The day started again with a complicated pick up and a visit to the garage to get food for lunch and then an hours drive – not sure quite why we hadn’t camped a little closer to our destination!
Having seen our destination I’m not sure I felt particularly reassured – this was a mountainous ridge with no paths and more rock than grass. Yes we could vaguely seen a potential way up but with no paths a little imagination was needed. I have to admit to feeling rather reticent about my capabilities.
We parked at the car park we had passed the previous day and immediately started walking up hill along the Western Way towards the chapel. Annie was particularly keen to see the Holy Well so we found a suitable way off the path that allowed us to take a look without compromising our route too much. To call it a route was perhaps a slight exaggeration! We ascended through the crags to the top of Binn Ramhar – about a height difference of 350 metres / 1148 ft !
It started as a grassy slope and then became a scramble grabbing at rocks and grassy hand holds, zig zagging often trying to keep the mountain on my right hand side, it seemed better that way! Not sure why!
Steve was route finding at the front and Sheila who has much longer legs than me and always uses two poles managed to stick by his side. The two younger men, Jack and Tom sometimes went ahead but I have to say where gracious and helpful when I needed a bit of reassurance and occasional help. As it got tougher Mirella , Annie and I did try to stay close and check on each other but it really was a bit of every person for themselves!
If you see a dot way below in a photo that is almost certainly me! To help illustrate this walk I have used a few group photos in addition to my own.
We did reach the top having scrambled up through some very rocky areas and Tom who had carried up his camera and tripod took a photo! I had decided not to take my large camera that day! The whole of the top was very rocky and needless to say having reached our first summit there was a stretch down before climbing up to Binn Mhor ( 661m).
So once on the top of the ridge it was not much easier walking as still there was no sign of a path and we were all still picking our route. Having started late I was feeling hungry and I was already ‘in trouble’ as I’d started eating my sandwich when it was only suppose to be a snack! I’ve been trained to never allow yourself to feel hungry on the hills as that’s when mistakes are made. We were eventually allowed to sit down!
We contoured to various spot heights and these were often referred to as peaks because what I thought was going to be three became five. The fifth being Mullach Glas.
Having been on top for a while it was time to do some major descent down a very steep, yes Rocky Mountain side- not all the way,but down to a saddle. This was technically quite a difficult stretch and even though I had tried to envisage it when I looked at the map I had not quite prepared myself. We were heading for a saddle between ourselves and the last massive mountain. Plus a lumpy outcrop which we had to go over first.
I did ask the question as we had just descended the very steep section and it was already quite late – about 4.45 or more as to whether it was appropriate to continue? This was met rather harshly and not well, I had to reassure Steve that it was not because I was hurting but I was just trying to consider the time. Anyway we went on!
This was tough and it is perhaps difficult to see from the photos that we now had a great elevation to make back up having lost almost 250m down to the saddle. Not easy ! Not surprising this too was again rocky and everyone was feeling quite tired. Having climbed up to Corcogemore (609m) we contoured along the top to a spot height of 557. From here it was a matter of picking our way down off the side of the mountain through some very steep and not very grassy sections. Steve and Sheila were route finding at the front but rather too far ahead so that when you looked up from picking your way through a particularly difficult section you had no way of knowing how they had got to where they now were! Again credit to Tom and Jack who stuck with the three of us!
Some way down but still on a steep section Jack went on to tell Steve to wait a bit. I noticed Mirella was stopping more frequently for drinks and I went on to Annie and said that I thought she was struggling and we should keep closer together. There were now more springs and streams so careful foot placement became even more necessary – I only slipped over once! Mirella was getting slower and she said her head and legs didn’t want to work together! At last Steve had waited and he took her rucksack, Tom offered an arm if necessary and we continued.
I’d almost forgotten the fence crossings, quite frequent square meshed wire fencing, some a rather interesting height for me to climb over – got quite accomplished in the end. We made Mirella eat something – not sure any of us had eaten enough and we progressed down.
The last section was really boggy with large holes- we could see Jack ahead of us almost dancing as he tried to mind the bog and keep his balance. It did flatten out a bit at the end not sure though if that was any consolation. We were suppose to walk down the road another two kilometres to Jane and the minibus but Tom persuaded Steve that she ought to park nearer where we got off the hill.
There were some great plants but there never seemed to be time to photograph them and some good views. This was about 18 kilometres altogether and a great challenge. We had a good day all out together but it was tough!
This last photo was taken at 19.30 and we still hadn’t quite finished plus there was still an hour back to the campsite. Luckily a pizza shop in Spiddal! The route is marked on the map in purple.
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 