Gulvain

We woke in Glen Brittle on this, the third day of our trip to Skye, to find the Cuillins still in cloud, and more rain and high winds forecast during the day. We were booked into a hostel in Onich that night so we decided to set off immediately and climb Gulvain, then continue on to Onich by evening. Gulvain seemed like the sort of mountain that could easily be climbed even in poor conditions, and we also reckoned the wind would be at our backs on the way up, which might help! It rained a lot of the way there, but the weather seemed to be gradually improving. We got started walking at about 11.45am, in rain with some wind at our backs, as predicted.

There was a long walk in, about 6km along a decent track, sheltering in an old shed near Wauchan cottage for lunch. At this point there was actually a brief sunny interlude.

The climb up the ridge of Gulvain was also long, but didn’t seem too steep thanks to a zigzag path, and we reached the first top in good time. On the way up we met some other walkers coming down, who all warned us that it was “wild” up on top of the ridge. When we got there it was certainly windy, but not too extreme, so we reckoned conditions were improving as the day progressed.

We had a second lunch stop in a sheltered spot then pressed on along the ridge between the top and the summit. The mist was even clearing a little at times so we got occasional views.

The summit clears briefly ahead

It was still raining most of the time though, and we even had a bit of hail as we neared the summit. We had a brief stop in the shelter of the large cairn but soon headed down again, making good time.

Back up to the South Top again - a Traversing Club member

The view down Gleann Fionnlighe from the ridge

Meall Onfhaidh, to the south-east of Gulvain, seen from the foot of the ridge

Gleann Fionnlighe again

As we tramped back along the track the weather definitely seemed to be improving and it was now mostly dry with some sunshine. We even stopped occasionally to do “drainage work” on some of the larger puddles that were blocking the track - this is what comes of having a water engineer among the company! Just before we reached the main road, the clouds actually cleared from Gulvain. We got back to the car and van about 7pm and drove the last few miles to Onich in beautiful sunshine - even Ben Nevis was almost out of the clouds. We were getting quite optimistic about the weather prospects for the following day, the last day of our trip.