Great Mountain Days in Scotland. Dan Bailey
sports a series of blunt towers. Clamber through a heap of boulders then scramble up rough slabby sandstone onto the top of the first tower – it’s pick-your-own ground, generally easier slightly left of centre. Continue directly over the second and third towers, then make a very exposed step across a gap (unavoidable – extreme caution in the wet). Now climb more easily through broken crags to reach the summit.
Breabag from the ford on the River Oykel
Follow the shattered quartzite ridge sweeping E around the head of Garbh Choire, which is pleasingly narrow but much easier than what came before. It leads over a minor top to the rocky summit of Ben More Assynt itself (the high point is the northern of two bumps). In descent head SE down a narrower crest, where a couple of slabby rock steps are encountered en route to the South Top – awkward and airy rather than genuinely difficult, but you wouldn’t want to slip. From the South Top (unnamed point 960m on the OS Landranger map) the ridge continues southwards, still narrow and with the odd scrambly moment, to arrive at the grassy summit of Càrn nan Conbhairean.
Bear SSE down a slope seamed with odd gravel furrows to the col below Eagle Rock; it’s as well to go over this little-visited dome as to try outflanking it. From the summit trig point descend ESE down grass and scree to meet a well-used quad bike track.
Return 9km
Turn right onto this track to return to the main Glen Oykel track and the footsore trudge (or joyous cycle) back to the A837.
WALK FIVE
Suilven and Canisp
| Start/Finish | Car park between Elphin and Ledmore Junction (NC 233 122) |
| Distance | 25km (15½ miles) |
| Ascent | 1790m |
| Time | 10hrs |
| Terrain | The low ground is invariably boggy and to a large extent pathless. Canisp gives an easy ascent, but the full traverse of Suilven involves short sharp bursts of exposed grade 3 scrambling; there’s a non-scrambler’s alternative described taking in just the principal peak. |
| Maps | OS Landranger (1:50,000) 15; OS Explorer (1:25,000) 442 & 439; Harvey Superwalker (1:25,000) Suilven |
| Transport | Postbus service 123 from Lairg; alight at Elphin or Ledmore Junction |
| By Boat | The 7km paddle down Loch Veyatie to Suilven is one of the classic waterborne approaches to a Scottish hill, with stunning surroundings but no notable difficulty. Put in at Cam Loch, near Elphin, from where a short portage around a waterfall gains freshwater Loch Veyatie. |
| Accommodation | Hostel at Inchnadamph Lodge (01571 822218); Achmelvich Beach YH (01571 844480); Achininver YH (01854 622482) |
| Summits | Canisp 846m (‘white hill’, possibly); Suilven 731m (‘pillar mountain’, possibly, though obscure) |
| Sleeping Out | Loch-shore wild camping pretty much anywhere – try Loch na Gainimh or Loch a’ Choire Dhuibh. Bothy at Suileag (NC 150 211). |
| Seasonal Notes | Low coastal mountains not best suited to reliable winter conditions, but in a cold snowy spell the full traverse of Suilven is a grade II winter climb |
| Short Cuts | For a more manageable single-peak day simply omit Canisp |
Assynt/Inverpolly is a composite landscape – equal parts water, rock and peat. Each free-standing peak has a unique organic form, sculpted by millions of years of weather. It is easier here to make the imaginative leap over the giddying gulf of geological timespans than perhaps anywhere else in Scotland. Suilven is the area’s headline mountain and among the best in the country, an improbable sandstone galleon riding a rippling sea of moorland and gneiss. Seen end-on it looks pillar-like, but a broadside view shows it as a long multi-topped ridge.
Suilven from Canisp
Suliven is a big day out from any starting point, and while a full traverse of the ridge gives some exciting scrambling, the highest summit alone can be reached almost hands-free. The hill is most often climbed from the coast, but the eastern approach is equally attractive, particularly if, as described here, Suilven is combined with neighbouring Canisp, a higher if less charismatic summit that offers stunning views of the other Assynt peaks.
Approach 4km
At the car park a signpost shows the path to Lochinver (19km). Follow this trail (wrongly marked on the 1:50,000 map) to the southeast end of Cam Loch, then through a deer fence and along the east shore, where steep slopes drop into the loch. The path soon peels away from the loch, climbing NW and then N on a low ridge.
On the hill 13km
Once close to Loch a’ Chroisg leave the path and head NNE over bogs, climbing rough slopes to reach a slight shoulder, marked by a large cairn. Continue uphill, bearing gradually left, to climb onto the broad southeast spur of Canisp, where a path appears. Views of Suilven and its surrounding peaks become increasingly impressive on the final climb to the stone-scattered summit, where there are two windbreak cairns.
Descend the well-defined northwest ridge, and where the angle markedly eases just above a lochan at about 500m trend left down boggy slopes to pick up a quad bike track. This heads roughly west, winding down a pronounced burn-cutting to meet the Elphin–Lochinver track in the glen bottom near Loch na Gainimh. Turn right onto this to cross a bridge over the loch’s outflow. Having done so leave the track and head roughly SW towards Suilven.
The main hillwalker’s path up the hill is soon met, but this doesn’t bring any improvement underfoot, since it is falling to bits on the steep sections and very boggy on the flat. The path climbs to a lochan-studded shelf beneath Suilven’s huge north wall, passing the idyllic Loch a’ Choire Dhuibh. Suilven’s formidable ramparts are breached by a steep scree gully running to the Bealach Mór, a col between the main summit, Caisteal Liath, and the lesser tops strung along the east ridge. The gully gives an unpleasant climb on an eroded path. On reaching the col a sudden view opens to the south over the wild watery heart of Inverpolly to the quirky peaks of Cul Mor and Stac Pollaidh.
Approaching Meall Bheag
Suilven (left), Canisp and Cul Mor from Stac Pollaidh
Turn right, passing through a gap in an incongruous stone wall to follow the dramatic but easy ridgeline over a minor top and on to the grassy dome of Caisteal Liath. This promontory summit is circled by steep cliffs, giving it a feeling of island-like isolation and spaciousness; the sea dominates the western outlook. The only safe way off is back the same way to the Bealach Mór. There are now two options.
Option A Non-scramblers could retrace their steps to the Lochinver–Elphin track, but it’s better to head SW down an eroded scree gully path, similar to the ascent route, to reach the shelf below Suilven’s south wall. Vague traces of path now lead along this, running below Suliven’s eastern summits to join Option B on the shoulder ESE of Meall Meadhonach.
Option B Scramblers are in for a treat. Follow Suilven’s spine eastwards over a minor summit