This is the third of my blogs about climbs that I have undertaken in the north of Scotland this year. This blog is about Quinag. Quinag is a complex mountain with seven recognised summits of which three are Corbetts (Scottish hills of between 2500 feet and 3000 feet with at least 500 feet of prominence).
Indeed, its highest point, Sail Gharbh (809m; 2654ft) has a prominence of 550 metres. The total circuit if you follow my route involves around 1150m of ascent and 14.4 kilometres (9 miles) of distance. If you are interested, there is a downloadable GPS track of my route here. It is largely the route that most take when tackling the three Corbetts in one go.
In contrast to my climbs of Cul Mor and Ben More Coigach – when I had blue skies and light wind – Quinag gave me low cloud, occasional showers and a stiff breeze, at least until the final summit. This was a shame because Quinag provides one of the finest ridge walks in Scotland. However, in Scotland, you take what you are given!
Quinag is under the care of the John Muir Trust – of which I am life member. The Trust provides a convenient car park at a elevation of almost 250m at OS reference NC 23304 927407 on the A894 north of Loch Assynt. That is where I started.
The Trust has also improved a path that starts on the opposite of the road from the car park. And this provides a speedy start to the round.
This path is followed to an obvious cairn. Straight on and you will go into the bosom of the mountain and, eventually, a path to its highest point. I would come back this way. I turned left at the cairn and followed a less well-formed path to the foot of Spidean Coinnich’s broad east ridge. The path eventually disappeared, as did the few views that I had because I was soon into the cloud. The ground is rocky. There were a few cairns and a random shelter that I passed, but I am not sure that they marked any path.
The climb is gradual and the Spidean Coinich’s east top arrives. After a descent into a notch, a path resumes. This takes you up to Spidean Coinich’s twin-cairned summit. No view for me. The highest point is just north of the smaller cairn (764m).
The route then dropped, sharply at first, on a path to Spidean Coinich’s north west ridge. Though still in cloud, I felt the narrowness and exposure.
The ridge took me down more than 100m to a broad lochan-spattered col before a gentle rise to the north top. This top was a grassy arête where I could sense, rather than see, the exposure. There then followed a long, steep drop to the Bealach a’Chornaidh at around 570m.
At the Bealach, I had the first glimpse of a view since I had entered the cloud.
But, the view did not last long as the cloud closed in again. There was now a steep 200m ascent (including passing through a rock band) to the central peak of the Quinag range. It’s unnamed but has a 745m spot height on the Ordnance Survey map and another cairn marks its top. Supposedly, it has some of the best views, but I did not have them on this day. I walked past the cairn here without stopping.
At this point, the main summit is off to the east. But the way on for me was north so as to take in Sail Ghorm (776m).
The path down the northern slopes of the unnamed top was more of a scar on the landscape. I soon reached a narrow col. The path here circumnavigates another top and, with some minor scrambling, drops to a lower col on the opposite side.
The ridge then broadens on a long steady rise. Sail Ghorm’s summit cairn lies in the midst of a plateau. Whilst, up to now, there had been a bit of drizzle and wetting cloud, Sail Ghorm treated me to a bit of a downpour. So, I moved quickly back down the ascent ridge to keep warm. Fortunately, the rain stopped after 20 minutes.
I was back under the top that I had circumnavigated on the way to Sail Ghorm. This top, I suspect, is not often climbed even though it is very close to the “tourist route”. I decided to go up it. It was remarkably tricky by the route I chose even though there was only around 40 metres of ascent. I found a better way on the descent. It was a lovely little top, like a flat, grassy table. There is no summit marker, but it is only around 20m by 15m in extent with sheer drops on most sides.
On descending it, I heard the noise of rocks being dislodged. And I duly came across a lone woman who had descended from the nameless 745m top. She was clearly on a mission since I barely got a “hello”. She marched on towards Sail Ghorm, its summit beginning to clear.
I started re-ascending the 745m top. Luckily, it is not necessary to repeat the entire ascent as you can slant off to the left and reach the very broad bealach between the 745m top and the main summit, Sail Gharbh (809m). Here the clouds finally started to lift off all of the tops (except Sail Gharbh itself).
Finally, I could appreciate the complexity of the Quinag range. I looked around for a good 10 minutes before starting the final rise to Sail Gharbh. 100 vertical metres later I was at the summit cairn and the nearby rock that marks its high point. I sat at the cairn and ate, wishing the cloud to lift. Unfortunately, I had only a few glimpses.
So, I left. Back down on the bealach the views were there.
On the southern edge of the bealach, a cairn marks the start of a path that leads down into the coire in which Lochan Bealach Cornaidh lies. The John Muir Trust is in the process of reconstructing this as parts were well-made and others not so. Still it provided a speedy descent with fine views to Spidean Coinich.
Once down in the glen, it was just a two kilometre walk back to the car. And by the time I reached it, the clouds had, of course, lifted off most of the summits.
For further blogs relating to my recent climbs in the north of Scotland see:
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