Probably Scotland’s finest mountain, challenged only by An Teallach and the Cuillin of Skye.

Liathach, 1055 m

Grade 2 on the crest, Grade 1 on the bypass / 11.5 km / 8 - 10 hours / 1326 m ↗

The ridge, east to west

  Height  
Stuc a’ Choire Dhuibh Bhig 915 m Munro Top, optional detour
Stob a’ Choire Liath Mhor 983 m Where the ascent path gains the ridge
Spidean a’ Choire Lèith 1055 m Munro — quartzite boulders, slow going
Am Fasarinen 927 m The pinnacles. Grade 2 direct
Mullach an Rathain 1023 m Munro, then the descent into Toll Bàn

Meall Dearg (955 m) sits off the ridge to the north and is not part of the traverse — it is reached by the Northern Pinnacles, a 200 m Moderate rock climb on loose, shattered rock. It is quoted as “the most difficult top in the British Isles, challenged only by the Inaccessible Pinnacle.”

The bypass is not the easy option

This is the thing to know. The crest over Am Fasarinen is Grade 2; skipping it on the south-side path drops the day to Grade 1 on paper. But the path traverses natural shelves below the pinnacles and is, per Walkhighlands, “sensationally exposed, particularly at a couple of spots where it also tends to be wet.”

It is eroded, crosses gully heads, slippery when wet, and has less to hold on to than the pinnacles do. One ex-MRT member argues for sticking to the crest in poor conditions. Rain removes the easy option rather than providing one — and UK scrambles are graded dry, so wet rock pushes the whole day up.

Commitment

  • Escape is thin. The ascent line from the car is the last reliable bail until Mullach an Rathain. Everything north drops into the tiered cliffs of Coire na Caime.
  • Torridonian sandstone in near-horizontal strata — which is why the terraces and shelves exist at all — under a Cambrian quartzite cap. Wet, the quartzite goes slippery and the sandstone keeps friction but turns friable.
  • Some very large blocks on the pinnacles are loose or wobbly.
  • Coming off Spidean in poor visibility, do not follow the ridge running SSE: it ends in a precipitous prow.
  • The descent off Mullach an Rathain into Toll Bàn is very steep — loose scree and earth, then threading down through the sandstone tiers.

Logistics

  • Start: small parking area east of Glen Cottage, NG935566. Space for several cars, a few more nearer the cottage.
  • One car is enough. The traverse finishes at Toll Bàn about 2 km west of the start — a flat road walk on the A896. Worth doing in reverse: park at the finish (verge by the woods east of Torridon) and walk the road east while fresh. Public transport is effectively nil.
  • Starting instead from Coire Dubh Mòr leaves a ~4 km road return.

Published figures vary a lot — the page’s are Walkhighlands’:

Source Distance Ascent Time
Walkhighlands 11.5 km 1326 m 8–10 h
Trail / LFTO 12.4 km 1665 m —
Climb Torridon 8.2 km 1238 m 7–9 h
Steven Fallon 6 km 1280 m —

The 1665 m is the outlier; 1326 m is the best-supported and already includes every top on the main ridge.

Notes

  • Walkhighlands rates the walk 5/5 boots, its maximum. That 5 is a walk rating, not a scramble grade — the Grade 2 comes from the UKC/Rockfax logbook and is independently confirmed by Fallon, LFTO and the SMC description.