Lochan a' Choire Chruinn

With another beautiful sunrise this morning and a fine day in prospect - the view here looks across the Sound of Mull to Tobermory, with Beinn Talaidh in the distance - we decided to take our first serious walk after returning from holiday.

The red deer rutting season has started, so we chose to keep on croft land, leaving the car by Creag an Airgid on the Sanna road and striking out eastwards in the direction of Meall an Tarmachain, following the Ardnamurchan Estate fence.  By that time the sun was firmly out and the countryside at its October best, glowing in the clear air.  This picture was taken from a small hill near the road looking northwest, with the high ridge of Beinn na h-Imeilte to the left and Meall Sanna the dark lump to the right.

The wonderful clarity of the air is was proved by the number of peaks on the islands of the Outer Hebrides we could see, strung out along the horizon.  The Sanna road is visible at bottom right of the picture.

As we walked we could hear the gruff calls of the stags over the fence on Estate land, and soon spotted three stags running up the hill, one of which turned to watch us for a few moments.

If there was an objective for our walk, it was Lochan a' Choire Chruinn, seen here from the first hilltop we reached, Meall an Fhreiceadain, with Meall an Tarmachain, ptarmigan hill, on the horizon and the bowl of Coire Cruinn, the round corrie, below it.  Fhreiceadain means guard or watch, and one does wonder why the hill was given the name, particularly in view of the battle which took place between the MacIains and the Macdonalds in 1519 - see earlier Diary posts here and here.

Having walked to the lochan, and not having the energy to try Meall an Tarmachain, we climbed the un-named hill beyond the lochan, turning to look back across the lochan towards Beinn na Seilg.

Looking almost south, we could see the green fields of Ormsaigmore and Ormsaigbeg, with the Sound of Mull beyond.  But by this time a line of rain clouds was heaving up from the west so we dropped off the northern side of the hill and followed the Estate fence back to the car.

A map of the area walked is here.