Are there any finer areas in Scotland for hillwalking than Kintail? If so - I have yet to find them! The mountains here rise up from the sea, and are beautifully sculpted, great bulks - hugely impressive to see; and challenging to climb. They are also massively varied, with enough pinnacles, and ridges to excite the scrambler but yet also great plateau's reminiscent of the Cairngorms.
With lockdown easing once again, it was great to be able to do a new Munro for the first time this year. Although I've been out and about in The Lawers Group, Glenshee, Lochnagar and other bits of Perthshire - this was the first venture out into new hills for a long, long time!
A very early start from Perth allowed us to check in at the Morvich campsite at 8:30. It's really a caravan site, bit they have 10 pitches for tents on good ground and decent toilets, showers etc. Our three-man tent cost us about twenty-quid to pitch for the night. Once we'd thrown the tent up, we ate, booted up and headed for the hills from the campsite.
Past the campsite, a track heads on at the road-end past a house called Innis a Crotha, which leads up the glen with the vast mass of the days hills ahead. It's a remarkably well-maintained track speeds access right into the heart of the mountain. After a ford, the track zig-zags up to cairm and a T-junction of paths. Turn right for Beinn Fhada, and left for A' Ghlass-bheinn!
We turned right and followed the excellent track high into the corrie before it abruptly turns right and assaults the side of the hill in a series of immaculately carved zig-zags along the grassy terraces and up onto the ridge. An old stalkers path bears right along the cliff top (which reminded me of Lochnagar), but the munro summit is along the line of the cliffs to the right and is crowned with a
circular trig point. We decided to leave a pack at the zig-zags and just carry a few essentials up, and it was joyous to be free of the weight for an hour! It's been an exceptionally cold May - there is still plenty of snow lying about - and my pack was heavy with hats, gloves, waterpoofs, and spare layers....
The views from the summit of Beinn Fhada were so magnificent that they cannot be captured on camera - the photos are just reminders of a quite wonderful experience.
We retraced our steps back down the path, picked up the pack, and sat down for a well-earned lunch.
We had met a chap from Falkirk who was doing these hills (and the drive!!) in a day - and he came back down the path and chatted as we munched our sandwiches. Then we walked back round to the T-junction of paths before heading up the climb into the Bealach na Sgairne. At the highest point of the pass there is a cairn marking the way up into A'Ghlass-bheinn. To our surprise, route finding was aided by a path which ran from here to the summit. Well, I should say summits - it is one of those long-slogs, at the end of a long-day which is hard, hard work compounded by false summits on the way which fuel the frustration.
There seems to be no path on the way off, via the ridge of A-Mhuic, it is just a question of carefully finding a way around the the rocks at the top and heading North of West, and picking the correct ridge. This is important as the two ridges to the south of A'Mhuic are not really descendable. The last section of descent is steep grass down to a bridge, which (as the rain started to lash down on us) became very slippery indeed. At the bridge we met the chap from Falkirk again and walked out down the track, and onto the road with him.
These two hills present a big, muscle-stretching work-out; but are truly magnificent mountains which I'd happily climb again. They have been on my "Must-do" list for such a long time - and they did not disappoint. Off to Kyle for food and then the tent for the night.....
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