The west ridge of Beinn Gaire is quite well defined up to a subsidiary top and then a small col must be crossed onto a higher ridge. No sign here of the two little lochans marked on the map, only a few boggy puddles could be seen. We paused on the west top with its views out towards Rum, then walked across to the highest unmarked summit for lunch. A broad ridge leads to the foot of Croit Bheinn and a steep ascent leads up to the small cairn on this undistinguished yet airy top with steep slopes all round.
Glens Gluitanen and Moidart seemed the obvious route for return but the going was awful, quite apart from the awkward but interesting traverse from one to the other via Bealach na Lice which is less inappropriately named than might appear from a casual glance at the map. The extensive ruined huts and signs of strip cultivation at Ulgary had us speculating on their age and origin but there was little else of interest in the valley and it would have been pleasanter and probably faster to have retraced our steps over Beinn Gaire.
We came back down the ridge and then into the dreaded valley, keeping quite high at first behind a couple of hillocks which are perhaps glacial drumlins. The valley was a lot less unpleasant than we expected and we finished the day with a restful detour around the waymarked Strontian River walk.
We came over from the Mallaig road, losing the path in the boggy headwaters of Allt na Criche but picking it up again as it dropped steeply down past Prince Charlie's inhospitable looking cave to the foot of Loch Beoraid. The south-western slopes of Meith Bheinn looked so rough and intimidating that we decided to use the track up the Allt Slaite Coire. Where this ran out in the flat upper valley we crossed the river and tackled the steep slopes which are at their least craggy on this north-western corner of the hill. The summit has a broken trig point (9788) and on a small concrete slab on the rock nearby is scratched
OS
P.J.McNICHOL
B.BARLOW
MAY
1965
I have never noticed such a thing on any other hill and it seemed quite appropriate that these men saw fit to mark their visit to one of Scotland's remotest trig points. We wondered if they had come here to erect it. I hope they had a day as splendid as we did to enjoy the superlative view. Both the Rum and Skye Cuillin were conspicuous beyond the long lochs of Nevis and Morar. Eastwards the well loved summits of Lochaber were spread before us with Sgurr na Ciche particularly prominent and Ben Nevis, with only the tiniest patches of snow, glimpsed in the distance.
We left by the north-east ridge and lower down worked a way through the crags to the weedy lochan below Druim a'Chuirn. The lovely summit of this 584m Marilyn was completely unmarked and had we not known better we could have imagined ourselves its first visitors. Here we enjoyed another long rest to admire once again a panorama very similar to that from Meith Bheinn and perhaps even more beautiful as rather stormy clouds drifted in against a backdrop of wispy white ones.
We continued on the west ridge until we could make a grassy descent into Slaite Corrie and we varied our return by tracing the vanishing upper path back to the Allt na Criche and thus to the car after a rewarding eleven and a half hour walk.
We planned to cycle as far as possible up Glen Scaddle but made a fortunate last minute decision to leave the bikes in the car and incorporate the Marilyn, Druim Leathad nam Fias, in the circuit rather than leaving it as an optional extra to be added as a tail if time allowed. We crossed the river by the first dilapidated bridge and climbed steeply to the broad ridge above which was less boggy than we feared with only a few easy peat hags to negotiate. An old fence, now just posts with an occasional superfluous gate, runs right to the top of the Graham so this walk could be done in mist, although with a lot less pleasure. The far reaching views and openness of this long flat ridge were a delight on this clear day.
Beyond a boggy col a steep ascent leads to a flat area with two attractive lochans. Hence an even steeper albeit grassy climb leads up to summit ridge of Stob Mhic Bheathain. A large cairn stands at the eastern end of a rocky crest. The very highest point is an unmarked rock some 200m further west according to both map and tables. From here we could glimpse the area around Resourie where we had turned back before. After enjoying the view from the summit we returned to Lochan nan Stob and then skirted round to the easy ridge which runs down to the locked bothy at Tighnacomaire, conspicuously bright with a fresh coat of whitewash. Having an old map we feared that the valley track might have disappeared amongst trees so, with sunset imminent, we made the extra effort to use the forest track which climbs quite high onto the southern slopes of Glen Scaddle. We were rewarded by beautiful retrospective views to the array of Corbetts and Grahams around the head of this glen and by Ben Nevis directly in front of us glowing in the red light of the setting sun. Eventually, where valley track and forest road rejoin, we found a notice exhorting walkers to use track rather than road and claiming that it leads to Resourie bothy. It was completely dark by the time we arrived back at the road after an extremely satisfying circuit.
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