Cùl Mòr, 14th September 2026
After a huge day the day before, my legs were pretty cooked, and even walking to the toilet block on the campsite gave me a little bit of foot pain and stiffness. I know my body well enough that this subsides over the morning, so I figured an easy day hike from Ullapool would give me a bit of active recovery.
I had breakfast in the van, and had a lazy morning getting some dishes washed and keeping the place tidy, as I knew Steg was coming up later on.
By 1030 I was on the road north up to Assynt and the weather was looking ok - not too windy and not raining yet. I headed for the car park at Knockan Crag and milled about for a bit reading the signboards and getting a better understanding of the Moine Thrust (turns out it's not a dance move, who knew!).
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| Cùl Mòr |
At 1120, I grabbed my kit, including poles and my trusty leather boots and headed off up the path to Cùl Mòr. I was clearly tired, I could feel that in the ascent, but I had a whole day ahead of me, and plenty food, so I just took my time and used the poles.
On the way to the first wee summit, Meallan Diomhain, I met a couple who were coming down and we chatted about how windy it was (I didn't think it too bad in comparison). They were Swiss and had come to Scotland for the landscape, and we talked about how different it is to Switzerland.
I made the high point of the Meallan Diomhain at 1230 and the views over to Suilven were stunning. However, no sooner had I left that point, than the rain started. This was forecast, so I decided to put on the full waterproofs as that was it due to set in for the day.
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| Suilven before the rain |
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| Cùl Mòr |
I followed the cairns onto the ridge line, and then the steeper contours up to the summit trig point.
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| Suilven in Rain |
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| Wet Assynt |
I made the summit at 1320. It was very windy, but not as mental as I've been out in this year, I'd say 40-50mph. I didn't hang about.
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| Cùl Mòr |
Rather than backtrack, I decided to head west then south to reach the bealach between Cùl Mòr and Creag nan Calman, then just head east back to Meallan Diomhain again. It did involve a wee bit more ascent, but I was happy with that. It was a long walk in the rain downhill back to the van but I was just happy to have bagged something else in Assynt.
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| Drams in the van before heading out for dinner |
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