I’m a bit behind on the blog so I’m still on the weekend Tommy visited. Anyways Tommy chose the hill we would tackle the day after Beinn Alligin. After a look at the maps and the books he fancied Bla Bheinn, also known as Blaven. Blaven sits on its own on Skye, a bit of an outlier to the Black Cuillin. I think one of my books described it as possibly the finest mountain in Britain.
So we headed over to Skye, monstered a curry, and drove on towards Blaven. We camped the night before near the start of the walk, and woke up to a stunner of a morning. It was pretty chilly, and there was a bit of cloud around the tops, but the sun was out as we set out to the hill.
It was a good varied walk up, some stepping stones, some grass, some scree, some scrambling. We got some stunning views behind us with huge skies. Half way up we met a scree melee which was constantly moving underfoot like some nightmare funhouse from the fair, offering a very real threat of a nasty skinned knee. And the skies on the other side of the scree were looking increasingly misty.
We met some folk who were on their way down. One chap had set off up the hill at 7am, and said he was looking at clear blue sky at the top most of the way up, but got no view once he was up there. Everyone coming down said they’d hung around at the top as long as possible hoping it would clear, but eventually gave up. We carried on and got to the top for the standard picture. On a clear day Blaven gives a fantastic view of the Black Cuillin – that’s what everyone wants to see. We put all our layers on and hunkered to down to eat our sandwiches, willing the wind to shift the clouds. We eventually gave up and headed down like everyone else.
But on the way down, some views started opening up again. We stopped to take pics and chatted to another pair who were evaluating whether to head back up. We were starting to see massive views across to the West Coast and the Islands, but as one of the other guys said “that’s shite – we came to see the other side!!” hahaha. After 5 minutes it was getting really cold, which tipped the scales since heading back up would at least warm us up again.
As we got to the top the clouds were thickening again. Gaah. But we stuck it out again since they were moving, and we got some glimpses of the Cuillin, though a bit like looking at the Black Cuillin through frosted glass. I’m afraid the picture is underwhelming, but it was SO EXCITING to get a wee look at this! The views out to the West Coast continued to brighten, and weren’t that shite after all.
We eventually got cold and trudged back down the hill for the second time, tired but satisfied. I can see why this could be considered one of the best mountains in Britain, will definitely be back.
The next we headed up to Portree for a big breakfast and some proper coffee. The coffee was so good we got second ones to go, and wandered to the harbour. It was turning into a warm (for Scotland) sunny day – perfect opportunity for a boat trip!
We got great views of a pair of sea eagles that nest in the area. Absolutely stunning creatures, with a massive 2m wingspan. One of them is an eagle that was reared and released from Fife, as part of a programme to reintroduce Sea Eagles to Scotland. She flew up to Skye upon her release and has established a territory there with a mate. She’s now affectionately known to the locals as Fifey. They’re obviously pretty tricky to capture on camera, but these were the best pics when one had a fly around bothered by a seagull.
We headed across to Raasay to see the seal colony lazing around on the shore. Fifey followed us over to the seal colony and continued spying on us. If you look carefully you can spot her and her mate in the top right corner of the next photo.
Only Young Twice 