Five Sisters of Kintail
1 NH008135 The start of the walk is at the Glen Shiel car park where day one ends. This is notable for the storyboard telling of the battle of Glen Shiel. If you’re doing it as a single route, I’d recommend parking in the small ‘walkers’ car park’ near the Jac-O-Bite restaurant (NG944202), from where you can wait on the corner of the road to catch the Citilink bus to the start of the walk. From the left-hand side of Glen Shiel car park, a track behind the info board leads you steeply north up a boggy track. (This section is the end of day one, reversed). Follow this as it crosses a stream and then runs just above the woodland boundary fence for about 100m. A small cairn about 5m away from the fence marks the point where you turn left and climb steeply uphill again.
2 NH009145 Start out west (left) along the ridge. The route-finding is quite straightforward for a good stretch. Enjoy the views if you have them and don’t get fooled by false summits! Sgurr nan Spainteach is marked by a beautiful old cairn.
Don’t add anything to it. 300m or so after this peak, a small but sudden drop appears mid route, where a brief down climb is needed through a scrambly step. It shouldn’t be too difficult. From the downclimb, the terrain opens up to an interesting rocky Coire below Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe. About 50m or so after the step, the track veers off left, through the boulder field and can become tricky to follow. As it climbs, it pushes further left again then back right to the summit area. curves around to the right (north-west) as it descends. A second track veers off leftward at around NG979151. Ignore this and continue on the rightward trending descent to Bealach na
Craiobhe, picking your way through an ill-defined boulder field with some awkward steps and no obvious path. On crossing the bealach, aim to the right-hand side of the next rise as you approach Sgurr na Carnach, to pick up the track again. The Bealach na Carnach becomes steeper and narrow as you approach Sgurr Fhuaran.
4 NG978166 Descend north-west from Sgurr Fhuaran then north to access the sweeping ridgeline of Bealach Buidhe. Sgurr nan Saighead can be bypassed by a traverse path if you can’t face the scramble up to the top. Continue to Beinn Bhuidhe.
5 NG969181 The descent from Beinn Bhuidhe can be easy to miss. There is a track that runs north-east from the summit. Some people will descend to the west. Instead, head north-east for about 350m to the bealach, where a small cairn at the head of a wide boulderfilled gully marks an easy descent and a stream for water. Turn left at the cairn and cruise down the valley. There are a few sections where the path gets a bit vague and very boggy but as long as you handrail the Allt a Chruinn, keeping it reasonably close to your left, you’ll pick it up again. It does become a well constructed path for the last half. At the exit from the glen, near the waterfall, the path curves right around the steep ground and a pair of deer gates lead you down to some houses and back to the road. The car park is satisfyingly near!