Glen Shiel Hills: Sgurr nan Conbhairean (44), Sail Chaorainn (133) and Carn Chluasaid (203)
Walk date: 05/05/07
My Munro #'s: 106, 107 and 108
Pronunciations - translations - heights:
Skoor nan konavaran - peak of the keeper of the hounds - 1109m
Sale Choeran - hill (heel) of the rowan - 1002m
Kaarn ghlooasat - hill of movement - 957m
Statistics:
Duration - 13:00 - 18:00
Distance - 15.5km
Weather - warm at first but sun disappearing as cloud moved in. A little gusty at first at height becoming stronger.
Team - solo
Other hikers: 4 from afar
No 'route taken' line; see below:
Profile of plotted route:
Hiking Expedition '07 - Glen Shiel area - Day 1 (Sat 5th)
Having driven over from Aberdeen, I set-up for my walk and immediately discovered a problem with my GPS! Specifically, only a few of my plotted routes had successfully transferred due to my topping out its memory for waypoints. Ironically, this was because I wanted to be ultra-accurate in my plotting and thus safer. Nevermind, I had the printed maps and the GPS's prime function is in giving a grid reference, so in actual fact it made little difference. Just a pain that hours of careful studying were for nought! A side-effect was that for many of my walks my 'taken line' in red could not be recorded and so is not overlaid on the blue plotted line as usual (confused? Me too).
Once the right car park was found, a short walk on the roadside east led to a short concrete track leading upwards through a broken and defunct metal gate. This quickly becomes a good path leading up into the steep glen. However, the path soon disappeared over rough and boggy grass (no doubt as it's a case of 'any path will do' here). A good looking route could be seen moving up Meall Breac, but my desired route was to follow the river past Gorm Lochan and then a slow but direct ascent up steep grass slopes to the solid cairn of Sgurr nan Conbhairean.
The steep glen toward Sgurr nan Conbhairean:
Fantastic views opened out here all around, particularly over to A' Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire to the west. From here, follow the obvious descent towards Sail Chaorainn to the north some 100m lower than this chunky hill. The summit is soon reached without fuss and is a mere high point of a shallow curve complete with a miniature cairn. Another cairn can be seen a half kilometre along the broad ridge, but the GPS and my own map reading both agreed that it was a secondary, lower, top.
The view east from An Garbh-choire:
Looking back at Sgurr nan Conbhairean's north side:
The less than dramatic summit of Sail Chaorainn:
The route here unfortunately requires returning to Sgurr nan Conbhairean, but then the drop to Creag a' Chaorainn and the stroll to Carn Ghluasaid are done before you know it. A fine path heads off south and today it felt long, but in actual fact it takes to back to the road quite directly. Time to check in to the hostel...
Creag a' Chaorainn and Sgurr nan Conbhairean from
Carn Chluasaid's eastern edge:
A cute line of path markers over slab rock:
My Munro #'s: 106, 107 and 108
Pronunciations - translations - heights:
Skoor nan konavaran - peak of the keeper of the hounds - 1109m
Sale Choeran - hill (heel) of the rowan - 1002m
Kaarn ghlooasat - hill of movement - 957m
Statistics:
Duration - 13:00 - 18:00
Distance - 15.5km
Weather - warm at first but sun disappearing as cloud moved in. A little gusty at first at height becoming stronger.
Team - solo
Other hikers: 4 from afar
No 'route taken' line; see below:
Profile of plotted route:
Hiking Expedition '07 - Glen Shiel area - Day 1 (Sat 5th)
Having driven over from Aberdeen, I set-up for my walk and immediately discovered a problem with my GPS! Specifically, only a few of my plotted routes had successfully transferred due to my topping out its memory for waypoints. Ironically, this was because I wanted to be ultra-accurate in my plotting and thus safer. Nevermind, I had the printed maps and the GPS's prime function is in giving a grid reference, so in actual fact it made little difference. Just a pain that hours of careful studying were for nought! A side-effect was that for many of my walks my 'taken line' in red could not be recorded and so is not overlaid on the blue plotted line as usual (confused? Me too).
Once the right car park was found, a short walk on the roadside east led to a short concrete track leading upwards through a broken and defunct metal gate. This quickly becomes a good path leading up into the steep glen. However, the path soon disappeared over rough and boggy grass (no doubt as it's a case of 'any path will do' here). A good looking route could be seen moving up Meall Breac, but my desired route was to follow the river past Gorm Lochan and then a slow but direct ascent up steep grass slopes to the solid cairn of Sgurr nan Conbhairean.
The steep glen toward Sgurr nan Conbhairean:
Fantastic views opened out here all around, particularly over to A' Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire to the west. From here, follow the obvious descent towards Sail Chaorainn to the north some 100m lower than this chunky hill. The summit is soon reached without fuss and is a mere high point of a shallow curve complete with a miniature cairn. Another cairn can be seen a half kilometre along the broad ridge, but the GPS and my own map reading both agreed that it was a secondary, lower, top.
The view east from An Garbh-choire:
Looking back at Sgurr nan Conbhairean's north side:
The less than dramatic summit of Sail Chaorainn:
The route here unfortunately requires returning to Sgurr nan Conbhairean, but then the drop to Creag a' Chaorainn and the stroll to Carn Ghluasaid are done before you know it. A fine path heads off south and today it felt long, but in actual fact it takes to back to the road quite directly. Time to check in to the hostel...
Creag a' Chaorainn and Sgurr nan Conbhairean from
Carn Chluasaid's eastern edge:
A cute line of path markers over slab rock:
Labels: Carn Chluasaid, Glen Shiel Hills, hiking, mountain, munro, Sail Chaorainn, Sgurr nan Conbhairean
posted by George at 14:50
4 Comments:
So energetic - nice views. Thanks.
No problem, and plently more to come from this trip. No sunny ones I'm afraid!!
You just remind me of how many bits of Scotland I still haven't bagged Munros in. Drat.
284 doesn't sounds like that a big number does it? At least we have easy access to this wonderful landscape!
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