Lagangarbh is one of the most iconic mountaineering huts in Scotland, nestling as it does in a picturesque location at the foot of Buachaille Etive Mor. It was originally a crofting home, but has been maintained by the Scottish Mountaineering Club since 1946. For an increasingly large proportion of Moray Mountaineers, the weekend starts shortly after the last one finished. Alistair and Adele were the first of such “mid-weekers”. On Thursday, they did a round including Bidean nam Bian and on Friday Stob Ghabhar and Stob a Coire Odhair from Victoria Bridge. Alan and Fiona walked west from Victoria Bridge to the Graham Beinn Suidhe. “Very hot and sunny. Thought…

Date:          Nights of Fri 6 & Sat 7 September 2019 Venue:       Ling Hut, Torridon Location:  Hut is located on the south side of Glen Torridon at gird ref NG958562 (it’s about 750m walk from the car park). Google Maps Facilities:  Cooking and heating by propane gas.  Solar powered electric lighting.  Alpine-style bunks for twelve. According to the SMC’s website, there is even a drying room.  I’ve not been for a few years, but it’s probably better to consider this as a room to hang up wet items. Cost:           £25 per person for the weekend (price corrected 30 Aug) The Ling…

It was Scourie Gala weekend, which meant that the town folk, including the campsite staff, were mostly occupied with tractors, drinking and more tractors. Dan and Sheena were greeted at the campsite entrance with a rather gruff “you were supposed to be here before six o’clock… park wherever you want.” The rest of team MMC (Maurice, Iain, Jake, Sam, Andy and Becky) dissipated to the four corners of the campsite (or in Andy and Becky’s case, the local cemetery). Rumours of a lone cyclist on the Tour de France prologue turned out to be Malcolm, who had battled Scotrail all the way to Lairg, followed by 70km into a headwind,…

Date:           Nights of Friday 2 and Saturday 3 August 2019 Venue:        Lagangarbh Hut, Glen Coe Location:   OS Grid Ref NN 221 560.  There is a car park just off the A82, but you can carefully drive down a track to a second car park next to the river.  From here it is just a short walk to the hut. Facilities:  Heating and cooking are by propane gas and electricity, lighting is electric. The hut has drying room, toilets and a shower.  Alpine bunks. No camping or fires allowed in the vicinity of the hut Cost:           £10pppn What to do: There is…

Part 1 – The Adventures of Adele and Alistair The Weekend Meet Report hasn’t yet made it off the printing press but Alistair Jeffs has kindly supplied a report of his and Adele’s wanderings on the weekend meet. Months ago Adele planned to bag the Glen Affric Munros with some with wild camping thrown in. As the day approached the weather continued to look persistently bad but having considered various options we stuck to our guns. In the end, I’m all for bad weather, low confidence forecasts as they serve to keep the less committed away and we mostly enjoyed the fine weather of the Affric Hills to ourselves. We…

Date:            Nights of Friday 5 and Saturday 6 July 2019 Venue:          Scourie Campsite Location:     Scourie, Grid Ref: NC 154 447 (Google Maps) Facilities:    All the usual campsite facilities.  WiFi. Cost:             Prices as advised on Scourie Campsite’s website. What to do: Assynt is packed with fantastic hills and coastline.  Some of the best hills include Foinaven, Arkle and Ben Stack.  For those seeking more adventurous routes, there is at least one good scramble on the northeast face of Foinaven.  Handa Island , with its spectacular sea cliffs and sea bird colonies, is also very close by (Check ferry times…

May Day bank holiday weekend is the traditional island meet for the MMC. The location this year was the Isle of Rum, the biggest of the group of four islands that make up the Small Isles. Rum was for much of the first half of the 20th Century known among west coasters and islanders as the forbidden isle. This was due to it being in private ownership as a sporting estate and with a policy turning away people who did not have permission to be there. During the 2nd half of the century the island passed into the ownership of the Nature Conservancy council who later became SNH. They had…

The irony of Joe Glennie telling anyone to ‘hurry up’ is rich indeed, but this has been an honour afforded to me these past few weeks, as memories of the MMC Hogmanay meet recede and Joe harries me for the report. Apart from upsetting Joe (a difficult, yet satisfying endeavour) it does of course mean that no-one remembers what actually happened and your addle-headed author can pen what he will with little fear of recrimination. So here follows that which was recorded in the Book of Climbs. If it isn’t there, then it won’t be here and I certainly can’t remember. The last day of the year was also one…

Venue: Strawberry Cottage, Glen Affric Location: West end of Loch Affric, Grid Ref: NH 132 206. Glen Affric is a very special and beautiful place. A natural nature reserve and a site of special scientific interest. The glen has a real wilderness feel although, fences and buildings show that it has been inhabited for a long time. the hills will always be there, but Strawberry Cottage allows you to linger for a while and get the most out of your experience. Long days are the best, the hills deserve to be savoured and many of the fantastic ridges are not really accessible to the day tripper. Facilities: 12 beds with mattresses and pillows…

A good crowd of 17 people made it to this ever popular venue at Strontian. Most to them being retired or only part time workers several made a long weekend of it with much activity on the previous days as well, while Heavy fretted about the lack of workers to pay his pension. Alan and Fiona kicked off their long weekend with a visit to Mull on Thursday. They had a short climb up the Graham Cruach Choireadail finding it very windy but sunny and with great visibility. They spent the evening in the hot tub at the Isle of Mull Hotel enjoying the views of Ben Cruachan on the…