Beinn Chabhair

The weather forecast for the day after Beinn Tulaichean and Cruach Àrdrain was promising yet another sunny summit, clearly it had no consideration for how tired my legs were. But since we had started Tulaichean so early in the morning, we were back by early afternoon which left me plenty of time to get a shower at the Green Welly Stop and plan for the next day (maybe this is why so many people do early starts?!). To appease my aches, I struck a compromise with my body that I’d just do a one-munro-walk this time. I chose Beinn Chabhair (this is pronounced more like “Ben Whore”, but I’m not judging).

This walk starts from the Drovers Inn at Inverarnan so I headed there for a spot of dinner, and thankfully they let me stay the night in their carpark. The Drovers is slated as Scotland’s most haunted pub. I didn’t see any ghosts (I’m not sorry about that), but the menacing menagerie of stuffed animals definitely gave me the creeps. I had some (vegetarian) haggis, neaps and tatties which was very tasty, though it looked much the same as it would c. 14 hours later once processed 😄.

It was close to 10am by the time I coaxed my sluggish self out the next day. Oops. Anyway along I went to hike up the side of the Beinglas waterfall, ignoring the complaints from the legs. There’s then a long walk over boggy moorland before you even get to the munro. Once I was up the waterfall though, I found I was in the mood for an amble. I stuck an album on (Christine and the Queens if you wanna know) and wandered. Once I got to the actual Munro I stepped it up a gear and powered on up to the top – even over took a lovely pair (after chatting to them for 5 minutes).

I was confidently marching through the familiar wet grey cloud, with full belief in the sun predicted for the top. And I wasn’t disappointed. For once it was even better than I had hoped for. I emerged from the cloud onto the ridge. Finding myself between the sun and the cloud meant… if I turned to my left…. yes! A brocken spectre! Always such a treat to see one of these.

As I hiked up the last of the ridge it got sunnier and sunnier. I triumphantly got my cairn selfie, and carried on snapping away. There were hills poking out of the clouds on all sides. This was actually as useful as it was beautiful – it’s not always easy to tell from the forecasts which hills have more or less ice and snow lying on them, so I was taking lots of mental notes.

I found a nice place to sit and had my sandwich. Ordinarily after my lunch I’d head back down the hill. But… I didn’t want to leave. I stuck around, wandering around the top, chatting to lots of different people – it was a busy day up there! One guy was pitching his tent for the night – I was quite envious, though he told me it was his third attempt at pitching after his nearly got blown away from the first two spots he’d chosen. I made a mental note to come back and camp here… in summer.

I found a little outcrop ledge to sit on, and practice a bit of meditation. I’m not very good at meditating but I do try. Often people meditate with their eyes closed, but up here that seemed like such a waste. It felt more natural to sit looking into the cloud, calmly watching it drift along. When my mind wandered I brought it back to passively observing the cloud. This was one of the most nourishing meditations I can remember. I could happily have watched this all day, just sitting breathing, filling my lungs with the delicious air. But eventually my motionless feet stopped feeling.

Fortunately when I got up and moving around again, there were yet more people to talk to, including a couple who had brought a stove, fresh coffee and an aeropress up the hill. They very kindly offered me a coffee and I practically bit their hand off. 😁 It was absolutely delicious. Everything seems to taste better up the hills.

Eventually even this couple headed back down the hill and still I stuck around, hoping to catch the start of sunset. In the end I tore myself away by around 3.30, having spent about 3 hours up there. Even as I started walking out, the sky kept developing and there were more pictures to be had right until the mist engulfed me again.

I got a move on for the walk out – I stuck on another album (DRAMA this time) and marched away. I made it down pretty fast, overtaking a few of walkers on the way. I managed to avoid getting the head torch out (even though I was almost feeling my way down the side of the waterfall 😅), enjoying the feel of the dark. Almost as much as I enjoyed the pint of shandy and round two of the vegetarian haggis back at the Drovers.