Some of our MMC’ers started the meet early, and slightly further north, by heading to Loch Mullardoch on Thursday night. Jule, Carol (with Corrie), Joe and Steve (with Cassie) met up at the dam on Thursday evening. Two Js in tents, Steve in his van and Carol in her beautiful new motorhome. Our intrepid campers had to relocate nearer the dam due to 55mph gusts while Jule needed tape to fix a broken tent pole. They congregated in Carol’s van for a nightcap which she provided before they turned in for the night to try and get some sleep between the squalls. Up early next morning to catch the 07:30 mini landing craft and meet skipper Angus. After boarding and paying £40 each (in cash) they were taken on an enthralling trip along the choppy loch, where we disembarked, reducing the hike by about 13km.
On this particular day it didn’t only make the hike shorter, but overall possible. The amounts of rain over the last week had turned some of the burns into wild waterfall-like rivers, shooting down the hillside and it would have been extremely difficult if not impossible to cross these on the loch side path.
Starting at the mouth of the Allt Socach they made their way west along a distinct track for about 30 to 40’. They decided to cross a wee bridge to keep the burn on our right, just in case it couldn’t be forded further upstream. After a bit of peat-hag hopping to about NH115313 they walked north-west up the grassy slope and round the corrie to our first Munro of the day, An Socach (10:35). Then down/up, making our way roughly north-east to An Riabhachan (12:30), Sgurr na Lapaich (14:08) and finally south-east to Carn nan Gobhar (15:35) before making our way back to the dam at 17:30.
Weather conditions: breezy with some hail/sleet on one of the tops, feeling chilly when stopped for photo opportunities/snacks. Sunny spells between the showers with some fantastic views both north to Loch
Steve and Carol headed home after their successful day of Munro bagging while Joe and Jule drove over to the Glen Affric car park to meet up with the rest of the weekend meet group.
The club was allowed to take 2 cars down to the cottage so we decided to put everybody’s luggage in Tim’s mighty 2CV and Jule’s Suzuki while everybody else cycled.
On Saturday Tim and Fiona climbed Càrn a’ Choire Ghairbh ( 865m), a hill they’d climbed before, separately and via a different route. They walked from Strawberry Cottage and found “The Last Ent of Affric”, a tree which is thought to be the last survivor of the ancient forest, having escaped the ravages of Dutch Elm disease. It was awarded Scotland‘s Tree of the Year in 2019 and is aptly named after the tree creatures in Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings. Well worth a visit!
From there they crossed a deer fence and ascended steeply to reach the summit. They were afforded great views of the surrounding hills on a surprisingly calm day. Followed a well made stalkers path back to the glen.
Sheena, Maggie Duncan, Robert Ross, who had travelled all the way from London again, Alan Duncan and Dan went up Mullach Fraoch-choire and A Chraileag. They walked south from the hut, crossed the Allt na Ciche on a nice bridge and headed towards the NE ridge of Mullach Fraoch-choire. A bit of bog, three deer fences and quite a bit of up and they were finally on the summit. It was about 20 years ago when Dan had last stood on the summit of this particular hill, and even longer for Alan. The ridge to A’Chraileag is a great traverse. They descended down an old stalkers’ path from Beallach choire a Chait into Gleann na Ciche, and passed by the old elm tree in the lower reaches of the glen on the way back to the hut.
Amanda, Paul, Joe and Jule had their eyes on more Munro ticks and headed out to climb the 3 most western Glen Affric Munros – An Socach, Sgurr nan Ceathreamhan and Mullach na Dheiragain. They ascended following the Allt Coire Ghaidheil to An Socach, then followed the long ridge over to Ceathreamhan and the even longer ridge out to Dheiragain. The views were much better than expected and it never started raining until they were already back down in the glen. On their way back down, they contoured around the side of the Dheiragain ridge to take a short cut back to the bealach from where they descended to the Glen Affric Youth Hostel. From there it was just a straight forward slog back to the Cottage, to enjoy dinner and lots of sweet treats (the best ones were the home made ones by Amanda and Paul).
On Satuday night, Robert received his quaich for compleating his Munros last year and stories of the day as well as some drinks were shared.
On Sunday it just started raining when everybody was about to cycle back to their cars. Overall we had been really lucky as this weekend had a much wetter forecast.
Sheena and Dan went for a little walk to the Dog Falls on their way back, Tim went to Plodda Falls, and it seems as if everybody else just headed home, potentially with the odd stop for a coffee and cake.
Report by Steve, Dan and Jule