OK so this is an old trip I did, but still, here it is if you wish to read it. I can only apologise for the delay (published 29/10/22. Hiked on 06/06/22). The writing style probably changes halfway through as well haha
Monday
My friend Twig approached me several months ago about a potential challenge, the Loch Mullardoch Circuit. This was meant to be a gruelling multi-day, multi-Munro hike. Loch Mullardoch is situated on the west coast of Scotland and the Munros surrounding it are arguably some of the most remote and trickiest to access. Sounded like a perfect challenge to me!
Twig and I have known each other for a long time now. We went to sibling schools and then we went to the same university before becoming flatmates in second and third year. Since then, we have gone hiking together plenty.
We settled on a date to tackle this challenge. Initially it was going to be the weekend right before graduation, but maybe that wasn’t such a good idea and so we started a week beforehand! We left St Andrews a little after 13:00 on the Monday before my graduation, 06/06/22. The drive was a long drive. She drove us in Lil’ Blue all the way to Loch Mullardoch via Dundee, Perth, Inverness, her friend Angus’ house and then finally Glen Cannich itself where the Loch was sitting. We chatted about many things on the way up, catching up mostly since we had not spoken for a while! She had a job lined up and her life was in order, however hectic it seemed to me. She was well and I was glad for her!
We arrived at the loch. First thing to know is, the loch wasn’t always there like that. In 1951, the Cannich river was in fact dammed and the loch grew as a result of that. The dam was very impressive to see, a large wall holding back that amount of pressure from the body of water, and doing it in such a quiet and fussless way. Twig parked the car beneath the dam and we then wrote out a sign, letting people know why there was a random car parked there overnight. And once that was done, we were off!
Since we arrived quite late on the Monday, at around 18:00, we weren’t planning to do too much. We weren’t worried about the light levels at all since we were in the north of Scotland in summer and as a result, the light would hang around for a while until well past our bedtime! But, we had to get to our intended camping spot. Therefore, we started off at a decent pace and turned and followed the Allt Mullardoch stream up a glen. The path ran out and our feet got a little damp from bog womping uphill. This was also the first time of many that Twig said she wished she had walking poles! It was tough going. A steep uphill in boggy conditions in the early evening is never fun. However, the views were incredible as we climbed up and the surrounding area spread out below us. We even saw snow (in June!), tucked into the shadow of the Munros as we climbed up and got closer to the top. Seems climate change hasn’t gotten to that quite yet!
After an hour of battling uphill, we finally made it onto the bealach below the first Munro, Carn nan Gobhar (#1), where we saw the most spectacular views across the mountains to the north of us. The ground also firmed up on the bealach and we were no longer walking through a bog, always a relief! We made our way up to the top of the first Munro and took a sit down by the cairn. I cannot stress how amazing it is to sit in the clear summer air at the top of a mountain with a string of ridges leading off to the west and mountains stretching in every other direction we looked. Loch Monar was in the next glen across and Loch Mullardoch was behind us. And not a single person or sign of civilisation could be seen. Truly amazing. However, we did find out that we had 4G and after taking a couple of photos and sending some messages, we started down towards our camping spot, in the bealach between the first and second Munros.
We pitched up camp just up from Loch Tuill Bhearnach. We were expecting a lot of midges since there was quite a bit of standing water and not much of a breeze, but happily we were wrong. Midges are quite possibly the worst thing in Scotland… Well… One of the worst things. I pitched my beautiful 2 person Hilleberg Rogen whilst Twig boiled some water for dinner. I practically inhaled the food and then produced a cake I had brought up from the car which we then split evenly. I climbed into the tent at around 21:30 and passed out. Twig didn’t sleep straight away but instead stayed up for a while playing solitaire. Apparently I talk in my sleep. I have no memory of this, but apparently I turned to Twig suddenly and asked in a judgemental tone “Are you still playing Solitaire?” before falling straight asleep again. I would like to stress, I have no recollection of this, just Twig’s word which I trust! So I apologise to everyone I have unintentionally spoken to whilst asleep and potentially insulted!
Tuesday
Sleep claimed us both though, but like a sleepless child bursting into their parent’s bedroom, the light snuck into the tent and woke us up at around 04:00. Not seeing the point in trying to head back to sleep now that we were both awake, we got up then and there to try and witness the sunrise. Twig was used to getting up at early hours due to her ponies and other hobbies, but I was very much not thrilled to be getting up until I saw the pink hue of the sunrise through the opened tent door. I practically jumped up and out of the tent at that point to try and witness the beautiful dawn sunrise.
After a breakfast made of packaged porridge, we packed the tent away. Since we were camping on a bealach, then the wind whips up and through this and as a result, all the clouds in the glen below us were being blow up and through our camp, making it a little misty. However, as soon as we put our packs on and started climbing up to the second Munro, it cleared up straight away and we could see the clouds that we were camped in!
The climb up to Sgurr na Lapaich (#2) was steep and kept doubling back on itself, resulting in a tough task to start the day with. Mind, it was still before 05:00! But we made it to the top and our moral and spirits were lifted by the views that greeted us. I kid you not, the photos do nowhere near the justice of how spectacular these views were. The sun had just risen and the clouds were all below us, mountains in the distance rising out of them and their shadows being cast onto this layer of cloud. The cold air was brisk and fresh and the sun was in our eyes. It was just beautiful. I am so glad that we got up to witness this. We had arrived at the top out of breath so we took a quick break. Whilst the sun was still quite low and bright, Twig then asked me to take some photos, a typical “hiker-girl” vibe sorta thing, which I found quite funny.
We got going again. Shouldering our packs, we made our way downhill again. This was a steady downhill with no twisting our winding. It was nice terrain as well, quite firm. But boy, we went down so far! At least 200m, which we would have to climb back up!… This turned out to be a recurring theme of our trip, so much up-and-down! Again, this shouldn’t have been surprising, but understanding something and then doing it are two different things. And so, up we went again. This was a decent climb, steady and not super steep at any points, just long. There were also two cairns at the top. Initially, we thought the closer one was the Munro summit, but noooo, that was just a misleading Munro top and we had to walk allll the way along to the next one until we could say that we had climbed this third Munro, An Riabhachan (#3).
Whilst we had been walking along this ridge line towards the summit of An Riabhachan, I was looking ahead of us, westward. And I recognised a mountain and the loch beneath it! It was Beinn Dronaig! I had been there two weeks prior, walking the Cape Wrath Trail! And so I strained and hoped that I could see Maol Bhuidh bothy which I knew was on the south side of Beinn Dronaig, but unfortunately, there were smaller foothills which covered it up from our view. A bit disappointing, but I was glad to see that I recognised this place!
After summiting An Riabhachan, we turned and walked down (again), through a cloud that was straddling the bealach, and up the other side towards An Socach (#4). There are multiple “An Socachs” in Scotland and so this was specifically called An Socach (Mullardoch). This was an easy summit. It was approaching 11:00 and so we sat down for some elevenses, eating some delicious energy bars. These things always taste amazing when you’re low on energy.
At this point, at the top of An Socach, the path lead down and back to the east, but we weren’t wanting to do that, and so we had to go cross country at this point. Stepping off the path, we descended down the flank of this mountain and onto a sheep track which turned into a farmer’s track or something. We ran into a large herd of deer at this point and they all turned and ran as one. There were even some stags with their antlers still furry and it was just a marvel to witness. But we managed to descended the full distance, all the way to the level of the loch, a full 800m. The farmers track lead to a shallow place we could cross the river Abhainn Sithidh and so, stepping from stone to stone, we perilously managed to cross this river. We awarded ourselves with some delicious white chocolate and raspberry flapjack that Twig had made beforehand! My Goodness, these were delicious! I badgered her for the recipe and, when we got home safe and sound, she sent it to me. I then went on to make and nearly this entire tray of flapjack. Definition of “health” right there!
We stood up on shaky legs and started walking again. We had to walk along a flat track until a path appeared on our right which we could take and it would lead us up to the top of the next Munro. We found the path alright, but we didn’t enjoy walking up it. We had just descended 800m and we would have to climb all of that again, right before lunch when our energy was starting to ebb. The little dusty path crumbled away and disappeared amongst the bogs on the side of this Munro. We could see the peak at this point, although this turned out to be a blasted false summit. The Munro summit was beyond this. We got up though and boy was it such hard work. But 800m later we were once again stumbling along the ridge south towards the Munro, Mullach na Dheiragain (#5). On either side of this Munro were two other, slightly smaller peaks. They were like bodyguards, you had to get over them to get to the main Munro.
But yes, we got to the top on Mullach na Dheiragain and we could finally have lunch. It was a true ‘mind-over-matter’ effort, all the grit and determation. The views were stunning though. On the western side, we could see this beautiful, idyllic glen. This must be have been how eagles view the glens. The river snaked it’s way down the glen and the sides were dappled in sunshine. We had our lunch and I lay down and shut my eyes for five minutes… Or at least, that’s what I thought. It turned out I had like a proper fifteen minute nap and only got up when Twig chivvied me into rising as she was packed and leaving!
We walked along this ridge, walking south and away from Loch Mullardoch. We passed over a couple smaller rises and bumps along the ridge before we started making the climb up to the sixth Munro, Sgùrr nan Ceathreamhnan (#6). Along this section, I had Still Young by the Cat Empire on the jukebox in my head, humming along and singing out loud at points. When the climb up to Sgùrr nan Ceathreamhnan, we had to engage “no stop climbing”, never stopping as we pushed ourselves up to the top. That was fun. The sweet release of getting to the top and stopping is so great. You’re on top of everything, your legs are feeling it and you’re panting but thoroughly enjoying every moment. We stopped for a water break at this moment, before setting off to the east, having completed the second side of the ‘square’ that the route can be approximated to.
We now descended off of Sgùrr nan Ceathreamhnan and made our way towards our penultimate Munro for today, An Socach (#7) whilst Pocahontas’ Colours of the Wind was playing on the jukebox in my head. That was soon replaced by Danny Elfman’s What’s This as soon I saw the forests down in Glen Affric to my south. Glen Affric is meant to be the most beautiful glen in Scotland, but Glencoe still gets my personal vote.
We got to the top of An Socach (Affric). That wasn’t too bad actually. It turns out it was mainly descending from the previous Munro before a small climb to this one. OK, cool, but our legs were still tired. Last push of the day though, we could see where we would be camping pretty much! We ate the last bits of Twig’s flapjack and then set off. A 400m climb was in front of us.
It must have been the flapjack. We practically sped up it. It might have been an end of the day spurt, or maybe it was because the path was leading at an angle across the climb and not directly up it… Either which way, all I know is that before long we were at the top and feeling pretty good about ourselves! We contoured around the flank of the Munro and climbed to up beneath the summit of Màm Sodhail (#8). We dropped our bag and made our way to the cairn at the top.
The cairn at the top of Màm Sodhail (#8) was massive! And it was also really windy, a coldy wind coming from the east. The mountains must have been shielding us all day but now we were in the firing line! We made our way back down to where we had dropped our bags and then made our way to the westerly side of the summit where we had spied some flat ground, allowing us to camp in the lee of the summit. I pitched my beautiful Hilleberg once more and we enjoyed having no weight on our shoulders.
We had our dinners, eating both our meals and the puddings I had brought along. We were a little worried about water for the morning, but we would deal with that problem later. I pretty much headed straight to sleep whilst Twig hung out a little longer, watching the sun set before sleeping as well. We were planning on getting up early again.
Wednesday
My alarm went off again but I was already awake. It had been a terrible night of wind and a little rain. Therefore, when we got up and out the tent, we discovered that it was a horrible day, completely different to the previous two days! We were practically camped in wet cloud and the wind was roaring all around us. We ate our breakfasts and then packed away a wet tent and set off. The photos below are some rare moments where there was no cloud!
We could have continued along the ridge and passed over another Munro, Càrn Eige (#10), but we didn’t think this was actually the most economical route because we would have to descend it again to run out to a Munro which was lying out of the path, Bheinn Fhionnlaidh (#9). Like, we would climb all the way to the top of Càrn Eige and then descend, climb Bheinn Fhionnlaidh, and then reclimb all that height again back to Càrn Eige. Instead, we thought that we would skirt Càrn Eige, climb Bheinn Fhionnlaidh first and then finally climb Càrn Eige before moving along the final ridge. Does that make sense? Makes sense to me. Reduces the amount of height we had to climb…
Therefore, we skirted and contoured around Càrn Eige along some boggy grass, the wind whipping at us, before we got to the bealach between Càrn Eige and Bheinn Fhionnlaidh where we dumped our bags. We would pick them up on the way back. Walking without any heavy rucksacks is always a pleasure when you’ve been doing it a while! We actually passed a tent on our way up Bheinn Fhionnlaidh which must have belonged to a camper who had been coming the other way around the Munros. It had been the only sign of a living person for the last two people! We topped out to the summit of Bheinn Fhionnlaidh with cold winds pushing at us from behind and clouds hiding the views from us. That was a shame, but it is what it is! We danced solo jigs, hands stuffed in pockets whilst we tried to stay warm, whilst we took some photos. Once that was done, we descended again, repassing the tent and back towards where we had left our backpacks.
We then had to climb up towards Càrn Eige. The clouds descended down on us and it was definitely another ‘mind-over-matter’ moment again. Already, so early in the day! It was rough. There were rocks and the path kept coming and going amongst the rocks and boulders and we couldn’t really see that far ahead of us. Still, we eventually peaked but didn’t hang around. The inside of clouds are cold! We pushed on to the east and along to the final couple Munros. I did have a snickers at this point though I will confess. I was needing the energy I think!
The wind was windy. The clouds were cloudy. And yet, we pushed on. We ridge walked along to the next Munro, Tom a’Chòinich (#11). This actually took longer than we expected since it was a proper ridge walk with steep drops down to both our left and our right. We briefly emerged for moments above the clouds and that was spectacular to see. There were some rocky scrambles to do on damp, slick rock. Nothing too dangerous really, just didn’t want to slip and have a nasty fall potentially, so we cautiously took it a little slower.
We did finally get to Tom a’Chòinich though and took the obligatory photo. Again, it was in cold clouds so we didn’t hang around. Instead, we kept heading east to the final Munro. This was actually tedious. The cloud meant that we couldn’t see much and we were just walking along really in the cloud. We descended a little before gradual climbing towards the summit of the final Munro, Toll Creagach (#12).
OK, now it was time to get down off these mountains and back to the car. We descended a little from the summit of Toll Creagach before we got to the lowest point of the bealach before we turned north and started dropping down into the glen below us. Like, this was decidedly sketchy. It was a steep way down, we couldn’t see beyond 20m and the ground was slippy and wet. My ankles were at every angle seemingly and navigation was difficult. We could hear a river off to our left, but we couldn’t see anything so we had no way markers to judge distance or direction by. Just… downhill. The loch should be downhill, right?
That logic seemed to work because before long we were emerging from the clouds and we could see the loch and the river and navigation was now all good. Winning. More importantly, we could see the forest we were heading for which had a genuine path in it which would lead us back to the car. Going down this glen made sure that we were wet and soggy by the time we did get to this forest, and even then the forest was all muddy. So yeah, covered in all sorts of stuff! But that’s OK. We must have smelled incredible as well.
We joined the path and made our way along towards the damn, staying left of the deer fence as the instructions from Walk Highlands had told us to. We soon emerged onto a road (!!) and then we skipped on under the dam and up to the car. Easy peasy.
That was such a good trip, Twig and I had such a great time. Hard work but such an amazing accomplishment. We had climbed 4,500m in elevation over around 40hrs and cranked out some odd 64km. Not a bad challenge. I can highly recommend this route to anyone wanting a fun challenge in the highlands with some beautiful views and possibly adverse weather conditions!
