I fancied seeing some more pointy mountainy hills, so I shot over to the West Coast again, aiming towards Torridon. From a quick study of my books these hills involve more walking on scree and scrambling along a sizeable drop. Because I’m still a big scaredy cat (for now?), I opted for Maol Chean-Dearg, one of the easier walks in the area, to get a feel for it.
I woke up to stunning views of Loch Carron with mist hanging low above the water. Lovely start to the day.
And the forecast looked good! The walk through the glen to the hill was wrapped in lovely sunshine broken with fluffy clouds sailing around, and the surrounding hills were food for the eyes. There was an eagle circling the top of Meall nan Ceapairean (a smaller hill) which I was walking around. My brain could not compute the enormous breadth of its wingspan – I was too dumbstruck to get a photo. Please use your imagination to paste a picture of a Golden Eagle in flight near the top of the hill in this pic. Hopefully it won’t be the last one I see.
I was getting excited about finally reaching a munro summit in sunshine. It seemed to be turning into a seriously beautiful day. The route up was over graphite scree, which was easier going than I expected. This led on to a massive sandstone boulderfield up the last section to the summit, which was a fun hop scotch over the rocks with some scrambling. The name Maol Chean-Dearg means “bald red head” named after the mound of sandstone boulders at the top.
As I got to the top.. you guessed it… the mist came down. Ah Scotland, will you cut that out already?! I got some quick snaps where the mist was lighter, though there should have been views all around to stunning hills including up to Torridon to the North.
I got chatting to a fellow walker at the top – Alison – who was having a quick dash up this hill to make the most of the weather. We walked the return together having some great hill conversations which cover as much ground as our feet.
We gave up waiting for the mist to move on, and started to make our way back down the boulderfield. Just as we started the hop scotch down over the boulders…along came the rain and a spot of light hail! As if the mountain was saying “and stay ooot!!”. Of course once we were *just* far enough down the hill that I wouldn’t be going back up, we looked back and naturally the top was once again covered in sun and blue skies. Gaah. Trolled by the mountain. At least at a couple of points on the route down I got a distant glimpse of the hills of Torridon which I’d hoped to see from the top – a teaser for another day.
The route through the valley on this walk passes the Clach nan Con-fionn, which is a giant stone that looks like a fancy art installation belonging in a trendy wine bar. Legend has it the stone was used by the giant, Fionn, to tether his hunting dogs. I was impressed by this on the walk in. But on the walk out it looked more like the valley giving us the finger – clearly colluding with the weather!!
Only Young Twice 