Meall a' Chrathaich and Càrn Mhic an Toisich
25-26 June 2026
After almost six months in Korea, it was great to be back in Scotland. On returning home, I always spend the first few days resting, being tired from both work and travelling.
I left my packing quite late and my wife was nagging me about mowing the lawn. This made things a bit of a rush with my throwing things into my backpack. I therefore forgot my torch and packed three sporks as well as an unnecessary collapsing plate. The battery on my GPS was running low. I had very few snacks and much of my food was out-of-date.
I tend to keep my hill food with my gear and with long periods overseas, food can be left in my stores for long periods.
I left my packing quite late and my wife was nagging me about mowing the lawn. This made things a bit of a rush with my throwing things into my backpack. I therefore forgot my torch and packed three sporks as well as an unnecessary collapsing plate. The battery on my GPS was running low. I had very few snacks and much of my food was out-of-date.
I tend to keep my hill food with my gear and with long periods overseas, food can be left in my stores for long periods.
With my bike unfolded and the front wheel in place, I set off - only for about 100m though, before stopping to take a look at the Corrimony chambered cairn. The third photograph contains a fair amount of information that I shall not reiterate here.
The route continues, turning into a stony track that leads through a field of cattle, then through an RSPB reserve, where I saw a distant owl and many small birds that I could not confidently identify. I saw most of them in flight, startled by my rattling bike - or was it my old rattling bones?!
After 5km, the route reaches the beautiful Loch Comhnard. Unusually for me, I was shooting with an ultra wide 11-18mm lens. This lens was recently acquired second hand and was mounted on a recently acquired second hand Pentax K3ii. In the past, I have only taken photographs at 20mm up. The last two photographs were taken at 11mm and 18mm. I am a little disappointed in the sharpness but like the good depth of field at around f/9 and the vast expanse of water and sky that only a wide lens can capture.
After 5km, the route reaches the beautiful Loch Comhnard. Unusually for me, I was shooting with an ultra wide 11-18mm lens. This lens was recently acquired second hand and was mounted on a recently acquired second hand Pentax K3ii. In the past, I have only taken photographs at 20mm up. The last two photographs were taken at 11mm and 18mm. I am a little disappointed in the sharpness but like the good depth of field at around f/9 and the vast expanse of water and sky that only a wide lens can capture.
I arrived at Corrimony bothy. It is small with too much furniture for its size, including some very tatty upholstery. I had read about somebody picking up fleas from the furniture. Maybe a visitor had allowed their flea bitten dog sleep on it. I certainly do not believe that the furniture would support the fleas for very long.
I have just looked this up!
"Adult fleas can only survive for 1 to 2 weeks without a host to feed on. However, soft furniture can harbor unhatched eggs, larvae, and dormant pupae, which can remain hidden and survive for several weeks to several months—and in optimal conditions, up to a year."
I always avoid sofas and mattresses in bothies. I stick to the more basic wooden benches and plastic chairs. I wish that they would clear bothies of furniture that can harbour mice and other pests. The bothy was free of left food and old bottle etc.
Frankly though, it did not seem very appealing as a place to spend the night.
I have just looked this up!
"Adult fleas can only survive for 1 to 2 weeks without a host to feed on. However, soft furniture can harbor unhatched eggs, larvae, and dormant pupae, which can remain hidden and survive for several weeks to several months—and in optimal conditions, up to a year."
I always avoid sofas and mattresses in bothies. I stick to the more basic wooden benches and plastic chairs. I wish that they would clear bothies of furniture that can harbour mice and other pests. The bothy was free of left food and old bottle etc.
Frankly though, it did not seem very appealing as a place to spend the night.
After transferring a waterproof smock, first aid, DSLR and tripod from my large backpack to a smaller pack, I continued on my way. The track improves as it has been more recently extended and to give access to the wind farm. Higher up, where the wind farm track bears right, I forked left up a more aesthetically pleasing mixed surface track, in some places muddy, others stony, some sections larger, angular rocks and even sections of bare, slabs of rock. However, all this made the going much harder and I pushed the bike for much of it, knowing that It would be much easier going back downhill. I did eventually abandon the bike though and continued on foot to a three storey tower that was in the process of being renovated. the door to the ground floor was unlocked and was being used as a store for timber and other building materials. The second floor can only be accessed by an external staircase, which was lying on the ground, presumably waiting to be installed once the scaffolding was removed.
I had considered biking most of the route. I could see bike tracks as I continued along the shore line of Loch ma Stac, but it would not have been very easy going and I am far from sure that it would have saved me any time. At the far end, there were more wind farm tracks and here, I could have gained, with rapid downhill sections.
I was beginning to get hungry. Back home I could find little in the way of snacks and I was too lazy to make sandwiches. I had a couple of KitKats, a cereal bar and a large bag of unsalted peanuts. I only looked at the best before date of the unsalted peanuts - November 2024 - over 18 months out of date. Should I risk eating them? They were only peanuts and they had been sealed. They tasted OK and while I only ate a small proportion of the pack, I felt fine. In the days to follow, there were no stomach upsets or anything else.
I was beginning to get hungry. Back home I could find little in the way of snacks and I was too lazy to make sandwiches. I had a couple of KitKats, a cereal bar and a large bag of unsalted peanuts. I only looked at the best before date of the unsalted peanuts - November 2024 - over 18 months out of date. Should I risk eating them? They were only peanuts and they had been sealed. They tasted OK and while I only ate a small proportion of the pack, I felt fine. In the days to follow, there were no stomach upsets or anything else.
Reaching the end of Loch ma Stac, there is a small dam, not that the water reached anywhere near the dam. Then I was on the big tracks. I could either take a direct line to the summit of Meall a' Chrathaich. It was raining slightly so when taking the summit selfie, instead of fpositioning the camera using the light from the southern sky, I faced the camera in such a way to minimalise the risk of rain drops on my lens. Both the camera and the lens are weather-sealed, but I did not want any blurry areas due to raindrops on the front element of the lens. [First two photographs]
There route is a very short but steepish rise from the last windmill and the summit has a trig point that remains in fine condition. I retraced my steps before heading for Càrn Mhic an Toisich. A track and a line of pylons cross the moors to the west of the hill from Dundreggan to the Abhainn Deabhag and it gives the quickest access. However, I was not doing the quickest route. I had chosen a route that included a bothy and looked most interesting.
Thirty years ago, bothies were a part of the strategy of bagging peaks. They could separate a long walk in from climbing the peaks or act as a base for two or more days bagging. These days, I will sometimes choose longer routes, so I can bag a bothy in the process. The bothies have become a part of the objective rather than a way of facilitating achieving the objective.
Climbing has its ethics regarding chipping holds, using chalk and bolting routes to make them less challenging. How about walking? Certainly, there is the leave no trace philosophy. As I approached the second Graham, I passed a pick-up, and as I huffed and puffed my way up over pathless terrain, I saw a walker below. He had a good long stride and made things look very easy. I watched him head for the pick-up and get in. This is OK if you are just stretching your legs or walking the dog, but in bagging terms, can you legitimately tick it off the list and submit your completion to the Scottish Mountaineering Club? None of the gates were locked on the route from the north and possibly that is also true from the south or maybe he has a key used by the employees of SSE renewables?
If I had a suitable vehicle and access to these tracks, would I take advantage of them. The honest answer is probably yes, so perhaps it is just as well that I don't!
The third photograph was taken on Mhic an Toisich. This time, I faced the camera into the wind, hence the blurry patches where there were raindrops on the front of the lens.
There route is a very short but steepish rise from the last windmill and the summit has a trig point that remains in fine condition. I retraced my steps before heading for Càrn Mhic an Toisich. A track and a line of pylons cross the moors to the west of the hill from Dundreggan to the Abhainn Deabhag and it gives the quickest access. However, I was not doing the quickest route. I had chosen a route that included a bothy and looked most interesting.
Thirty years ago, bothies were a part of the strategy of bagging peaks. They could separate a long walk in from climbing the peaks or act as a base for two or more days bagging. These days, I will sometimes choose longer routes, so I can bag a bothy in the process. The bothies have become a part of the objective rather than a way of facilitating achieving the objective.
Climbing has its ethics regarding chipping holds, using chalk and bolting routes to make them less challenging. How about walking? Certainly, there is the leave no trace philosophy. As I approached the second Graham, I passed a pick-up, and as I huffed and puffed my way up over pathless terrain, I saw a walker below. He had a good long stride and made things look very easy. I watched him head for the pick-up and get in. This is OK if you are just stretching your legs or walking the dog, but in bagging terms, can you legitimately tick it off the list and submit your completion to the Scottish Mountaineering Club? None of the gates were locked on the route from the north and possibly that is also true from the south or maybe he has a key used by the employees of SSE renewables?
If I had a suitable vehicle and access to these tracks, would I take advantage of them. The honest answer is probably yes, so perhaps it is just as well that I don't!
The third photograph was taken on Mhic an Toisich. This time, I faced the camera into the wind, hence the blurry patches where there were raindrops on the front of the lens.
Rather than retracing my steps over a series of minor bumps, I contoured the slopes and headed down gently. I think this is what the walker I saw earlier had done. At one point, I startled a meadow pipet and suspecting that it had flown from its nest, I searched the area for a nest. There was a batch of four eggs, which I found difficult to photograph with a wide angle lens. One of my macro lenses would have made things a little easier as I could have got in closer and positioned the lens between the blades of grass. The problem I had with a wider lens was focusing on the eggs rather than the surrounding vegetation, though of course switching to manual focus and using focus peaking avoided the problem.
Then came the first sounds of thunder. It was still some way off though there was some light rain. A little later, there were some flashes of lightning and thunder both ahead and behind me. I seemed to be between two storms! It continued like this until after walking back along the shores of Lochan ma Stac, past the three-storey lodge and back to my bike. The initial descent was challenging for someone with less technical biking skills but was easy once I reached the wind farm track. It was at this point that the heavens truly opened and the rain poured down. It was quite exhilarating speeding down the wet surface of the track, though I prefer to avoid the wet dirty badge stripe down my back. I parked the bike short of the bothy and walked the last bit. Once I had a fire going, a hot coffee and a pot noodle, the place that seemed to lack an appeal on first entering it now felt homely and cozy. I had some dry clothes and I had a couple of pleasant hours before crawling into my sleeping bag for the night.
While the bothy could do with some work doing on it, the lack of food being left means that there is nothing to attract mice (or rats for that matter) and I did not hear anything scuttling around during the night. Due to my +8 hour Seoul time body clock, I was up at 0500 hours.
While the bothy could do with some work doing on it, the lack of food being left means that there is nothing to attract mice (or rats for that matter) and I did not hear anything scuttling around during the night. Due to my +8 hour Seoul time body clock, I was up at 0500 hours.
I took my time and had a hearty breakfast of instant chocolate porridge. I decided to add all three sachets. I dread to think how out of date they were. I think that the best before date is only printed on the box and not the individual sachets. I reckon I must have had these for years! Again, no harmful effects.
I inspected the graffiti and wondered how many of the visitors from the eighties and nineties are still active in the hills. Did Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord really visit the bothy in 1996? As Ritchie is spelt wrong, probably not!
I left the bothy at around 0700 and enjoyed the mostly downhill ride back to the car. My original intention had been to drive towards Inchmore to do the Graham Càrn Gorm. All the walk reports I have read mention bracken and I try to avoid bashing my way through bracken during the summer months due to a fear of picking up ticks. My plan has been to head up the track that starts south of the River Farrar to the northwest of Càrn Gorm. This is a longer route but the ascent id the same and hopefully it is possible to take my bike to the end of the forestry and possibly even further. However, tiredness and the damp weather, I decided to leave it for another day.
The most direct route home was not possible as there was a road closure, so I drove home via Drumnadrochit, stopping for breakfast along the way. I know that is is not very healthy, but after 40km and 900m of ascent, running on stale food, it seemed so well deserved!
