The Mullardoch Four, 5th April 2025
As I drove up the A82, I swear I could feel Winter actually leaving my body, and I was feeling really positive about the adventure to come. I knew the drive would be a long one, and I opted for the A82 up and A9 home to allow for a bit of variety in the scenery. I lost 30 mins to roadworks at Tyndrum, but it didn't get me down, and fairly soon I was in Fort William and on the hunt for a haggis supper to set me up for the hills the next day.
I left Fort William and made a stop for a few minutes at the Commando Memorial outside of Spean Bridge, where the setting sun was casting some stunning golden evening light across the Aonachs and the Ben.
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| Commando Memorial |
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| Setting sun over Lochaber |
It was getting cold quickly so I jumped back in the van and started the long drive all the way up to Drumnadrochit, then into Cannich and up the wee road to the Mullardoch Dam car park.
I saw a badger, bats, and lots of deer in the darkness as I drove up the little single track and I was surprised to see quite so many cars and vans in the car park. I got parked at 2130, though on a tilt, then put the curtains up, got my kit ready for the morning and headed for an early bed.
No one likes an 0530 alarm, but the benefit of being away before everyone else is up is something I really enjoy. I got the bed away, made some food for the day, had my coffee (from the new mocha pot, my most recent van upgrade), overnight oats and a 400mg preventative ibuprofen chaser to potentially deal with the Achilles issue I've been facing. I was out of the van in some early daylight at 0625.
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| New Mocha Pot |
It was fresh, but not cold and there was no wind at dam level. Everyone was still asleep in the cars and vans as I headed up the hill towards the dam. It was a pleasant jog up and down a couple of slopes to the edge of the loch where I broke off and headed up the steep slopes of Mullach na Maoile. It was hard work, but I was travelling quite light and so made progress reasonably quickly.
The ground had a light frost which was crunching under my feet, and above 600m the wind picked up. But the sun was coming up and I knew I was in for a treat.
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| Frosty start |
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| View across to the Affric Hills |
I watched a pair of hinds grazing, then they saw me and ran off down the hill. It was shaping up to be an exceptional day. To the East were inversion conditions, but I seemed to be on the border of it.
The way forward from the little bealach was obvious, the great bulk of Càrn Nan Gobhar ahead of me. There was no obvious path but the ridgeline became apparent. The first, and bigger cairn is not the Munro, so it was on for a couple of hundred metres, running across flat and soft ground to reach the true summit. First Munro down by 0810! I felt great and the views were opening up around me. The wind a little cold, but not as strong as predicted.
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| Càrn nan Gobhar |
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| Sgùrr nan Clach Geala and Loch Tuill Bhearnach |
It was time to move on pretty quickly so I headed for the next bealach, dropping to about 800m, meaning a 350m re-ascent. No bother to these Kilpatricks-trained legs! It was fairly steep, so I just took it steady. I reached the summit of Sgùrr na Lapaich at 0900 and bumped into a nice fella called Ally. He's got a Youtube channel and had been camping on Càrn nan Gobhar the night before. Ally was the only person ahead of me all day it turned out.
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| Sgùrr na Lapaich |
The short break did me good, because here I was back at 830m, with yet another 300m of ascent again! This terrain was much more bouldery so it was big stomps and I gained height really quickly. There was a lovely run along a plateau to take me to the nice big cairn on top of An Riabhachan, where I arrived just before 1000.
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| On top of An Riabhachan, looking north-ish |
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| Views out towards the Achnashellach hills |
I picked out the last Munro of the day, An Socach and was glad of the visibility. It's a long way when you've got 3 under your belt already. Getting there involves running off the end of the plateau, then two ridges. Mercifully, you only drop to 870m this time, so only 190m of reascent. Yay.
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| The lovely connecting ridges looking over to An Socach |
I was on the top of the last summit at 1110, meaning four Munros before lunchtime, which was a pretty good scorecard for the day. My Achilles issue hadn't been a problem and the blisters I had during a very grim 30km training run in a storm last Saturday seemed a million miles away.
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| An Socach |
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| An Socach |
The descent started really well, gentle slopes around the corrie rim eventually gave way to peat bog. I was glad of the dry conditions, but it was still pretty manky in amongst the peat hags and the bog wood. I aimed for the burn, crossed it with only a slightly damp foot and then joined up with a pretty rough track which got better as I approached the loch again. I filled up with water at the river and went looking for the path along the loch.
Dear readers, this is not what I expected. It was no more than a trod. Sometimes it goes up the hill, sometimes it goes down. Sometimes it's a bog. Sometimes, just big boulders. At points, the track has washed away into the loch. I was hoping for maybe a landrover track, but no such luck. My time just disappeared, and I think it took me an hour longer than I'd estimated for that leg.
Eventually, I did make it to the land rover track but energy was going so it was a bit of a slow hobble along. I didn't have far to go though and I got back to the van at 1430ish.
I read a load of the reports on Walkhighlands after I'd been and I'm slightly glad I didn't know what that path was like. Some of the people on there took 19hrs to do that round, which is a bit nuts. Don't underestimate it - there is a lot of climbing.
I drove home via the A9 and was back in Glasgow for a lovely sunset just after 8pm. Long day, but I felt quick and training is going well for the Goil to Gillan Challenge in a few weeks!
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