Scotland

South Cluanie Ridge

Character: A huge ridge walk that justifiably is one of Scotland's most famous

Ascent: ~6000 feet

Time: 15 hours

Map: Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheet 33, 1:50,000

Transport: Trains from Fort William or from Glasgow Queen Street via Crianlarich. Some times for 26/09/99 to 27/05/00 are given here. Buses North from here. See here

Sources: Irvine Butterfield "The High Mountains"

Accomodation: Ratagan Scottish Youth Hostel Tel: 01599 511 243

Sources: Irvine Butterfield "The High Mountains", and Nick, the warden at SYHA Ratagan (Tel: 01599 511 243), who has a wealth of local experience

 This text describes doing the ridge from the Eastern end, starting at the Cluanie Inn. The buses stop here, so you get off and on to the hillside straight away. Behind the Inn, to its South, a tarmaced road leads across a small bridge and towards the ridge. It winds left and slowly upwards, and this is followed for several kilometres. I tried to spot an obvious track going up the hillside before the road crested, and although I could imagine all sorts of paths up to the summit of the first Munro, Creag a' Mhaim, there was nothing really obvious. Not that I am scared of heading off the beaten track, you understand! But I was by myself, and at the start of a long day in drizzling rain, I was not in the mood to waste energy diving in and out of bogs and scrambling to the top of every rise to try and estimate my progress. So I carried on around, past the track to the left down to the Cluanie Lodge, until the crest. Where the track starts to head down and left, a faint path can be made out heading through the heather towards the SE ridge of Craig a' Mhaim. Although heading almost South at the start, it turns to the West, and eventually North West. The track winds to try and take the worst out of the gradient out, but it is still a trudge through heather tussocks. The last section has zig zags, which I kind of hate, but they do make the going easier. The peak is a surprisingly small one (in area), hence quite a nice well defined summit. I won't describe the rest of the walk in a great detail, mainly because I have forgotten quite a lot of it, but also as you can't really go wrong, perhaps until the end. I guess if you were going to break the walk in two, as it is collossal and if the weather drains you too, you might have problems finding the mid point northern ridge descending from Maol Chinn Dearg. I did not attempt this. So instead I will just mention any points I do remember from the walk!

Looking down Glen Shiel, towards the West. Cluanie Inn at the outflow of the loch

The next summit is quick and pleasant (Druim Shionnach), with the next, the highest point, Aonach air Chrith, being a more substantial climb. Indeed, if you think because you have made the ridge, and you've seen all the lovely published photos of an undulating ridge, that really there is no more climbing once you have made the first summit, disabude yourself of this thought now! As a soft Englishman, I am used to 50 foot re-ascents defining separate mountains. The Scots are a tougher bunch. Each one of these peaks has, I would guess, a 500 foot re-ascent. Some more. So don't expect just to run along the ridge!

The descent off Aonach air Chrith is the narrowest part of the ridge, but still 50:50 grass and rock (the Aonach Eagach this aint). Still, its good fun, and as on the day I did it there were 60 mph gusts, that added to the interest.

Maol Chinn Dearg follows, Then Sgurr an Doire Leathain. Between the two is a Munro top. Now I'm not doing these, so I contoured it. Is that sad? Probably, but that's a long debate. The winds here were ferocious, which I put down to the fact that they were mainly southerlies, and at this point could blast up through the gap in the ridge to the South, from Loch Quoich direction. It is interesting to note that the ridge / group of mountains that shield the South Cluanie Ridge from the South are almost all higher than the ridge itself. I guess they are far less well known because of the difficult access. Back to the walk. The highest point on Sgurr an Doire Leathain is perhaps 50 metres to the north on its north ridge. There is quite a steep rocky descent off this summit back on the main ridge, and then another windy climb up to Sgurr an Lochain. Again, I contoured the next top on its Southern side. The track was boggy, and I hated walking with my right leg bent as the left struggled to touch the ground, as I contoured on the grass rather than the quagmire that was the track. Perhaps following the ridge is the thing to do for 'moral' as well as practical purposes!

Whilst bypassing this top, Creag nan Damh beyond it looks shorter than the non-Munro top, but it is a stiff climb on tired legs. From memory, you meander to the North to reach the true summit. There is now a choice. Either head roughly North straight into Glen Shiel, or attempt to find the stalkers track down further to the West. I did the latter, and it seemed like a reasonable descent. Finding the top of the path was not totally straightforward. And the intial drop off Creag nan Damh is twisty and craggy. In the end, I took a bearing on Faochag to the North West to get a good position, and estimated the top of the stalkers path from its bearing. This worked well. The initial zig zag descent of the track is painful, and then some 1000 feet down you enter the water collection point from these big hills: Sgurr na Sgine, Faochag, and Creag nan Damh. They collect a fair bit of water - in numerous torrents too!

From roughly half way down you can see behind you and to the right the slope you could have descended from Creag nan Damh (its North ridge), and in places in certainly looks steep. I'd recommend the stalkers path, and its not that indirect. Just before the road all the watercourses seem to meet, and a two foot deep wade was my best option. The joys of Scotland in mid-summer!