two distinct tops, the more northerly being the highest. It would be even more splendid as a beautifully graded descent and I would love to repeat this circuit in the other direction. Mist remained swirling around the impressive looking ridges of the Corbett Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill to the west but eastwards was a view more typical of the far north with the bold silhouettes of Ben Hope and Ben Loyal beyond the uninteresting mound of the much lower Graham, Beinn Direach, which was our next destination.
The crossing would be quite a challenge in misty conditions with a beeline impracticable and lots of little crags to negotiate. With the weather still improving it gave us no problems and we stopped for lunch right on the true col beside an attractive little lochan amongst a jumble of rocks, a spot reminiscent of the wild ridges of Knoydart.
We swung eastwards on the ascent of Beinn Direach to catch a glimpse of the great gash of a north-eastern corrie running down to an unexpectedly green and rural valley far below. The easy reascent over Meall a' Chleirich was a mistake perhaps. The valley bogs might well have been less painful than the very steep southern flanks of this insignificant outlier.
The path rose pleasantly through the ancient forest but beyond the bifurcation there was little sign of the continuation to Struy. We made a boggy beeline for the summit but realised later that it would have been pleasanter to go straight onto Carn a' Mhuilt and follow the unexpectedly well defined ridge over all the bumps.
As the name implies the summit carries a cairn, well built but not substantial enough to give much shelter from the strong cold wind. We dropped down to Loch Coir' an Uillt Ghuibhais for lunch and then crossed the shoulder of Sgorr na Ruadhraich to return down the Allt Coire nam Brathan.
The closest approach would be from the shores of Loch Rannoch but since we were driving south on the A9 we rode in from Dalnaspidal, reaching the south end of Loch Garry at full speed, courtesy of a strong north wind. From here it is only a short crossing of the bog to an elaborate bridge across the Allt Shallainn and another landrover track which runs up to the col below the western slopes of the hill.
The view is not dramatic either, all the nearer hills being Corbetts of a similarly rolling nature, but it has a wonderful spaciousness with higher, unidentified, mountains glimpsed far away to the south and west.
We returned the same way, the very pleasant Duinish bothy providing a welcome lunch halt before struggling back against the strong and bitterly cold north wind.
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