C#62: Beinn Mhic Chasgaig

[map]

Total distance walked: 8km

Total ascent: 759m

Time: 1245 – 1715 Thursday 24 July 2008

This excellent little hill is nestled in Glen Etive and surrounded by far grander and more impressive mountains. From the road in Glen Etive this hill presents quite a steep and unrelenting face, but its true charms are well hidden from view.

There’s a bridge across the River Etive at NN198513 that has a rather intimidating two-metre fence topped with barbed wire. The SMC guide book suggested that it was normally locked and that a river crossing was inevitable, but when we went to check there was no sign of a padlock. In fact, it looks like the owners of the gate (and the cottage at Alltchaorunn) were expecting walkers, as just through the gate a sign directs you to follow a series of wooden posts towards the path, and avoiding disturbing the cottage’s privacy. If the gate had been locked it would have meant a rather tricky crossing. Even at the height of a fairly dry hot spell in summer, the river was knee-deep in some places.

Once we got to the path we followed it uphill along the east bank of the Allt a’Chaorainn, which had plenty of beautiful deep clear pools which would be excellent for a dip in hot weather. We passed them by though, despite the rising temperatures and blazing July sun.

About a kilometre from the cottage there is the start of a narrow ravine, and through the trees and undergrowth, quite well hidden, we caught sight of a narrow single-plank bridge across the river to the south bank. Wire hand-rails guide you down the steep rock to the bridge, and then an airy crossing sees you at the other side, with a faint track striking off directly uphill to catch the main path about 30m away.

Once on this track the v-shaped ravine scored by the river narrows into a spectacular valley, and the path skirts the upper south flank. Half a kilometre past the bridge there is an obvious stream coming down from Coire Aiteil via a rocky gully. In this dry spell the stream was rather small, and the sense of remoteness as we climbed the gully was enhanced by the trickling of the water under the rocks. Only occasionally did it surface and offer the opportunity to slake our thirst. A cool breeze added to our comfort levels as we got higher up.

After 300m of ascent up the river-bed at the base of the narrow gully we turned east into a closed amphitheatre of cliffs and steep grass. We picked our way up increasingly steep slopes, through a beautiful series of small cliffs and rocky outcrops, following the main course of the stream until the gradient lessened at about 750m. While we rested before the final push to the summit a lone stag appeared on the higher horizon, but soon fled to quieter slopes.

From here it was an easy ascent to the summit, which gave excellent views of Buachaille Etive Mor to the north and Creise to the east. We stopped only briefly by the cairn amidst the rocky top, before barrelling downhill.

The plan was to follow the north ridge down to the river, and have a 2.5km walk along the road back to the car, but once we started on this ridge the route down the slopes east of Coire Leacach looked do-able, so we headed off that way. 650m of thigh-shaking descent left us knackered and deposited on the south bank of the River Etive, just to the east of Allt Leacach. A minibus-load of lads were diving off the rocks above a deep pool in the river, and we picked our crossing place a little upstream where the river widened.

Still, despite the dry weather we were up to our knees as we gingerly waded across barefoot. Once we’d dried our feet and booted back up again we had about 1.25km of road walk back to the car.

This is an exceptional little hill up to a height of about 750m. Beyond that the summit is fairly mediocre and the north ridge isn’t the most exciting. Ignore the guide books that direct you to ascend and descend by this north ridge, eschewing the wonderful ravine of the Allt a’ Chaorainn and the gulley hidden in Coire Aiteil.