An Unintended Summit - 1

We look at Ben Hiant almost every day.  It stands across Kilchoan Bay from where we live, and it's a constant presence, even on the occasional days when low mist or cloud obscures it.  Yet there are parts of it we have never visited.  So, yesterday, with the promise of another fine day - it's been fine for over a week now - we decided to walk to the twin peaks to the right of the main mountain - Stellachan Dubha and Sron Mhor -  following a route along the top of the steep cliffs on its southwestern side marked on the photo.

We left the car at the turn just before Caim, and followed the Ardnamurchan Estate track to a gate which allowed out through the deer fence onto the open hill.  As we climbed above the steep cliffs we looked directly down on the beaches we've often walked to the east of Mingary Castle (visible in this photo at the top).

There were plenty of red deer even on these steep slopes.  This small group of stags seemed very bothered by the fact that we were looking down a forty-five degree slope from above them....

...while a group of some thirty-five hinds fled up the slope to our left.

We finally reached the highest point of our planned route, on the ridge to the southwest of the Ben Hiant summit, obscured in this picture by the big lump of rock in the foreground.  A few thin clouds sat above the horizon inland, but otherwise the sky was wonderfully clear.

From here we looked down to Camas nan Geall, with the Ardslignish promontory just beyond it, and across Loch Sunart to the islands of Oronsay, Risga and Carna.  The shadowed hill to the right is Stellachan Dubha, one of our objectives.  But we kept looking to our left, up the slope towards Ben Hiant, until finally the temptation was too much, and we set off for the summit.

This is supposed to be February but, with hardly a breath of wind and the sun warm on our faces, it felt more like July.  Climbing the steeper slopes towards the summit we were reduced to wearing a single layer and carrying our excess clothing.  And the higher we climbed the more the whole world seemed to be laid out at our feet - in this picture, the curvature of the Earth is visible.

We were revelling in the lonely beauty of our surroundings when we rounded a shoulder of the hill and the summit came into sight - and someone was already there!