Foolin' in the Cuilin

Dates 28-31 May 2017

Hills: Sgurr Alasdair, Sgurr na Bannachdich, Sgurr nan Eag

I've mentioned before in a TR that as a completion to our joint round, C and I have left a long snaking line of summits from Ladhar Bheinn to Ben Avon. The plan is to do that as a continuous line. (Hopefully this won't take too many years, as zimmer frame, let alone wheelchair access to the summit tor of Ben Avon isn't great.) But before that we still have ticking to do on Skye. And yes, there's been a bit of trepidation in the ranks about this.

But the Good News is that on this occasion the trepidation was unfounded, so what you're about to read is a little holiday snapshot of three happy days!

Day 1 - Sgurr Alasdair

We'd arrived down at Glen Brittle campsite around lunchtime, and set up in the quieter part of the site, near the entrance. Decent weather, and my suggestion was to do Bannachdich first. Back up the road to the farm, up Sgurr nan Gobhar, and so on. Except C misheard me, and when we left the van, set off towards the distant toilet block. No problem, I said, we'll go up the Coire Lagan track… I'm sure that there's a diagonal path that heads off over towards Bannachdich from there. Er, there isn't. Not that I saw, anyway. So up we went, in the direction of Coire Lagan. Now, we had the dog with us, and Alasdair certainly wasn't on my list of objectives with Sadie. I didn't fancy the scramble to the summit with a wriggling backseat driver in the pack. So how about Sgurr nan Eag? Too far at this time in the day. Bannachdich kept looking further and further away. So Alasdair it would have to be!

Actually it went fine. C led the way up from the top of the Stone Chute (although she says she's terrified, she's much cooler on steep rock than I am). And it wasn't half as bad as I remember it from a previous trip in rain and wind. Whisper it quietly, but we actually enjoyed it!

View down to the south end of the ridge…

Back at the top of the Stone Chute we had a nice chat with three Polish lads who had set up camp in Coire Lagan. Then down, down, down, with a glance up to the cirque of the coire…

…and down to a couple down in the lochan…

A look across at Sron na Ciche…

…then back to the Glen for the night.

Day 2 - Sgurr na Bannachdich

For the second day running I closed the campervan door with the intention of going up Bannachdich. And this time we left in the right direction! Up to the farm, up the right side of the Allt Coire na Banachdich, crossed over above the Eas Mor, and headed up towards the rolling, shifting shoulder of scree leading to Sgurr nan Gobhar. I hadn't realized, but Glenbrittle Farm must have been taken over by Doctor Dolittle…

…yes, a real push-me-pull-you! A unique case of one half of the animal apparently being older than the other. Hm.

Anyway, here is C near the top of Sgurr nan Gobhar, thankful to have found something resembling firm rock to hold on to…

A nice ridge leads over towards Bannachdich…

The forecast for the day had been for the weather to shut down. Shutter down, more like. It had closed in by the time we reached the top of Bannachdich, and by the time we got back to the site, via the Coir an Each path, we looked like drowned rats. Skye, eh!

Day 3 - Sgurr nan Eag

Still, after a wet day in Portree (have any of us actually been there on a decent day?) we were good to go. Nice forecast, too!

Having been up Sgurr nan Eag from Coir' a Ghrunnda, and not much enjoyed all the boulder-hopping, I thought we'd give the southern flank of the hill a try. So over the Allt Coir' a Ghrunnda we went…

For those who want to reach the southern part of the ridge without any real scambling, I'd recommend this approach. A bit loose, but not too bad. I took the following pickie on the way down. Although it's invisible from the bottom, where it gets rocky I think the best route lies just to the right of the ridge line you can see…

One of those days when it's a privilege to be far in a western playland…

For entertainment, we had two magnificent fly-pasts on Sgurr nan Eag. First a White-Tailed Eagle, then a Goldie. Magnificent, but no photos I'm afraid. With my lens-skills, they'd have only morphed into Pixie The Single-Pixel Eagle (who lives just north of here, I believe). But let's face it anyway, photos of eagles are very pass : very last year: it's mythical two-headed sheep that are where it's now at.

Dog in the pack for the rocky bit. The weather was blissful, right up onto the summit ridge…

We had lunch at the summit, looking over to Alasdair. This is the kind of photo we tend not to show C's parents. It's no good telling them that it looks worse than it really is…

Then the lazy walk down and out, with plenty to see near at hand…

… out to the west…

… and down to the south…

So there we are. No intrepid new routes for us this time round. We know our limits!