Ladhar Bheinn

Lights on at 7 o'clock, along with the distant chugging of the generator come to life again. We were both up soon after this and having a leisurely breakfast with the sun shining in a cloudless sky outside. Our programme for the next two days was to do Ladhar Bheinn one day and Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe the other. After our exertions of the day before we had decided to go for Ladhar Bheinn first, as being a slightly easier day. We planned to take it easy, but still hoped to be back in time to enjoy a relaxing evening at the Stable with a gourmet meal and hot baths to round off our day on the hill.

We got going about 9.30, over the bridge and across the flats towards Creag Bheithe. It was a beautiful morning, with stunning views of Luinne Bheinn to the south and Beinn Sgritheall on the other side of Loch Hourn.

Luinne Bheinn from the bridge

Beinn Sgritheall from the bridge

As we climbed the views just got better. We started to get our first proper view of the sandy beach of Barrisdale Bay for example. At first we weren't sure if we were on the right path to take us over into Coire Dhorrcail, but we couldn't see any other path and found in the end that we were quite right.

There were loads of bluebells on the hillside, amid the new bracken. I tried to get a close up of some but either they were blowing about too much or the camera wouldn't focus for some reason. I did manage to get these primroses instead though.

The view across the loch to Arnisdale and Beinn Sgritheall was particularly impressive. You can hire Billy Mackenzie's boat to take you across to Arnisdale making this another Munro within easy reach of Barrisdale. Ruth had done this on her trip to Knoydart the previous week, but we weren't planning to do this on our trip.

From Barrisdale most of Ladhar Bheinn is hidden by the ridge of Creag Bheithe, but now we were coming over the crest of the ridge and into Coire Dhorrcail, getting our first glimpse of the cliffs at the head of this corrie. The old edition of the SMC guidebook describes climbing up Creag Bheithe and Stob a' Chearcaill then down by Stob a' Choire Odhair as "the classic traverse" of Ladhar Bheinn, but does mention some tricky scrambling on the way up. This had put us off that option and we were heading up Stob a' Choire Odhair first and planning to return by Mam Barrisdale.

There was quite a drop down to the Allt Coire Dhorrcail but the path heads into the corrie, only dropping slightly. Soon the corrie was opening up before us - more great views!

Just before we crossed the burn we came across the only other person we met all day on the hill. He was coming down at a great pace, having walked in the previous day to do Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe, then camped somewhere up there. He had apparently "slept in", whatever that meant, and having already done Ladhar Bheinn he was now hurrying back to Kinloch Hourn to drive to Scrabster since he had to catch the ferry to Orkney at seven in the evening. Talk about time pressure! We on the other hand had the luxury of being able to take our time for a change. We stopped for elevenses by the burn before we got going with the serious climbing. Our Orkney-bound friend had warned us to drink plenty and fill our bottles low down as higher up all the streams were dry. We did this although I only had a one litre bottle with me.

Once across the burn we began the long toilsome ascent of the ridge of Druim a' Choire Odhair. But wait a minute, wasn't this supposed to be a day for taking things easy? Well, yes - so we allowed ourselves at least one leisurely rest stop on the way up the slopes. It was after all pretty warm, and there were photos to think about as well.

And as ever the views got better the higher we climbed, which spurred us on as much as anything to reach the crest. When we got there it was certainly worth it to see Loch Hourn spread out below us and to start to get some views of the cliffs and buttresses of Coire Dhorrcail from closer up.

Looking across to Stob a' Chearcaill we could now see the 100m scramble that we had avoided by coming this route. Right, well from this angle I think we were both pretty satisfied with that decision!

Beinn Sgritheall and Loch Hourn

We pressed on up the ridge for a bit longer before finding a nice spot to sit and have a leisurely lunch. I even took my boots and socks off and aired my feet a little. Now it felt a little more like we were taking it easy. It's here that I lay flat on my back and listened and found I could hear absolutely nothing - the silence of Knoydart!

One photo couldn't really do justice to the fantastic view of Loch Hourn from up here, so I attempted a three-photo panorama, which worked reasonably well.

One theory about the names of Loch Hourn and Loch Nevis, which bound the Knoydart peninsula on the north and south respectively, is that they mean the "Loch of Hell" and the "Loch of Heaven". Loch Hourn would be derived from Loch Iuthairn (Hell). OK, well nice theory folks, but from this angle I'm not too sure I see the connection...

The walk up the ridge to the top of Stob a' Choire Odhair and then on to the summit ridge of Ladhar Bheinn was quite steep and pretty narrow in places, but it was a lot more pleasant than the foregoing slog up the slopes of Druim a' Choire Odhair.

As we climbed we now got a proper view of the summit ridge and could see that we were in fact almost there.

Stob a' Choire Odhair is a Munro Top - in honour of the absent Isdale, we were in fact going to clean out the Munro Tops of Knoydart as well as the Munros in these two days. Each of the three Munros has one Top, each situated fairly close to the summit, so this is of course no great feat.

I was running low on water by this stage and was now eyeing up the snow patch just below the summit. I'd never drunk melted snow before, but there's always a first time...

We were of course also getting views southwards towards Inverie by this stage. The hill on the other side of Gleann Guiserein is Sgurr Coire Choinnichean, a Corbett at 796m (2612ft).

And then we were finally at the summit. We now sat for about 45 minutes enjoying the sunshine and the views. After Howard the Water Engineer had assured me there was no danger I drank most of my water and filled up from the snow patch, giving me ice-cold water for the rest of the afternoon. Water engineers are such useful people!

Finally we headed off again, and began the walk along the headwall of Coire Dhorrcail. This was a great walk and we did it without much stopping. There were a couple of places where there were very steep drops, which we'd spotted looking across from Stob a' Choire Odhair and had wondered about, but there was always a good path down.

Stob a

Looking east along the ridge

Somewhere along here we heard the sound of very distant voices. Looking back up to the summit we could see a large party arriving from the far end of the ridge, presumably having come up from Inverie. I'm not sure whether they came down after us towards Mam Barrisdale or simply turned around and went back the way they'd come up.

The next excitement was our first deer spotted on the hills. Unlike its roadside cousins this one seemed a little nervous and disappeared off to our left, apparently over one of the precipices of Coire Dhorrcail, although no doubt it knew what it was doing.

Ladhar Bheinn from the Aonach Sgoilte

Then we reached Stob a' Chearcaill but we didn't go to the top. Instead there was a path angling down its right flank which we hoped was going where we wanted to, namely in the direction of Mam Barrisdale. After a little way it led to a sudden steep drop which was nevertheless easily negotiable with care.

Looking back it did look very like we'd just come down a bit of cliff. We could also see the tricky scramble we'd avoided in the morning, but from much closer up now. We were still glad we'd avoided it.

We were now getting some very nice views of Luinne Bheinn and Meall Buidhe, our objectives for the following day. The ridge between them did look pretty rough from here, as described in most guidebooks, but it didn't look too difficult. We could also see a clear path traversing up the southern flank of Luinne Bheinn, which would be our approach the next day.

After this the path continued down but got gradually fainter until we lost it altogether and made our own way down. Eventually we could see the main path coming over from Mam Barrisdale and we had soon joined it. The way home was now straightforward - straight down the path to Barrisdale, dinner and hot baths!

There were more views from the path - Barrisdale in the late afternoon sun, although it probably looked deceptively close at this point.

The prospect of getting my boots off and collapsing in one of the huge comfy armchairs soon had me pulling ahead on this downhill stretch. I got back to the Stable at about 6.30.

The first thing was to get the coal stove going, since this is what heats the hot water. Of course it wasn't particularly cold inside, but nor was it too warm either.

This picture shows more of the luxurious facilities offered by the Stable. The net curtains are important to prevent those who have ended up in a tent on the campsite outside from seeing what they're missing!

Of course we also had the luxury of two beds each - one to sleep on and one to spread all our junk on.

We had chicken curry for dinner, prepared by Howard, while we waited for the water to heat up. The latter however took a very long time. While we waited I went outside to see if I could get some nice sunset pictures.

Back at the Stable the fire had been on for three hours and the water was still only tepid, so in the end we gave up and each had a shallow bath supplemented with water boiled on the gas stove. It was quite luxurious nevertheless. I was in bed by ten o'clock - very tired!