Hill: Beinn Bhuidhe
Date: Sunday 3rd June 2012
Company: Myself, Claire, Rachel, Brent, Dan, Fiona, Katy, Graeme, Jenny and PennyTWD

On Sunday, I set off with the Moray Mountaineering Club to ascend Beinn Bhuidhe. Claire, Rachel, Brent and I arrived at the starting point a few minutes before the others. We did intend waiting for Dan, Fiona, Katy, Graeme, Jenny and PennyTWD to arrive, however, the midges prompted us to get going immediately. We knew the others would have no problem catching us up and we were half-expecting Graeme to come racing past like an Olympic athlete .

Click here to view a map of the route undertaken

The weather was nice from the outset, albeit it was somewhat chilly. From the car park, we set off initially towards Clachan Power Station and then along Glen Fyne.

Clachan Power Station:


Walking along start of track from Clachan:


A short distance beyond the power station, we passed a field of tents camping for the Fynefest Real Ale and Music festival. Despite all the tents, there wasn’t much sign of life.

Fynefest:


Beyond the tents, we made our way through the gravel pit area. We wondered if the sheep sentries would allow us to continue?

Gravel pit:


Sheep sentries:


After scaring off the sheep, with a mention of someone I won’t name on here, we were on our way .

Glen Fyne:


As we made our way along the track, we found several nice caterpillars on the track. I had seen these caterpillars a couple of times previously but couldn’t recall what they were. On the way back, we found that this poor caterpillar had been squashed .

Drinker Moth Caterpillar:


We took our time as we made our way along Glen Fyne enjoying the conversation, nature and views. At one point we were even looking for crocodiles in the river!

River Fyne:


Glen Fyne:


As we approached Inverchorachan, our dawdling along allowed Dan, Katy, Fiona, Graeme, Jenny and PennyTWD to catch us up.

Approaching Inverchorachan:


After a short break at Inverchorachan, we continued on a hundred metres or so before climbing over a wooden gate to access the hillside to the left of the burn.

Ascent from Inverchorachan:


The path alongside the burn, initially wound its way up through a mix of bluebells and ferns. As we gained more height, the path traversed the side of the hill, sometimes with a considerable drop below to the burn. There were a few short sections where it was necessary to puts hands to rock.

Path alongside burn:


Once past the scrambly bits, the going become much easier as we followed a path making its way up towards Beinn Bhuidhe. The waterfall in the distance was not much more than a trickle. I did wonder if this would be an impressive fall after a spell of heavy rain.

Looking towards waterfall:


During the next section of walk, I stepped up a gear to get enough ahead to allow me to change out of my trainers and into my walking boots.

Looking back at ascent from Inverchorachan:


I changed out of my trainers just in time to avoid a few boggy bits .

Looking towards Beinn Bhuidhe:


Ascent of Beinn Bhuidhe:


From a distance, the steep section leading up to the col between Beinn Bhuidhe and Coire Dubh looked “interesting”. However, it was quite straight-forward albeit very eroded.

Steep ascent to col between Beinn Bhuidhe and Coire Dubh:


Looking back from steep section:


Final steep section to col:


On reaching the col, we stopped for a few photos before continuing along the edge of the ridge towards Beinn Bhuidhe.

View from col between Beinn Bhuidhe and Coire Dubh:


Beinn Bhuidhe:


It didn’t take long to reach the summit.

Beinn Bhuidhe was Brent’s third-last Munro, leaving only An Teallach to compleat.

Toppled trig at the summit of Beinn Bhuidhe:


We stayed at the summit long enough for everyone to re-group and have a chat but didn’t stay too long as it was very cold up there.

View from summit of Beinn Bhuidhe:


Rachel, Claire and PennyTWD at the summit of Beinn Bhuidhe:


It was nice to chat with Graeme at the summit, who was very knowledgeable of all the surrounding hills. We had pretty-good views across to Mull, Jura and Arran from the summit.

Paps of Jura from summit of Beinn Bhuidhe (zoom) [contrast adjusted to improve clarity]:


Myself, Brent, Claire and Rachel then returned to the car via the same route. The remainder of the group returned to the cars via Beinn Chas and Clachan Hill - they beat us back by five minutes .

A cracking day out to end a superb weekend .