ron-t climbing
21 July 2016 ................ Somewhere with no name
I am not sure if this should be in the climbing part of my website - I didn`t climb a mountain.
What I did was to climb a whole sequence of hills in a very wild and untamed part of Argyll to the south of Oban, to the west of Kilbride and Lerags, looking down on the Sound of Kerrera.
The highest point is Cruach Lerags at 252 metres, however I didn`t go there as it is surrounded by dense forestry.
I may have got as far as Meall Buidhe, I may not - there are just so many hills that it is hard to say where I got to. It is probably the first time for me that GPS would have been useful.
I came down from the north, and after several ups and downs I got to a well elevated spot that provided some excellent views.
This is looking away to the south down the coast past loads more hills into the Firth of Lorne - the big non-island right in the middle is Seil, beyond it to the right are the Garvellachs, and further to the right is Insh Island.
Away in the distance you can just make out Colonsay.
Over on the left Scarba is just showing.
Here is a closer view of Seil, the Garvellachs, and Insh Island.
Round a bit to the left, and a not very exciting view of Scarba, and the low lying area around Clachan Seil and down Seil Sound.
A bit of a disappointment that all the hills on Jura are totally hidden behind Scarba.
More interesting views lie round to right, looking across the bottom end of Kerrera to the south east section of Mull that lies to the south of Loch Spelve. They don`t really show in this picture, but if you look at this part of Mull from further north, there are quite distinct cliffs around that bit of the Mull coast.
Round a bit more to the right, and a cracking view over Kerrera to a lot of the mountains on Mull - Ben More away at the back, and Dùn da Ghaiothe on the right.
There was also a good view away up to the north, over the top end of Kerrera, then the two peninsulas that enclose Ardmucknish Bay, then the top end of Lismore, the various islands around there, Shuna Island, and finally away across Loch Linnhe to the northern parts of Kingairloch.
Now it was decision time - should I be satisfied with what I have seen and head back, or should I head further south over more hills to get to a higher point that I could see that wasn`t too far away, but there were a lot of ups and downs to get to it.
I also reckoned that I wouldn`t be able to see much more from there than what I could already see - but in the end I headed off.
It was a very trying bit of walking and climbing - the foliage got progressively thicker and higher - at times I was trying to get through bracken that was above my head.
After lots of struggles, I eventually got to the higher point, and as I say I am not sure if it was Meall Buidhe or the un-named summit just to the west of Cruach Lerags.
As I thought might happen, I didn`t really get much more of a view to the south than that which I had already seen, but I did get a slightly better view of Scarba - and as you can see, a whole lot more hills inbetween.
Insh Island was a quite a bit closer, and Colonsay a bit clearer.
I also got quite a good view away up to the north and east, and was high enough to see the munro Sgorr Dhonuill, and peaking over the corbett Fraochaidh the other munro Sgorr Dhearg.
However the most rewarding views from this summit were across to Mull and Kerrera - I was by now opposite the bottom end of Kerrera, and it was a superb view across to Mull - looking into Loch Spelve, and the backdrop of the mountains.
Here is a closer view of the bottom end of Kerrera - I had no idea that Kerrera has these sort of crags hiding away there.
I haven`t ever been round Kerrera in my boat - looks like it is time I did it.
A closer view across to Ben More - and I think that the summit that is just showing is Beinn a` Ghràig.
And finally, a closer view across to Dùn da Ghaiothe - and I have never realised before just what a fabulous ridge it is that climbs up from Craignure and curves around right up to the summit of Dùn da Ghaiothe.
These views across to Mull were worth all the effort of getting across to this second summit.
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