Cursing Cameron McNeish on Beinn Sgritheall

'The Rogers Character' and I, threw a few things in rucksacks, pointed the nose of the car towards the North West, and made for the mountains. With plenty of food, water, guidebook in hand, and with hours of daylight to use up, what could be finer than a day out in the Highlands?!

Our target for the day was Beinn Sgritheall (pronounced "Byn Skreeyol"), a towering viewpoint which dominates the Northern shores of Loch Hourn, fills the view from Knoydart, but whose majestic slopes are probably best appreciated from Sleat on southern Skye. From some angles this mountain looks impenetrable, with its steep, scree-covered sides careering down three-thousand uninterrupted feet to the great loch below. Guide-books though, insist that there are a few lines of weakness, which allow the walker up onto the hills great lofty ridges.

Cameron McNeish's book, "The Munros" contains the following advice: "leave the road at a point roughly opposite the [the island of] Eilean Rarsaidh. Clamber up through the trees until a faint path is found". I would advise any hillwalker (a) to definitely climb the fabulous Beinn Sgritheall, and (b) to make sure that you completely ignore McNeish at this point. There was a time when McNeish was accused by walkers in some circles of having perhaps published details of a few more routes than he had actually accomplished! Now that is probably going a little far in this case - nevertheless The Rogers Character and I took to the hill at the recommended point and found ourselves fighting through vegetation, on wet-hummocky ground, rising up in front of us at an increasingly alarming angle, expending huge effort making inordinately slow progress. At the point at which I was ready to begin cursing McNeish (and signing up for a subscription to The Angry Corrie!), we came to the feint path he mentions - which scratched its way out of the forest and onto the ridge. What McNeish should have said is this: "A path leaves the road just beyond the island of Eilean a Chuilinn. A small cairn marks the easily miss-able start of the path, but it's essential to find this path as it will take you up the only navigable route through the very steep sided, densely forested slopes onto the ridge."

The top picture is of Knoydart, Barrisdale Bay and the Rough Bounds of Knoydart, taken from the ridge, just above the forest line.

One through the horrible almost-vertical quagmire of the lower slopes - Beinn Sgritheall is an absolute joy. Broad shoulders, lead up onto ridges, which in turn slope upwards to a summit which stretches skywards.

After enjoying the view and playing about with cameras, we returned by a the same route - except this time, we followed the path the whole way back to the road. To see Loch Hourn and Knoydart is blazing sunshine is to see Scotland at its finest - views which steal the breath, stun the senses, and just seem too good to be real!