Loch Ossian

There's always something a bit special about a trip that starts at Corrour. When the train pulls out, there's that odd feeling of civilisation leaving you, and not the other way round. I know there's Station House there, but after the noise and activity of the train, standing on the platform always comes as a bit of a shock to the system.

Anyway, the plan for this May trip was to take the tent in to the far end of Loch Ossian, and use this as a base to do a few of the hills around and about. That first view of Loch Ossian always stirs the blood…

We walked in along the south side of the loch, then up the track to where a footbridge crosses the Uisge Labhair. This is only half a mile from Corrour Lodge, but the screening of the trees makes it feel a good deal more remote than that. I half-remembered the waterfalls further up the glen, and had planned to find a camp near one of these, but this spot was more than fine.

From here we were able to cross back over the bridge and go lightweight straight up Sgor Gaibhre, via Meall Nathrach Mor and Sgor Choinnich. We reached the top just after four. Nice views over towards the Ben, but not weather to linger.

On then to Carn Dearg. The cloud in the east was more broken, and there was a good view over to that pointy one beginning with 'S'.

Then north-west to Meall na Leitire Duibhe, and down to where the Allt a' Choire Chreagaich enters the forestry. There's a good track into the forestry here, not marked on the map, which takes you straight down to the lodge and, in our case, the tent.

Now, if I could choose one photograph to persuade people of the merits of wild camping, it would be the next one. Why? Because on all three days of this trip, once the sun got up the conditions were fine but unremarkable. Before seven in the morning, however, conditions outside the tent were…

…well, no remarks necessary I hope. That wall of low cloud was swarming up towards us, but dissipating all the time. An hour and a bit later, by the time we had set out up Creagan an Amair, it had almost gone.

We followed the line of crags north up to Creagan an t-Sealgir, from where we cut across the top of the coire to Meall Glas and Beinn Eibhinn.

This was May 2010, and the colour was late coming to these hills that year.

From where we were camped, the out-and-back to Carn Dearg felt like blatant bagging. But in this day and age, as far as I know baggery is not actually a criminal act.

On the way back, rather than go all the way up Geal Charn, we took a southerly traverse from half-way up the ridge. There is a shelf of land here which leads around the top of Loch an Sgoir to land you near the top of Lancet Edge. Then diagonally down to the top of the Uisge Labhair. Unusually for me (as Caroline will testify) this was a short-cut which actually worked.

Out of the wind, the walk back down the glen was a pleasure.

Anybody fancy this as a jigsaw?...

One aspect of wild-camping which I'm ambivalent about is The Skinny Dip. (Don't worry, there are no photos of this bit.) To judge from the yelps and expletives, anybody with the misfortune to be nearby at the time would assume that this was unequivocally a Bad Thing. And yes, that's how it feels at the time. But the feeling afterwards is priceless. Pheromones, I guess.

The following morning we walked out along the northern side of Loch Ossian, dumping the packs at the end of the forestry for a quick up and down of Beinn na Lap.

Again, the visibility was terrific. At the summit I was about to launch into one of those tedious name-the-panorama monologues, when I stopped myself.

Me: I don't need to do this now, do I? You can probably name most of the hills yourself, eh?

Caroline: Frankly, I haven't got a clue. No, hold on… I think that big one over there… begins with… 'S'.

Me: What, you mean the one over near Fort William that's obviously higher than all the other hills we can see?

Caroline: Why are you laughing?

And so back to Corrour, with enough time for a coffee in the Station House, and a play with the dog on the grass outside…

…which was our final bit of activity for the day.