Conival and Ben More Assynt, 16th September 2025
By the third day of my trip, I had the night time and morning routines down to a fine art, so on Tuesday morning, I was up early in the van and on the road out of Ullapool just after 0730, and on my way to Assynt.
I've passed through Assynt a couple of times over the years, always on my way for a round-the-top trip. I remember passing there with Toezi on our own little Tour of Scotland in 1999. In fact, I just checked the handwritten tour diary we kept and it was the 9th July 1999, 3 days after we climbed Nevis for the first time!
"Beautiful clear day, can see for miles around Ullapool. The plan is to head North to Durness today - it's a long drive though <Toezi takes over here> yeah that Ross doesn't have to do - Paul on the other hand wants to sunbathe but can't."
Then some nonsense about drinking and eyeing up girls. What can I say, we were young, those were different times.
Tuesday was not like that day in 1999. The weather was overcast and it was threatening rain. The view of Stac Pollaidh from the layby that I remember from 26 years ago was familiar though.
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| Stac Pollaidh from the road |
It didn't seem that windy going up to Inchnadamph, but it was looking like it might have been the best day of the trip so far. How wrong I was.
I pulled into the wee car park at the Inchnadamph hotel, and got out of the van at 0835. No sooner did I do that, than the rain started. I decided to just put my waterproofs on there and then. I was treating this as a run to get ahead of the weather so I just had my lightweight waterproofs with me. They were enough, but I could feel the cold bullets of rain hitting me. Undeterred by weather, I pressed on a bit past the houses. There was a decent track up but I wanted to check out the Traligill caves, and they were quite interesting, and at least a shelter from the rain for a short while.
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| Traligill Caves |
I braved the rain once again, and kind of picked my own line up the hill. It was steep but I was moving well and mostly out of the wind on that aspect of the slope.
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| Moor between the caves and the slope. More bog, more cloud. |
I moved close to huge herd of deer and I heard my first roar of the Autumn. They shifted off quickly but they are always an amazing sight. I am in awe of how quickly they can climb without tiring.
I made it to the top of Ben More Assynt at 1140, but that was definitely not the end of it. I stopped out of the wind to have some food. I was wearing my trail shoes, and with the slippery bouldery terrain I'd bashed my ankles, feet and toes a few times. No major damage or anything but I was more annoyed at myself that I didn't wear my boots.
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| Ben More Assynt |
I looked over at the bealach where the northerly was blowing and I could see a sheet of rain about a meter high showing the path of the wind. I steeled myself and went for it. I was immediately blown over and retreated back the shelter of the cairn. That was a bit of a worry, I've never been blown over before, and I've been out in 60+mph winds. That was definitely not the forecast - but I think the wind had picked up speed coming up the corrie and funneled into a 50m gap between the two tops of Ben More Assynt. I told myself I'd try again, and just go for hands and knees if needed. I was blown over again, but I got up and made it to the other side. I was getting a bit worried. The rain felt like hard hail.
I did the same trick of dipping down the contours and made it back to Conival safely. Visibility was nil again, but I managed to pick up a descent path that wasn't as steep as my climb up. The wind lessened as I dropped and when I started to head SW I was pretty much out of it.
The rain hadn't stopped though and every path was a raging torrent.
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| Path/Burn |
I had wet feet and a strong will, so I stepped into a bit of a run and made it down fairly quickly. By the time I got to the wee sheep shed near the village the sun decided to come out.
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| Fixer-upper |
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| Van at Ullapool |
I headed out for dinner and beers with Div and it was great to really catch up after quite a few years. I was shattered after 3 days on the hill though so it was off to bed and I slept really well.
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