A Wee Trip Part 2 – Glencoe

The previous post covered our first two mountains in Scotland, Ben Lomond and Beinn Narnain. After two days in Loch Lomond we moved on to..

Glencoe

I had been looking forward to Glencoe, and an opportunity to tackle classics such as Buachille Etive Mor and Bideam nam Bean. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the next couple of days was not very encouraging. Low cloud, rain and strong, gusting winds, especially on exposed ridges. So maybe those two classics will have to wait for another day.

Instead we decided on a “low” level walk up Beinn na Caillich, from Kinlochleven.

We parked in a layby by the side of the road just outside Kinlochleven, on the North side of the Loch. Walking along the road for about 200m we soon found a stalkers path that led us up through the woods to join the West Highland Way. We followed the West Highland Way for about 1km Westwards before descending into the valley to cross a stream.

Crossing the stream

Once across the bridge we then ascended the East ridge of Beinn na Caillich via a number of zig zags. I’m always amazed at the plant life that manages to cling to the wet and rocky surfaces, as well as surviving the impact of walkers’ boots. One of the most interesting type of plants are the carnivorous plants, such as the Butterwort and the Sundew.

Sun dew

We crossed a relatively flat plateau before the final steep set of zig zags and the final pull to the top. Simply crossing this plateau I was amazed at the plant life, including the various types of lichen:

Purple Lichen

Rhizocarpon sp with fruiting bodies

Cladonia sp

 

The summit was in cloud (seems to be a common theme for us), with very high winds on ridge. Descended West ridge to Bealach then into Fraoch Choire and headed North back to pick up the West Highland Way to retrace path to car.

As we walked to and fro along the West Highland Way we passed through a gate across the track. The gate was not locked so we were able to open it, walk through and close it after us. To one side of the gate was a normal stile. To the other was the structure shown below. We have no idea what it is for.

What is this?

Time: 6.25 hours, so another QMD but no Munro.

Back at the camp site the sun came out, providing some stunning views of the surrounding mountains.

View from the camp site

As usual, all the photos are on Flickr.