Scotland

Prepping upcoming trip to Scotland here.

Climbing — 1 An Teallach · 2 Beinn Eighe · 3 Liathach · 4 Sgurr nan Gillean · 5 Ben Nevis · 6 Aonach Eagach

Category	Name	Grade	Region
Rock	An Teallach	3 Scramble	Wester Ross
Rock	Aonach Eagach - Glen Coe	2/3 Scramble	Glen Coe
Rock	NE Buttress & Tower Ridge - Ben Nevis	Very Difficult	Grampian Mountains
Rock	Liathach - Glen Torridon	2 Scramble	Glen Torridon
Rock	East Buttress - Beinn Eighe	Difficult	Torridon
Rock	Observatory Ridge - Ben Nevis	Very Difficult	Grampian Mountains
Rock	Pinnacle Ridge - Sgùrr nan Gillean	3S Scramble	Isle of Skye

Basic scramblers’ rack

An informal term with no fixed definition — enough to protect a few short moves and safeguard a second, and nothing more:

• A short rope, around 30 m.
• Slings Four to six, mixed 120 cm and 240 cm.
• A partial set of nuts, four to eight mid-size wires.
• One or two mid-size cams, optional and often left behind.
• Extenders, a couple of screwgates, a belay plate, a prusik. Helmets.

Where to sleep

Three bases cover the seven days, each at or near a trailhead. Phone beats the booking sites for bunkhouses — most do not sync their inventory, and Kinlochewe takes bookings by phone only.

Torridon and Wester Ross. One base does An Teallach, Beinn Eighe and Liathach. Kinlochewe is 6 miles from the Beinn Eighe car park, about 15 minutes from the Liathach start, and an hour up the A832 to Corrie Hallie.

• Kinlochewe Hotel Bunkhouse — 12 beds in one room, kitchen, showers, open all year. Booking by phone only, 01445 760253. Sole use is £185 a night for two nights or more, so ask for the per-bed rate.
• Torridon SYHA — private rooms as well as dorms, 4 miles from the Beinn Eighe car park. Open March to October.
• Ling Hut (SMC) — NG958562, in Glen Torridon beside the Coire Dubh Mòr parking, which is the Beinn Eighe approach. £20 a head, 12 beds, drying room, gas cooking. Booking by email only; see the membership note below.
• Sail Mhor Croft, Dundonnell — 16 beds, ten minutes from Corrie Hallie. Ring 01854 633244 before counting on it: its website no longer resolves, though the listings are still up.

Skye. The Sligachan bunkhouse, 20 beds in four rooms, or the hotel — both stand at the Pinnacle Ridge start, in sight of the hill. The campsite runs 1 April to 30 September, so the tent only works early in the trip.

Lochaber. Fort William or Torlundy: eight minutes to the North Face car park for the three Ben Nevis routes, half an hour to Allt-na-reigh for Aonach Eagach. Glen Coe beds reverse those two numbers, and the Ben is two days out of three.

• Ben Nevis Inn, Achintee — rooms with kitchenettes, drying room, food and beer downstairs. 01397 701227. It sits at the Mountain Track trailhead, not Torlundy, so still a ten-minute drive to our start.
• Glen Nevis SYHA — drying room, laundry, self-catering kitchen. Glen Nevis side as well.
• Clachaig Inn, Glencoe SYHA or the Glencoe Independent Hostel — worth one night for the Aonach Eagach day, which finishes in Glencoe village about 2 km from the Clachaig rather than back at the car.

The CIC Hut is the prize. It stands at 680 m directly under NE Buttress, Tower Ridge and Observatory Ridge: a night there removes the 1½ to 2 hour walk-in from three of our days and puts us on the route at first light. It needs membership of a BMC or Mountaineering Scotland affiliated club and fills months ahead. Mountaineering Scotland individual membership is accepted at club huts on its own — that covers the Ling Hut too, which is most of the case for joining.

Wet days

Distilleries within reach of each base, for the days the rock is out of condition.

• Skye — Talisker at Carbost on Loch Harport, distilling since 1830 and the fullest visitor offer of the lot: tour and tasting, Made by the Sea, a cask draw, Decades by the Sea. Book online. Torabhaig in Sleat and Raasay (car ferry from Sconser) are the others; the Hebridean Whisky Trail does all three in a day if nobody wants to drive.
• Fort William — Ben Nevis Distillery, at the foot of the hill since 1825, which is a fair way to spend a day the mountain is out of condition. Advance booking is essential — no walk-ins. Oban and Ardnamurchan are also in reach, Ardnamurchan a full day out and back.
• Torridon — Badachro near Gairloch. Gin, vodka and whisky, founded 2018 and small enough that the founders run the tours themselves: the still room, then five spirits tasted in a sunroom over the coast. Drivers get a 5 cl miniature instead of the dram. Book ahead, especially at weekends.
• Driving east — The Singleton of Glen Ord at Muir of Ord. Open 10:00–17:00, but closed Monday 14 September. Signature tour, flavour-journey tastings, warehouse experiences.

Worth seeing

Non-climbing, and mostly wanting the same weather the climbing wants.

• The boat from Elgol into Loch Coruisk is the standout, and precisely because we climb: you sail under the whole Black Cuillin and land in the middle of the range, seals on the way. Bella Jane or Misty Isle from Elgol jetty, 1½ to 4½ hours. Weather dependent — book, and keep a spare day.
• Bealach na Bà to Applecross — the best mountain road in Britain, single track and hairpinned to 626 m, with the Applecross Inn at the far end. 7.5 t limit; no good for anything large. On the doorstep from Torridon.
• Steall Falls and the Nevis Gorge — a 120 m fall up a gorge of boulders and woodland, 5.8 km and 222 m in under two hours, with a three-wire bridge across the river. Minutes from the Ben Nevis parking.
• Corrieshalloch Gorge, an 1874 suspension bridge over a 200 ft slot, sits on the road out towards Inverness rather than off it. Inverewe Garden at Poolewe grows subtropical planting at 57°N, and pairs with Badachro.
• Glen Coe for the Three Sisters and Signal Rock, and Glenfinnan for the viaduct — the Jacobite crosses twice a day, watchable from the viewpoint without a ticket.
• Skye’s honeypots — the Quiraing, the Old Man of Storr, Neist Point. All charged now: Storr £6, Quiraing £3 for 3 hours or £5 for 6, and fines get handed out at Storr for getting it wrong. Busy, and worth less than the boat.

Useful Resources

• Walk Highlands Mobile App - Trail descriptions and GPX

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