The Cuillin Ridge (S)

27.4.05 - Skye & Onich Trip, Day 1 - 16km, 1170m - 330 mins

Area 17: The Islands of Mull and Skye

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Sgurr Dubh Mor944m3097ftM228#117
Sgurr nan Eag924m3031ftM265#118
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Starting out from the campsite

Glen Brittle Youth Hostel usually has a detailed weather forecast for the Cuillins posted conveniently just inside the door, and it was not bad for our first day on Skye. After that it deteriorated rapidly. The best weather was supposedly to be in the afternoon and evening, so we had a leisurely breakfast, drove down to the campsite by the beach, and set off at around 10.20, intending to climb the southernmost two Munros on the Cuillin Ridge.

Passing the entrance to Coire Lagan

The ridge had all been in cloud since I’d got up about 6am, and we were now walking in intermittent drizzle. The path was very good, however, and the walking was easy and pleasant as we rose gradually and skirted the shoulder of Sron na Ciche and entered Coir’ a’ Ghrunnda.

Coir

Here we were confronted by the spectacular and awe-inspiring sight of the great rock walls across this narrow corrie. Looking at the photos later, others commented that it looked like some kind of “pass into Mordor”, which is probably a very good description of it on such a dull and misty day!

Climbing the slabs of Coir

Failing to find the recommended path, we clambered up to the right of the corrie for some way, then crossed to the left, eventually finding the path again.

The mist clears momentarily as we approach the top of the corrie

The mist clears momentarily as we approach the top of the corrie

A momentary view of the ridge above Loch Coir

There were some tricky moments, and much searching in the mist to find the right way, and eventually we were rewarded by arriving at the very atmospheric Loch Coir’ a’ Ghrunnda hidden at the very top of the corrie. There we had lunch, watched intently by two hopeful seagulls.

Another fleeting view, this time southwards out to sea

Occasionally we were getting views of the ridge around us, but when we set off round the lochan and climbed up to the notch north of Caisteal an Garbh-choire we had to find our way in mist once more. Once at the notch we set off north to find an elusive route up the left side of the ridge with some tricky scrambles, to reach the summit of Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn. For the record, we would probably have done better to climb instead to the col to the north-west of this peak and climb it from that side - as described in most guidebooks! The instructions we were following now described a “sharp drop” at the beginning of the descent to the next col, between Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn and Sgurr Dubh Mor to the east, which was not too helpful as there seemed to be sharp drops everywhere! We found a route down which dropped considerably lower than the col and climbed back up to it without too much difficulty. All this time we were hampered by poor visibility, and were hoping that the cloud would soon clear. Now we crossed to the south side of the ridge, to find another elusive path up to the summit of Sgurr Dubh Mor - we had finally gained our first Munro of the day!

The Caisteal looms out of the mist behind us

I have to say I was surprised at how much stress and effort it had taken to get this far, and I was somewhat apprehensive at the prospect of returning the way we had come. In the event, it wasn’t too bad - we decided to simply follow the same route, since at least then we knew where we were going. This took us back to the notch by Caisteal an Garbh-choire, and we soon found a fairly easy path round it’s western side.

Looking down to Loch Coruisk on the far side of the ridge

Then there was more casting about for a good path up the west flank of the ridge of Sgurr nan Eag. Often one person went ahead and shouted back if it looked OK, which was not the quickest way to progress.

The summit of Sgurr nan Eag

We eventually got to the ridge top and then set off along it, passing several false summits, although in the mist we were never quite sure that they weren’t the real summit. Finally we reached a large cairn perched precariously on a rocky summit and were confident that we had arrived at our second Munro, Sgurr nan Eag.

The view over Soay

We then debated whether to cut out all the difficult route-finding and scrambling of the return route by following Cameron McNeish’s suggestion and heading south-westwards straight down the flank of Sgurr nan Eag to rejoin the path further round than Coir’ a’ Ghrunnda. This is what we opted for, but it meant a long and painfully slow descent over loose rock and scree. One casualty of the descent was the zipper of my Goretex jacket, which got crushed between two large rocks at one point and would no longer zip up. As we came out of the mist, however, we were greeted by beautiful sunshine and fantastic views over to Soay, Rum and Eigg.

Passing the entrance to Coir

It was a great relief to get back onto the path, which was very good for most of the way back. We stomped back round in lovely evening sunshine, taking numerous pictures of the ridge, which was at last showing signs of clearing.

Some young deer that we came across

Some young deer that we came across

The view up Coire Lagan

The view up Coire Lagan

Just couldn

Just couldn

Sgurr na Banachdich and Sgurr Dearg from the campsite

It was quite chilly by this time though and we pressed on, conscious that the route information we’d left with the warden had said we’d be back by 6pm and it was now after 8. We finally arrived back at the campsite and the car at 8.30, having taken ten and a half hours to complete a trip for which Cameron McNeish suggested 4-6 hours - well, we’d done it in difficult conditions, that was our excuse and we were sticking to it!

MacLeod

As it turned out this was the only walking we managed to do on Skye during this week. As predicted the weather took a turn for the worse the next day and there was torrential rain and gale-force winds - not the sort of conditions in which any sane person would tackle anything more on the Cuillin Ridge! In fact, just after breakfast on Thursday we saw three walkers stumbling down from the ridge in the rain. It turned out they had been attempting to do the whole ridge in two days. They had done the southern half the previous day (we may even have heard their voices in the distance at one point), had bivouacked on the ridge overnight, but had been forced down that morning by the weather. So we had a day off, driving round to Dunvegan, viewing MacLeod's Table and sampling the delights of Portree. The rain and wind continued unabated pretty much all day. This was Skye we were on, after all...