Mullach Fraoch Choire & A'Chralaig - Photo Gallery
I had met up with members of the Linlithgow Ramblers the previous evening and stayed in Tulloch Station Lodge; we woke up to a sunny, blue-sky morning and a good weather forecast. There was a suspicion of a cool breeze but I decided it looked like being a teeshirt and shorts day. It took us an hour to drive to Glen Shiel and we parked by the side of Loch Cluanie close to the start of a good track named An Caoronn Mor; it is a signposted walking route to Glen Affric. It was easy walking on a good surface in warm sunshine; Loch Cluanie soon disappeared behind us as we gradually gained height making our way up the broad valley of Allt a'Chaorainn Mhoir, flanked by steep green slopes.
The focus of our attention was the rocky peak at the summit of Ciste Dhubh, not that we were going to climb but it dominated the view ahead; as we got further upstream the tops of some of the Glen Affric hills came into view. The steep green slopes on either side were anything but plain; gullies, glacial deposits and eroded outcrops of exposed rock give each part of every hill a unique profile. The most unusual feature though was a man-made one, an I-shaped stone-built shelter at the foot of Am Bathach. After a couple of miles walking the good track suddenly disappeared, and we had another mile to walk on a much more typical Scottish footpath; even after a spell of dry weather there was plenty of mud and swampy ground to cope with.
At the highest part of the path, opposite Ciste Dhubh, we had reached the point where we had to start the hard work. On the eastern skyline was the rim of Coire Odhar with Mullach Fraoch Choire high on the left and A'Chralaig on the right. The line of our ascent was a steep, broad shoulder on the northern side of the corrie; it looked obvious enough but it was also going to be hard work. In theory, we should have walked past the gullied streams coming down from Coire Odhar before heading upwards, but having to cross the steep-sided gullies made a change from plodding up steep grass.
After we climbed up the steep bank after crossing the deepest and biggest gully we saw a group of Red Deer uphill, ahead of us; I suspected that we were going to climb a slope that only the deer usually see. Contour lines on a map don't normally lie and there was no exception, it was a relentlessly steep grassy slope; it got a bit steeper as we reached the deer-inhabited zone, I wouldn't have thought a forty-five degree swamp was possible. Once we got past the swampy area the ground was drier; the highest and steepest part of the climb was peppered with boulders, some of them were a bit unstable but at least there small places to rest with both feet at the same height. Eventually we reached the crest of the slope, it must have been almost 600-metres climbing up from the valley, and I wasn't sorry to be on the ridge.
After a short rest, there was a quick descent to a small col before a more reasonably graded ridge climb towards the summit. On the edge of the left hand slope were the remains of snow cornices, the steep right hand slope was covered in loose stones. The rocks in that part of the world sparkle in the sunshine, each one full of mica crystals; the sparkle doesn't photograph very well, you just have to be there on the right day. After a brief, easy scramble up through a couple of rock outcrops, another reasonably easy grassy slope took us up to the summit of Mullach Fraoch Choire.
At the summit, a substantial cairn and stone shelter command an impressive view of mountain tops; there was a cool breeze but not quite enough to force me to put on any more clothing. After not seeing anybody else all morning, there was another walker already at the summit and two more arrived from the other direction while we were there; they had taken a more conventional, but probably just as steep, route. The view of our next hill, A'Chralaig, was most impressive; a great dark shape with lots of snowy highlights on the edges and in the hollows.
It looked like an interesting descent too; the ground fell away steeply to a narrow ridge, decorated by some rugged looking pinnacles. As we descended on a good, obvious path we came to the pinnacles; at first the rock was dry and looked good enough to scramble over, but with the intimidating steepness on either side I wanted to see how the ridge developed before doing anything clever. As we got past the first of the outcrops it became obvious that it would be easy to get yourself into trouble and I didn't feel in the mood for trouble.
After the larger outcrops there is a proper arete, a knife-edged ridge with a good drop either side; once again I decided to stick to the path rather than struggle across the fragmented rocky crest. The path below the crest doesn't really save you from the exposure, but there was always somewhere to put my feet and hands. After that it becomes a much easier walk along the airy ridge that is the rim of Coire Odhar; the pinnacled edge looks impressive from lower down the ridge. An obvious path then takes you upwards to Stob Coire na Cralaig, a cairned top at the start of the ridge leading to A'Chralaig.
The broad ridge has the same pattern as on Mullach Fraoch Choire, with cornices on the left and loose shiny stones on the right hand slope; the only differences were the gaps at the top of the cornices where their grip on the ridge had been loosened by the sun. After the earlier slog it was very pleasant to walk easily up the ridge in the warm sunshine, even with that bit of a breeze; you can't beat a view of endless mountain tops. The ground became steeper and rougher as we approached the highest point, but after a final easy grass slope, and a final cornice that almost encroached up to it, we reached the substantially tall cairn at the summit of A'Chralaig.
As we sat for a few minutes, enjoying the sunshine, ignoring the breeze coming off the snow and taking in the views of mountains and islands out to the west, there were a few more passers-by heading in the opposite direction. Eventually it was time to descend, easily down a broad grassy ridge at first, and then we made a beeline for a grassy shoulder that would take us back down to our starting point. We had to walk across an ocean of loose, sparkling stones that tinkled underfoot as you walked over them, although I had to take care to keep my balance as I made an occasional slide on the dry stones.
It came as no surprise to me that the faint, but reasonable path along the easy grassy shoulder didn't last for very long; the path was going in the wrong direction, or was it really the right direction? There are no short cuts on the hills, if you have a steep grassy slog uphill then you can be fairly certain that you will have an equally strenuous descent; I was thankful that the steep grass was dry. The 500-metre descent took us back to the start of An Caoronn Mor and a thankfully short walk back to the car.
© Andy Wallace 28th April 2007