Glen Brittle, Skye (Aug 2012)

Friday 17th – Sunday 19th August 2012

On Saturday a group headed from the Glen Brittle Memorial Hut up to Coir’ a’ Ghrunda with a plan of traversing a section of the Cuillin ridge and taking in Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr nan Eag. Unfortunately despite a forecast of the cloud lifting by mid morning, it actually dropped further! With visibility down to about 10 metres or less they were anticipating major routefinding issues on the ridge, so decided to abandon the planned scrambles and drop back down to Glen Brittle. Meanwhile Ali and Pete had gone for a bimble around Loch an Fhir-bhallaich, also finding weather conditions extremely misty and not realising they were approaching the Loch until they were suddenly at the shore! The mist did briefly blow away allowing them to see the Loch and the coastline down below in its full splendour. Unfortunately higher up the mist never did clear and the folks coming down had to make new plans. Jon and Hazel headed out along the headland on the East side of Loch Brittle, which being away from the hills was in perfect sunshine. Meanwhile several others drove around to Sligachan to visit the Red Cuillin which were also clear of the cloud, climbing Beinn Dearg.

Communal dinner that night consisted of two sumptuous sea trout in an almond and spinach sauce with wild rice and broad beans. Dessert was a lovely mixed fruit crumbled served with lashing of custard, which was very welcome due to the wet misty weather of the day. We then carried out a blind Whisky tasting of a few well known brands along with a cheap supermarket whisky called “Scottish Leader”. Despite much mirth at such a cheap drink being brought along it ended up being surprisingly mediocre on the chart with “Jura” being an unanticipated loser and described as “floor cleaner”. The evening was topped off with a trio of musicians’ with Pete on the guitar and the two wardens on the penny whistle and banjo.

On Sunday the Cuillin still remained stubbornly shrouded in cloud despite it being clear everywhere else, so a group headed north and climbed Ben Tianavaig in stunning weather, sun-bathing on the summit whilst scanning the Sound for basking sharks with binoculars. Whilst not very high, the hill is at the end of the Trotternish Peninsula and so has fantastic rock formations as well as great views. Their journey home took in the Glenelg ferry, otter spotting and wild swimming.

Meet report by Alison Frost with contributions from Andrew & Jon. Edited by Jon.

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