Beinn Liath Mhor - Daniel and Clare's photos (11th July 2011) Climbed from Glen Torridon: quartzite, sun and cloud...

Back to being energetic today, after a rest-day! Beinn Liath Mhor (pronounced Ben Lia Vorr) is in the heart of the Coulin Forest, a good way in from either Glen Carron or Glen Torridon. Usually it's climbed from the former, starting at Achnashellach Station, going up to the head of the long and magnificent Coire Lair. There are lots of reports on this route on The WalkHighlands website, listed under Beinn Liath Mhor. We particularly recommend DogPlodder's report - lovely, personal writing, as well as some great photos. But there are other really good ones.

Having spent a lot of time around the north shore of Loch Torridon, we had a different bias on the hill's appearance: the perspective from the west can give the Beinn a commanding, dramatic, ghostly, or warm appearance:

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Beinn Liath Mhor from Corrie

and viewed with Sgorr Ruadh (right), from Corrie

From further west, at Alligin, Beinn Liath Mhor is still distinctive. Three days after this walk, we could just about see it from South Rona on our wonderful boat trip with Torridon Seatours:

From the start of the path from Alligin to Rechullin (just east of Alligin): a sweep of mountains with Sgorr A'Chadail and Mullach an Rathain near left, and Beinn n'Eaglaise on the right. In the middle, at the head of the loch, is Sgorr an Lochan Uaine (left), Beinn Liath Mhor (centre), and Sgorr Ruadh (right).

..and closer in on the same view: Beinn Liath Mhor at the centre

Looking up Upper Loch Torridon from the narrows: Beinn Liath Mhor is the right-hand of now three central hills (Sgurr Dubh having come into view on the left): it's the one with a patch of cloud to the right of its summit

..and still just visible from the top of the path from Church Cave, South Rona

From the opposite direction also Beinn Liath Mhor is prominent: indeed, here it appears as the eastern boundary of the Coulins, rather than being at their centre, though there are several miles of low hills and moors to the east before a road is reached: this point, as you rise up from Loch A'Chroisg to near the bealach with Glen Doherty, is a good viewpoint for the Coulins, upper Strath Bran providing a viewing gap: At the start of the holiday, we approached Torridon from Achanalt before diverting off to Talladale for a bit. The previous year we rode direct from Achnasheen to Lochside:

The eastern Coulins from upper Strath Bran: Beinn Liath Mhor is in the centre (second and third rises from the left). Wellington's nose, on Fuar Tholl, is prominent on the left: this also is visible from surprisingly many directions. (2010)

The nose, viewed from the same point (2011)

(Fuar Tholl from the opposite side, near the top of the road from Strathcarron to Kishorn) (2010)

The eastern Coulins from further down Strath Bran, across Loch A'Chroisg: (Beinn Liath Mhor is still second and third rises from the left)

Some of the scree and rock formations on the south side of Beinn Liath Mhor, in upper Coire Lair (2010)

The eastern part of the Beinn Liath Mhor ridge (left) from upper Coire Lair. But please see DogPlodder's, and other, reports, for much better photos of the Coire Lair side of the hill. (2010)

The previous year we walked as far as the head of Coire Lair, and, even on a day of much duller and more restricted light than we had for Beinn Liath Mhor, it was incredible. So we're not at all saying that climbing the Beinn from the north is better. The great views we had over Loch Torridon and out to Skye are pretty much as good as they get from the summit anyway. The summit ridge also gives a wonderful depth to Coire Lair, and is a great viewpoint in general. So in many ways, if you have cloud-free tops, any approach route will amply reward the effort. We did enjoy sea views for longer on the descent, which was just lucky as the light turned good then. Whilst the north route misses out on Coire Lair, it does pass through the Coire a Cheud Chnoc (Corrie of a hundred hills). It gives shallower, perhaps more subtle views of the hillocks than the classic views from below in Glen Torridon (or above on Liathach!). Mind you, Coire Lair has some pretty good moraines above the path junction that goes off over Drochaid Coire Lair towards Easan Dorcha and the Coulin pass.

As with our walk two days later on Sgorr a Chadail and Mullach an Rathain , we took confidence from Peter Barton. Staying at Lochside, on the north side of Loch Torridon, there was no way we'd have managed to get Achnashellach station on foot or bike, to start the walk, and get back: we're not that fit! So we wondered about climbing it from the Ling Hut at the top end of Glen Torridon. Peter Barton's excellent Cicerone guide on walking in Torridon includes a few more unusual routes up familiar peaks. We didn't follow his route exactly, but we found his descriptions, particularly of what was more or less hard going, to be very helpful.

With a good forecast, it started dry but with quite thick cloud cover, shrouding the tops. In fact, the cloud yo-yo-ed on and off the tops all day. We started off from Lochside at about 10.30 and cycled up to the Ling Hut carpark. We then followed the Ling Hut path up into the hills though the Coire a Cheud Chnoc (Corrie of a hundred hills). The path starts with an unexpectedly stiff little up and down: here there were a lot of flies, some with bright green eyes! There were lots and lots of magpie moths round here, too, (and a few above the hut, not too far from the floor of the glen: the flies seemed, perhaps fortunately, confined to just the first couple of hundred yards of the walk!).

Soon the path descends to Lochan an Iasgair. It's a pretty shore, where we watched greenshank flying. After the hut, you climb up a steep gulley and some impressive waterfalls.

Lochan an Iasgair, near the Ling Hut: Liathach in the background (right), Seana Mheallan (left)

Looking back to Lochan an Iasgair and the Ling Hut, with Beinn Eighe behind

The falls, on the way up to Coire a Cheud Chnoc

We were impressed with how the path managed to keep heading upwards despite all the hummocks and didn't keep going down as well. This wasn't our recollection of working our own way towards this path through the moraines from Lochan Neimhe many years ago! Once past the falls, the gradients are generally quite shallow, and the path good.

Above the falls the terrain flattens: this is looking up to the foot of the Coire a Cheud Chnoc

One of the streams forded by the path, coming down from the west of Sgurr Dubh

Sgurr Dubh - a possible ascent route?

Enormous views gradually opened out as we climbed. Back to Liathach and forward to the Coulin hills. Also to Lochan Neibhe on our right - a great walk on one of our earlier holidays. Such an atmospheric place, so beautifully described by Murdoch MacDonald in his "Walking into the past". We'll return to that later on, when the world shone in the evening.

Towards the top of the path (approx NG951532, where there's a small lochan) we left it and went our own way east across a flat area of pools, bogs and firm heather but not much rock, around its hummocks and to the foot of the Beinn. Some of these photos are from the evening light we had on the way down.

Torridonian strata fanning out on the east of Beinn h'Eaglaise behind Lochan Neimhe, viewed from the path. Beinn Damph is poking up to its right. A view early in the day.	Sgurr Dubh from where we left the path	Coire a Cheud Chnoc from the flat area, now quite distant, but still looking spiky!	A bit further west around Coire a Cheud Chnoc, this time in the evening.
The Ling path snaking round a river terrace, above the Cheud Chnoc	Beinn Eighe (left) and Sgurr Dubh (right), from the flat area	Looking south from the same place	..and a bit further west

Then we started climbing in earnest towards the Lochans Uaine. There are waterslides here among the rocky sandstone slabs. Here we did depart from Peter Barton's directions a bit: no doubt he's quite right: these slabs, angled into the significant slope of the hill, could be tricky in icy or wet weather, but in good conditions their smoothness made for nice progress (even coming down them!)

A crystal-clear stream flows here, at one point making a wide curve through a shallow dip. (Probably not quite a coire! Anyway, it's not named on the 1:25,000 map), at the edge of the coire it drops over some delightful little falls. This area feels quite secluded, although it's fairly open.

As we'd climbed up from the Ling Hut path to the lochans, the cloud was lifting a more, until we could just about see all the tops of Liathach.

Between the Ling path and the Lochans Uaine:
The lower part of the Allt nan Lochan Uaine below the shallow coire. The hill on the skyline is Sgorr an Lochan Uaine.	From the outflow of the shallow coire: Liathach finally out of cloud! Beinn Alligin on the left skyline: Seana Mheallan middle ground, with Lochan Neimhe below	Falls on the Allt nan Lochan Uaine
The stream approaching the edge of the coire.	..and from a little higher up, Liathach's limits now looking clear and dark ..and showing some of the angled slabs in the coire
..with views of Beinn Damph starting to open up (far left skyline)	..and Beinn Eighe still looking imposing	Sgorr an Lochan Uaine

There were some unusual curved patterns in the sandstone in places on this part of the hill: one's used to seeing large-scale strata generally pretty straight in the Torridonian, and not that much discernable structure on the small scale. Some of the curves here were due to the convex shape of the weathering in the rock intersecting the layers, but some looked like either surface weathering or folding of some kind: either that, or uneven deposition of sediment? There were also some dark lines in an otherwise more normal-looking boulder - volcanic ash layers, perhaps?

Here also are a few of the lichens and flowers from this part of the walk.

Folds in the sandstone?	Curved dark lines in the sandstone	Ash layers?
Lichen (white, light grey and light green) on sandstone	Lichen (red blobs and, lower right-hand edge, faint rings) on peat	Cloudberry flower

The Lochans Uaine are large lochans in a very stony and wild setting: complex hilly terrain, this.

We arrived above them, and, the weather improving a bit but still not looking terribly settled - quite thick in some directions. So we decided to keep on up. (We'd noticed that Beinn Liath Mhor had been out of cloud for ages when many other tops were still obscured, but didn't want to push our luck!). The views down on the lochans were very impressive, though.

The Lochans Uaine, from a little way up Beinn Liath Mhor, backed by Sgorr an Lochan Uaine

..and from a little further up: the main corrie is seen descending on the left: behind it Beinn Eighe, and in the distant skyline between it and Sgorr an Lochan Uaine, some of the Fisherfield wilderness: Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair (?) at the right hand of the distant skyline before it disappears into Sgorr an Lochan Uaine

From the Lochans we headed right and up towards the main ridge. This was quite steep but it was generally possible to find quite nice terrain - grassy but not too wet - without too many wiggles and diversions.

It was still sandstone when we reached the saddle of Beinn Liath Mhor. Then suddenly you look up to a quartzite cone - the foreshortened summit ridge. It looked really steep from a distance but wasn't quite so bad once we were on it: both initial impression and actuality just as Peter Barton said.

Beinns Damph and h'Eaglaise, temporarily invisible as we ascended a shallow bowl from the lochans, reappeared in style, as did some thicker cloud: Most of Beinn Alligin was also - the fullest view we got of it on this walk. Sgorr A'Chadail, in line with it, looked quite small from here - quite unlike the reality of being near it as we had so much between Alligin and Fasag, or indeed of being on top of it, as we were two days later - probably our most wonderful day out.

Beinns Damph and h'Eaglaise from the saddle.	A wider view west from the saddle. Beinn Alligin is the rightmost skyline, and Sgorr A'Chadail is the next horizon below it.	And further round to the south: Meall Chean Dearg in the centre
Looking south from the saddle, across upper Coire Lair. The large, flat, sandstone slabs, and gravelly steps, are quite typical of this part - great for walking!	Looking up the quartzite ridge: easier walking than it looks!

The top was surprisingly pointed, and had amazing views - Liathach, Beinn Eighe, Beinn Alligin, Sgorr Ruadh, Fuar Tholl, Slioch, Meall Chin Dearg, Beinn Damh, Skye, Rona. The sun was reflecting on Loch Torridon and on the sea further out and we could still see loads of inland lochs. We could see into Coire Lair, where we walked last year on a day-trip from Plockton, getting the train to Achnashellach. There were some interesting surface colours in the quartzite on the summit ridge, too:

The summit of Beinn Liath Mhor: near and far views:
More of the Coulin forest appearing: the bealach between Coire Lair and Coire Granda, Meall Chean Dearg (centre) with An Ruadh Stac to its left. The lochan just disappearing behind the (near) ridge of Sgorr Ruadh is Loch a'Mhuilinn just behind the small part of Meall nan Ceapairean that's visible.			The Lochans Uaine.
Looking along the summit ridge of Beinn Liath Mhor, from the summit. To the right it descends to Coire Lair. Beinn Liath Beag is the light-coloured hill to the left of the ridge. Beyond Beinn Liath Beag, just to its left, the distant loch is Loch A'Chroisg, which we cycled past at the start of the holiday (and from which our first view of Beinn Liath Mhor and Beag - see top of this webpage!). The hill to its left is Fionn Bheinn. The two nearer lochs are Loch an Fhiarlaid (left) and Loch na Moine Moire (right). To its right, the distant skyline (in line with the near ridge of Beinn Liath Mhor) is the compact group of hills, Sgurr a Mhuilinn, etc. also off Strath Bran (south, this time), between Achnasheen and Achanalt (where we started this holiday!) - Beinn Liath Beag
Colours in the summit rocks. The purple in the last of these photos is lichen, rather than mineral.
Looking down Coire Lair: rightmost is the south end of Sgorr Ruadh: behind it Fuar Tholl. Following the Allt Lair down from Loch Coire Lair (large loch centre left, after which the Allt becomes a river!), it bends to the right before disappearing towards Loch Dughaill (just visible beyond). It was nice to renew acquaintance with the scree-cat after our walk up Coire Lair the previous year: it's the light patch beyond and to the right of the furthest visible part of the Allt. [The scree cat (2010)]		Sgorr Ruadh and upper Coire Lair	Loch Torridon and Lochan Neimhe

This was exciting for us, but as you can see from the last photo, cloud was starting to descend on some of the other hills in the vicinity. We were very happy not to have been in cloud on our top, but didn't hang around long before starting to retrace our upward route. Showers appeared and disappeared around, and for a time the skies were quite forbidding:

Showers to the west: as yet we were not far below the summit: the quartzite/sandstone divide can be clearly seen lower left

Still looking out at signs of Atlantic weather, now back at the saddle

Cloud above Coire Dubh Mhor (between Beinn Eighe and Liathach)

This is a colour photo, honest!

Monochrome the last view might have seemed, but the showers had faded, and to the west, again something was happening... Once again we could see more brightness around;

Loch Torridon and beyond to Rona, Raasay and Skye (Trotternish)

The sun started to reflect on the sea between Upper Loch Torridon and Skye, then it came our way too: first by proxy: the myriad pools scattered over the hills below us started also to brighten under still-dark skies.

Evening light on Loch Torridon, and out to Skye

Pools in the shallow corrie

A big sky

Sunshine picking out Lochan Neimhe and the west end of Seana Mheallan

Then we were bathed in sun at the same time as Liathach's hill cloud became denser, thinner, then dispersed again. Great stuff!

Liathach with it's own cloud (Alligin, behind, still clear) it looked bright and local, rather than a sign of things to come

A short while later, it looked like it had flowed down on top of the ridge - a wispy cap

Even the cloud on Trotternish (distant skyline) had almost dispersed

..and Liathach's thinned quite soon. The very shallow, smooth, humps beyond the main Coire a Cheud Chnoc are clearly visible (on Seana Mheallan, lower left of photo)

The lightshow faded as we finally descended back to Glen Torridon and lost our views to the sea and Lochan Neimhe. So we were back to the bikes as dusk imperceptibly faded, as happens in midsummer here. It was great to have the bikes to save us the long road walks: these are often what finished us off on our long days out in the past.

We had a splendidly fresh ride back down Glen Torridon - not seeing a car the whole way back to the cottage! What a wonderful area... We got back to the to the cottage at about 11.45 p.m., just as the moon backlit some clouds above Beinn Damph, across the Loch: a very atmospheric end to another wonderful day out - a walk that took us through amazing scenery, enthralling in any weather, let alone the blaze of glory we witnessed from high up.

The brightness softens and Lochan Neimhe is nearly above us

Moonlight at the end of our walk. The shadowy hill across the loch is Beinn Damph.

(Text and photos by Daniel and Clare Gordon. April 2012).

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