The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Lochaber A taste of Highland Scotland
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IT’S ironic that within a couple of miles of one of Scotland’s finest mountain footpaths lies one of the worst. The good path runs up the steep, airy edge of Gleouraich’s south-west ridge above Loch Quoich near Glengarry, a superb stalkers’ path that has been well maintained by the estate. But close by, at the eastern end of Loch Quoich, just south of its dam, another path leads to the Druim na Geid Salaich, a long, rising ridge that in turn gives access to the Munro of Gairich.
The boggy, rutted, poorly drained and badly eroded nature of this path shouldn’t really surprise anyone for this is a land notorious for its high rainfall.
The area around Loch Quoich, just west of Glen Garry, has the distinction of being one of the wettest places in Scotland.
The area enjoys a real wilderness feel, despite the presence of a single-track road that runs along the north shore of the loch between Glen Garry and Kinloch Hourn.
For all its wetness, the Loch Quoich area, and its Munros, remains a great favourite amongst hill bashers.
Gairich (3015ft/9l9m) stands in splendid isolation on the south side of the loch, gazing across the neck of water towards the Glengarry twins of Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach. A little way along the road north of the loch lies another magnificent Munro, Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich.
I’ve often driven along this road and thought that the finest way to climb Gairich would be to canoe across the loch and climb the hill by its broad north ridge. You could then canoe back across the loch and add Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich to your day’s tally.
This time, given the shorter hours of daylight, I was content with one Munro. After weeks of rain and wind, the Celtic winter god Biera got her act together, flourished her icicle wand and enveloped much of the Highlands in a smattering of snow and icy temperatures. This would be a good time to tackle Gairich, and I was hopeful her horrendously boggy approaches would form a deep-frozen highway.
A pale sun shone from a milky, creamy sky as I set out but despite the low temperatures underfoot conditions were not ideal – as the rainwater that had previously flooded the path had turned to ice. I might have been better with ice skates so I left the slippery path after a kilometre or so, and took a more direct route, over crisp, crunchy frozen turf, onto the Druim na Geid Salaich.
Once I reached the crest of the ridge overhead conditions