Maclean's Nose - 2

A previous post - here - described how we walked along the southeastern flank of Ben Hiant until we were poised above a steep slope which led us down onto Maclean's Nose.

As we began to descend so the view to the west opened up, and we could look along the coast towards the end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula.  The high point in the distance is Beinn na Seilg, below which can be seen the townships of Kilchoan, Ormsaigmore and Ormsaigbeg.  The day remained very still, and persistent high cloud rather spoiled the distant views. 

This picture was taken at the furthest point of our walk, looking almost straight down from the bridge of Mr Maclean's nose to the waters far below.  The Diary does not enjoy such vertiginous views while the Diary's wife is quite unruffled by them - she sat on the rock on the right to enjoy the contents of her thermos flask while the Diary stood well back from the edge feeling slightly sick.

The Diary's queaziness was made worse by the toy boats passing far below.  This is Fergusson Transport's Harvest Anne on her way up Loch Sunart, probably to deliver fish food to one of the salmon farms.

Maclean's Nose is largely formed of an agglomerate, a mass of smashed rock from the size of boulders downwards, which collected in the mouth of one of the many volcanic vents which were active here some 60 million years ago.  Many of the slopes looked far from stable.

This view, taken shortly before the Diary fled back up the hill to safety, looks up Loch Sunart, with the flat headland of Ardslignish in the middle distance.  By this time the cloud was beginning to break, so we had a pleasant, sunny walk back to the car.  It was good to get back - the horizontal distance we walked doesn't look far, but we were constantly scrambling up and down steep slopes, and the ground was very broken.

An interactive map of the area is here.