A Drizzly Day in the Hills

A run of damp grey days over Christmas and the New Year gave us some sort of feeble excuse not to spend too much time in the hills, but today we ventured once again into Ardnamurchan's deserted wilderness.  As someone said in the pub last night, bad weather is no excuse, not if you're properly equipped.

So, with dark clouds heaving up from the west, we took a walk along the ridge of Beinn na h-Imeilte - and wonderful it was to be in the fresh air.  We left the car on the Sanna road below the forbidding rock face of Creag an Airgid and set out along the southwestern flank of the ridge with its views across Lochan na Crannaig to Beinn na Seilg.

Beinn na h-Imeilte is a graveyard of erratics, rocks which were picked up by the glaciers 10,000 or more years ago and moved, sometimes great distances, before being dumped.  Many lie along its ridge line, some weighing a tonne or more.  It's common for there to be a patch of bare rock around them.  Why this hill boasts so many erratics, why so many big ones perch along its spine, and why they sit in these bare patches - all are a bit of a mystery.

By this time the drizzle had arrived, which was fine as we were prepared for it.  The only problems rain poses are that slopes, already saturated from days of rain, become even more slippery, and handling the camera becomes difficult - but it's not the camera's fault that these pictures don't do justice to this magnificent scenery.

We followed the flank of the hill until we could see across the valley of the burn called Sruthen Bhraigh nan Allt to Beinn Buidhe, against whose slopes the scattered houses of the tiny township of Achosnich nestle, the view blurred by drifting veils of rain.  We then turned and climbed across the ridge, coming into the full blast of the westerly wind at the top before dropping down into the lee of the hill.

From this side there's a view which, on a fine day, looks tens of miles across the Minches to the Lesser Isles, but not today.  Not that it mattered, because standing, looking down 150 metres into this great bowl of land is awesome enough.  The rain may have been trickling down our collars, but we stood for some minutes enjoying a sense of wonder, and of thankfulness, that we are privileged enough to be able to enjoy these beautiful places.

We then turned back towards the Sanna road, walking directly towards Creag and Airgid, its summit plunging in and out of low cloud.  But, as we walked, we sensed that the light was increasing and, sure enough, by the time we stopped at the Kilchoan shop to pick up the paper, the sun had come out.

An interactive map of the area is here.