Kintail on eBothy Blog

The Raven's Peak

Sat, 12 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The day promised a wet start, with early autumn showers heading in from the west coast and low cloud on the tops. However, with a clear afternoon in prospect I decided to head up a hill I’ve long admired on the way through Glen Shiel. Biod an Fhitich.

Chasing the sun

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There had been high pressure over the UK for a few days and I’d been enjoying some great cycling in 17C, t-shirt and summer gear when the weather finally broke on the Saturday a couple of weeks ago. It was that kind of feeling though. The cloud was very low, 200m in places. The grey ceiling wasn’t producing any rain and it was lighter than it should be with that amount of cloud. It all screamed “inversion” and coupled with reports from a friend of an inversion in the Cuillin the day before and a forecast of cloud tops being around 1050m I headed out, making for the biggest hills in the area. The north Glen Shiel ridge.

on the south glen shiel ridge

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Me ol’ pal Graeme was up with another old climbing friend, Gordon, heading for the South Glen Shiel ridge, so I popped along to let us have two cars, allowing us to start at Creag nan Damh and pootle along the ridge to Sgurr an Doire Leathainn. 3 Munros for Graeme and myself, while Gordon added the Corbett Sgurr a’Bhac Chaolais. So it was an early start from the house but I just had to stop at Eilean Donan castle for some pics. The old Jacobite stronghold was looking superb in the morning sunshine. Largely rebuilt after the “southrouns” (you know who you are!) blew it up after a party of Spaniards had the gall to come over and take on the government in 1719. It still looks the part of a highland fortress. Just up the glen, there’s the site of the Battle of Glenshiel where the Spaniards were defeated and everyone sort of just melted away. The Highlanders to their various hideouts while the Spaniards indulged in a spot of Munro Bagging, spending the night out on Sgurr nan Spainteach (Peak of the Spaniards), before being captured on the morrow.

a good call

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today was forecast to be the better of the weekend days, so I left the house at 8am and was walking up beside the burn from the Eas nan Arm bridge near the 1715 battleground at the top of Glen Shiel by about 9. I sat in the car for a bit, listening to the radio, while heavy rain showers passed over, then headed up beside the trees on waterlogged and boggy ground. At the top of the trees, there’s a hole in the fence that lets you reach the main forest exit onto the open hillside and it was here that I realised I’d left the camera in the car! Not that there was much to see, with constant blizzards sweeping in from the west and reducing viz to about 30m.

above the clouds on the lundie horseshoe

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The forecast was for low cloud and clag on the west coast, with increasingly better weather forecast the further east you travelled. So I packed the ‘sac and headed for Cluanie, listening to the radio on the way with Lord Cameron of Neish giving the advice to head east to avoid the weather and good advice it was too as the base rose higher and higher the nearer I drew to Cluanie. I parked at Lundie and headed up the old military road past the mast and on up the frozen hillside, heading for Carn Ghluasaid.