| Date | 4 Apr 2025 |
| Route | Link to Route |
| Enjoyable | |
| Difficulty | |
| Conditions | Clear and sunny, but cold wind at times |
| Summits | ✔ (M) Carn Ghluasaid ✔ (T) Creag a' Chaorainn ✔ (M) Sgurr nan Conbhairean ✔ (M) Sail Chaorainn ✔ (T) Carn na Coire Mheadhoin ✔ (T) Tigh Mor na Seilge ✔ (T) Drochaid an Tuill Easaich |
We travelled up to Inverness the night before and spent the night at the Youth Hostel, where we got a good sleep once again. We left at 6am and made it to the busyish car park at the bottom of the walk on the A87 just after 7am, where we coincidentally parked next to a couple of gents that we spoke to a few times during the round.
Crossing the road we started up the old military road, eventually passing through a gate and just after a small transmitter hut heading off to the north on a clearly defined old stalkers path. The path climbs slowly up around An Cruachan, then over some rock slabs before climbing more steeply up the west side of Coire nan Clach.
At this point the wind started to get up, and would stay with us for most the day while at height, only gaining some relief, when to the west of the hills. We took our first stop of the day sheltering in some of the rocks to have something to eat before the easy hike east north east to the summit of the first Munro of the day, Carn Ghluasaid.
After some photos and a brief chat to the guys we parked next to, we headed west, then north west, losing around 50m before a gentle climb along a good path, just below the first Munro Top, Creag a' Chaorainn. To reach the Top, you have to strike north off the path and climb just over 50m.
We headed west aiming for a rocky outcrop at the top of Glas Bhealach in order to maintain height, then dropping a little into the rocky bealach, we started the slog up the at times indistinct path to the summit of the second Munro of the day, and for us our 50th Munro, Sgurr nan Conbhairean.
It was pretty windy at the top, but found decent shelter in the lee of the cairn to have our lunch while taking in the fantastic views all around, including the Cullins in the west, Glen Affric to the north and Ben Nevis to the south. The two gents joined us during lunch for a chat, one who is a lorry driver that drives over to Fraserburgh a few times a year, is restarting his Munro journey, I think he said this was his 22nd Munro.
Dropping down north west around 60m, we joined the clear path to the north that drops down to a bealach around 914m, before an easy ascent to the final Munro of the day, Sail Chaorainn. We decided to go for the two northern tops of Sail Chaorainn, so continued north, dropping only around 40m then a short climb up to the first Sail top, Carn na Coire Mheadhoin.
The second top is a good bit further away, with quite a drop to the bealach between then, so Ailidh decided to sit this one out and wait for myself to pop over to bag it. I unfortunately headed down too far west and had to pick over a boulder field to reach the bealach. From there it was a short hike north then east to the summit, which isn't clearly marked, but bagged both outcrops of Tigh Mor na Seilge, later I found it it is the westerly one. Returning back west, and then south, at the bealach I zigzagged up the east side of Carn na Coire Mheadhoin, which is by far the easier route to rejoin Ailidh sunning herself at the cairn.
We returned back over Sail Chaorainn, then up onto the west shoulder of Sgurr nan Conbhairean. From here we turned south west along a well defined path towards the final Munro Top of the day, Drochaid an Tuill Easaich. The path skirts this top, so you must strike due west off the path a little to reach the top. Heading south from the top, you soon rejoin the path down.
This part of the descent was pretty easy, around 2km, dropping slowly from 1000m to 650m, before having to head east. The next part was harder, as we couldn't find any path until closer to the Allt Coire nan Clach river, so had to head down the wet grassy and at times quite steep slope. Ailidh hurt her wrist when slipping at one point, which gave her discomfort for a while, but was fine by the end of the walk.
The river crossing was pretty easy today, and once over we followed the muddy path south over a few minor burns until we reached the old military road. At this point we were both knackered and didn't fancy the climb over the rough path to the car, so we instead headed a short distance down to the main road and followed that back instead.
Once back at the car we had a cuppa before heading off on our long drive, finally getting home just after 11pm!!
