nwhighlands


The South Shiel Ridge It was another May, many years ago when we decided to do the South Shiel Ridge, another classic of the Scottish Hills. We had climbed the hills to the north of Glen Shiel a year or so earlier and while the "Five Sisters of Kintail" was an entertaining trip (and a hard one at that) the slog up from the glen road and the descent from the final peak of the day were hard on the legs. So it was the southern side of the glen we decided to knock off and the weather forecast was set fair for the coming (Spring Bank Holiday) weekend. I had driven north from Gloucestershire and it was gone midnight by the time I arrived at the Shiel Bridge campsite so I was, to say the least, a little tired when I was awoken from my sleeping bag to face the new day. And what a day it was! Bright, sunny and with the clouds starting to burn off the surrounding mountains as the sun rose higher. After a perfunctory breakfast, we loaded our gear into the car and set off up Glen Shiel in the direction of the Cluny Inn. Near the Inn we branched off onto a side track which took us to our starting point for the day and then climbed towards the eastern end of the ridge and the first Munro of the day, Creag a Mhaim.

			The cloud around the mountains was taking longer to burn off here, away from the temperate influence of the Atlantic and as we climbed we were enveloped in the damp clouds until, like magic, we were suddenly above them and gazing down on a sea of brilliant white spread out to the east, with islands of mountain summits poking through. Away to the south east we could pick out the distinctive shape of Ben Nevis towering above the cloud. We were not on our own today. There was one other party sharing this magical scene with us, but they soon headed off west along the ridge ahead of us and we were left alone to savour the view.

We too, headed west and followed the switchback of the ridge as it led us towards the sea. There are few opportunities to knock off seven Munros in a day with quite the ease that this ridge offers. The fact that on a day like today, it offered such stunning vistas was quite a bonus.
Being May, there was still much snow on the North facing slopes of the ridge and in the many corries which eat into the mountain sides. It was something for which to be grateful, for as the day wore on and our water supplies ran low in the weltering heat, the lack of streams this high meant that the snow was the only means to quench our thirsts. The summits came and went, each one of them a real mouthful of Gaelic...wonderfully exotic and evocative names, each and every one.

			After the first summit Creag a Mhaim (the Crag of the Rounded Hill.........admittedly not the most exciting of names) comes Creag Druim Shionnach (the Ridge of the Foxes), then Aonoch air Chrith - the Shaking Heights....definitely the feelings our legs had as we pulled our way to the top! Thereafter there is Maol Chinn-dearg (the Bald Red-headed Hill) then Sgurr an Doire Leathain (the Peak of the Broad Thicket), Sgurr an Lochain (the Peak of the Little Loch) and finally Creag nan Damh (the Rock of the Stag).

The day was a long one, and very, very hot. As a result our earlier plans to include an outlier of the main ridge Sgurr na Sgine was consigned to the dustbin of ambitions. It was an odd-one out. Its westerly neighbour, The Saddle, had been climbed on an earlier visit and we'd simply hoped to sweep this mountain into our haul for the day. But it was not to be. By the time we reached the high bealach to the west of Creag nan Damh we were a tad knackered and descended the rough track down to the glen road far below.

It had been a grand day, of huge panoramas, magical summits, blindingly white snowfields, sun, heat and companionship. Well worth the long drive up from the South of England. The following day, we headed off again, but a dreadful hacking cough which had kept me awake through the night meant that I simply found myself a nice spot in the sun beside a burn and dozed for most of the day.

			My next visit to the area would be one autumn when the weather was all-together different........but that's another story! This area of the Highlands is quite special. Its mountains less crowded than the honeypots of Lochaber and Glencoe, but with their own very different character, I regularly return