Meall nan Con - 2

The descent from the summit of Meall nan Con, seen here, into the valley to its immediate west, required a detour to the south to avoid this steep face.  The valley contains three lochans.  The first, tucked close under the mountain, is shallow and filled with weed.

 The second is much deeper, a beautiful little lochan which probably holds some fine trout.

The third, again, rather shallow, is the only one named on the OS map - Lochain Mhic Dhonuill Dhuibh, which might mean MacDonald's black lochan, though there was nothing black about it the day we saw it.

Beyond the lochans the landscape changes.  The underlying rock is the gabbro of the Ardnamurchan Ring Complex, an iron-rich rock which weathers into great, rounded boulders.  There are two summits here, both, according to the OS map, under the name Meall Meadhoin, the central mountain.

From the top of the more western, there is a fine view across the whole of the Ardnamurchan igneous complex, a great circle of rock which looks like, but isn't, the crater of a volcano.  It's probably best described as the guts of a volcano, so severe was the erosion during the last glaciation.  The dark ridge on the far side is Beinn na h-Imeilte, the hill of many streams.

Away to the north, we looked towards Rum, on the left, Eigg, with its very distinctive tipped lava flow, and, in the mists to the far right, the Cuillins of Skye.

An interactive map of the area is here.