Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th April 2011
Leaving Edinburgh in the evening, we were aiming to stay the night in a secret bothy that I won't name or locate, apart from saying that it's somewhere in the Lochaber area, but by the time we arrived at the closest parking spot it was pitch dark and finding the bothy would be difficult in the dark considering none of us had been at it before. We decided to change plan and drove to
Glenuig where we pitched our tent by the pub and sat on 'the rock' to open a few beers. Soon after, Frads - one of the locals and a prior acquaintance - came stumbling along the road and invited us into his house for a drink. It turned out to be a later night than intended, as is usual in Glenuig.
Next day, we pulled up the tent and headed up Rois Bheinn ('Rainy hill'), which proved challenging as it was probably the hottest day in the year so far.
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| The large summit cairn on Rois Bheinn |
Although not a Munro, Rois Bheinn is a solid Corbett, rising 882 metres (2893 feet) from sea level, with the starting point not much above 10 metres above the sea. It's a big lump, with two long steep sections and a number of false summits before the top, despite a deceptively simple-looking shape when looked at from down below.
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| Loch Ailort from the summit of Rois Bheinn |
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| An Stac from the top of Rois Bheinn |
The heat had created a haze, obscuring the small isles of Eigg, Rhum, Muck and Canna, and the Skye Cuillins. On a clear day, Rois Bheinn gives probably the best view of the area.
We descended back to the car and headed along to the Lochailort Inn for a quick pint, having heard that it had recently changed hands - being bought by the new owner of the estate as he was keen that there be a decent boozer to hand and many locals weren't happy with the way it had been run before.
We headed along to the aforementioned secret bothy, struggling to pick our way round the coast to it through some hellish pot-hole filled bogs. On arrival, we found the bothy to be occupied so we pitched our tent on a flat area below, which turned out to be infested with ticks in numbers I have never seen the like of before. In fact, the whole area between the bothy and the car was infested. It seemed as though each blade of grass had a dozen ticks on it, waiting for a host to pass by.
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| Camping spot - infested with bloody ticks! |
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| The howff, from below. |
On Saturday, we lifted the tent and hoofed back to the car. We were heading for Resourie and decided to stop off at Castle Tioram to see how well it was still standing. The owner wants to rebuild the castle as a home and as a museum for the Clan MacDonald. However, Historic Scotland will not give permission for this, insisting it is 'maintained as a ruin' - neither rebuilding nor letting it fall down.
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| Castle Tioram |
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| Castle Tioram |
We headed off to Resourie, where we found a couple had arrived a few minutes before us. There was plenty of wood for fuel and we soon had a decent fire going in the newly re-lined lum. The bothy had previously suffered from flooding, but the drainage ditch behind has been re-dug and moisture from the hill now flows around the building (rather than through it!).
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| Resourie Bothy |
On Sunday we packed up casually and headed back up to the car to drive back to Edinburgh via the Corran ferry to save driving all the way back round to Fort William via Strontian, Loch Ailort and Glenfinnan.
