Hills: Beinn Udlaidh & Beinn Bhreac-liath
Date: Friday 19th October 2007
Walkers: Myself and Beinn
Total Ascent: 920m
Total Distance: c. 10km

Parked just off the B8074 beside a gate and bridge over the Allt Ghamhnain. (Room here for 2 or 3 cars.)

First immediate mistake of the day - we followed a path from the gate heading into the forest, as Beinn seemed keen to go that way, and I hadn't looked at the map or studied the route beforehand! The going through the forest was good for the first 0.5km but soon got considerably worse. Before long we were in knee-deep puddles with water coming over the top of my gaiters. Even worse, this forest was full of deer keds. I had to pick them off my head at a rate of several a minute, when one went in my mouth I decided I'd had enough. We followed a break in the trees to escape the forest back down to the Allt Invergaunan and followed this stream for perhaps 500m until passing the edge of the forest and reaching a fence running up the hillside. We followed the fence uphill and before long got a view of the forest we had come through. Thankfully Beinn was able to jump the fence (circa 2.5 feet high - no stiles/gates)

 

Continued on easily up grassy slopes and before long reached a narrow band of quartzite running diagonally down the hill.

 

We followed this band of quartzite up the hill to eventually reach a flat area. By this time we were in low cloud and I was wondering if we would need to search for the summit. Before long I had the answer.

Definitely not, how could we miss this monstrosity:


Second mistake of the day - we sat down to have a bite to eat. I gave Beinn his first batch of dog biscuits for the day, which he rapidly enjoyed, while I went on to discover that all my food was still sitting in the back of my car. Oops!

Had to take a couple of bearings given the low cloud and set off SE and then ENE to reach the col between the two Corbetts.



View from bealach looking down towards A85:


From the bealach we ascended easily up more grassy slopes to reach the summit of Beinn Bhreac-liath.

There are two cairns about 100m apart - so we visited both.

We didn't stay long at the summit of Beinn Bhreac-liath, given I had no food, so we continued Northwards for perhaps 2km along a flat stony ridge without losing any height. We passed a small lochan on this ridge not marked on the Landranger map.

Just before beginning the descent we stopped for a quick photo of Beinn Udlaidh:


The descent was rapid and easy (more grassy slopes). We made for the Allt Ghamhnain which we followed back out to the car.