Introduction
Day One - West Highland Way, Fort William
to Kinlochleven
Day Three -
Meanach, Lairig Leacach and Staoineag
Day Four - Corrour
A full cooked breakfast before packing and off. One of the real benefits of stopping in a hostelry when backpacking - highly recommended! The other advantage in this instance is the significant height that had been preserved by not dropping down to the village below - some 600 ft in all. Mamore Lodge makes an excellant starting point for exploring the Mamores that lie just to the north. For a small fee a car can be left in the car park. Virtually all tops can be reached from here and the track that runs east-west from Loch Eilde Mor to the road end at Lundavra guarantees an easy return leg at the end of the day. There is also the opportunity to quench the thirst at the bar before setting off down the hotel drive of course.
The track heads east
after making a dog leg around the valley immediately to the east of the hotel,
the Allt Coirena Ba. A path from the turn heads north into the corrie, taking a
wide zig-zag to reach the ridge between Stob Coire a Chairn and Na
Gruagaichean. On this walk we stayed on the track as it climbed steadily to
reach the 400m contour and gain the side of Loch Eilde Mor. There is a boat
house at the near end and on the far side the water intake can be seen that
acts as a feed to the Blackwater Reservoir to the south west, which in turn
feeds the Aluminium Works in Kinlochleven. Beyond the boathouse the going is
easy and obviously level as the loch side is followed. We rested at the far
end, sitting on an old dyke that seemed to designed to increase the water level
- except that it was sited at the wrong end of the loch. Perhaps it was just an
access track across the boggy ground to the far hillside. From this vantage
point you look back along the length of water, above and to the left of the low
hill at the far end is the bulk of Garbh Beinn, with the high ridges of Am
Bodach and Meall Dearg in Glen Coe behind and to the left. To the right the
rounded top of the Pap can be seen just above the horizon, with the double top
of Beinn a' Bheithir above Ballachulish behind. Whilst we rested we were passed
by a couple of estate workers in a four wheel drive truck - the only people we
saw on this section of our walk.
Continuing on past Loch Eilde Beag the track rises slightly to cross the watershed. Ahead the wide valley that runs from Glen Nevis in the west to the head of Loch Treigh in the east, behind the mountains of the Grey Corries. We stopped for lunch only one and a half kilometres from our target, the bothy at Meanach that we could see clearly below us. The mountain tops were under cloud and although this was lifting we did not get a completely clear view before we packed up again and set off down to the river.
The track we had been following
ends at Luibeilt which is now a roofless and disintegrating rapidly. The river
drains the entire southern side of the Grey Corries range and even in dry
weather has to be waded - in times of spate any crossing is impossible. By now
the sun was out and the clouds were clearing as we took off boots and socks and
picked our way over to the far bank. The Bothy hut is set back from the river
across some boggy ground. Inside the hut is clean and well kept. We had a swim
in the river, brewed tea and sunbathed the afternoon away. The clouds rolled
off the hills behind us, then off the Aonachs, and finally off the Ben itself.
There was still snow lying in the gullies clearly visible down to 2000ft or so.
A magnificent setting.
A couple arrived at the ruin and pitched a tent; they did not cross the river. A cyclist arrived along the track we had come in by and set off in the direction Glen Nevis - a bit of a challange for a cycle. A walker approached from the direction of Corrour and passed by also heading for Glen Nevis. We pottered about, moved a dead lamb that had throttled itself on a roll of wire to be well away from the house, and that was about it. We settled down for the night alone.
Introduction
Day One - West Highland Way, Fort William
to Kinlochleven
Day Three -
Meanach, Lairig Leacach and Staoineag
Day Four - Corrour