A' Ghlas-bheinn, 14th September 2024

 In March, Steg and I had a great day on Beinn Fhada, but with lots of snow around, it was looking like adding A' Ghlas-bheinn on that day would have made it far too long of a hike. I had planned a few Munro days in my leave calendar for September and this was the first of these. We toyed with the idea of a longer trip away but schedules are difficult for busy and dynamic professional men like Steg and I. Plus climbing A' Ghlas-bheinn would mean that all the Glen Sheil Munros would be complete for both of us.

I made a point of telling the team that I was tying to get away a little earlier on Thursday and I did manage to get on the road by 1630. Rush hour traffic however meant that I didn't get Steg till nearly an hour later.

We headed over the Erskine Bridge, through Dumbarton and snaked our way up the A82 past Loch Lomond. The showers had left the sky clear and the land wet, and the low sun made the landscape shimmer as we passed the time chatting about work and life.

We stopped at the Real Food Cafe for dinner and I heard someone over my shoulder shout my name, and there was Paul from work. What a treat! He was heading to Benderloch for a break with his lovely family, so we stopped and chatted for a while. Great to see you Paul and hope you enjoyed the fitba' and the fishin'!

Paul at the Real Food Cafe

It was starting to get dark as we headed through Glencoe and by the time we hit Spean Bridge the stars were visible. We arrived at the Cluanie about 10pm. The bar was shut AGAIN.

The sky was clear and the stars were incredible, the main arc of the Milky Way visible directly overhead and the green glow of the aurora quite bright behind the hills directly to our North. We hit the hay and heard a couple of showers through the night. It was quite cold but I have plenty blankets in the van.

We were up at 0700, breakfast in the van and then drove down to Morvich to park up and start the walk. Boots were on and we were on the way at 0845.

Gunter at Glen Shiel

Gleann Choinneachain

The walk up the Glen was familiar from the last time and when we hit the burn crossing, we kept dry feet. We headed up to the Bealach na Sgairne in showers that were coming and going, but we did get a view from there.

Bealach na Sgairne

There was quite a steep ascent for the next couple of hundred metres but we just took it slow. However, the showers were coming in and the wind was cold, so we stopped to put an extra layer and gloves on.

There was quite a bit of up and down but the distance passed easily and when we hit the 806m point, we got a bit of sun and the landscape opened up for us a bit.

Steg enjoying the liquid sunshine

Me, by Steg

We made the summit at 1300 and stopped for some food before deciding on a route down.

A' Ghlas-bheinn summit

We worked out a route following the contours of a shallow ridgeline down to Dorusduain Wood, which worked out just perfectly for us, giving us both a chance to nav over pathless terrain and some steep ground. We picked up the track and headed down towards the bridge.

Gob na Roinne

We came across the old cottage, Gob na Roinne which is open in one room and has clearly been used for staying in. It's a bit manky but I can just imagine arriving there by torchlight to find this horrific Michael Jackson graffiti on the wall, complete with "hee hee".

Quite possibly not a Banksy

We crossed the bridge and made it back to the van just before 1600. There were 2 cold cans of Irn Bru waiting for us, so we had those and chatted to a man who'd been looking for someone's rucksack that had fallen from the North Shiel Ridge - and he only went and found it! Well done that feller.

We headed down the road, stopping at Fort Bill for food and I was home for 2130 after dropping Steg off. 

On reflection that was a great hill. There was a great mix of gentle and hard parts, and some technical terrain, but all very separate and distinct from each other. Some rain and mist gave atmosphere and we got to use our skillsets to good effect.

Distance: 19.1km

Time: 7h 1m

Ascent: 1,211m

Munros Completed: 211