I ennjoyed a tw-day trip to Glen Roy, Lochaber. My first walk included two Corbetts, both called Carn Dearg. Arriving back at my van around 2.30pm after this walk, I looked at the two other routes I had planned in Glen Roy and reckoned I had enough energy to do one of them. The sun would not set until about 9.30pm and I thought, at most, I’d be out for another four hours.
After a rest, plenty to eat and drink, I drove back along the glen to the start of the route to Leana Mhor and Beinn Laruinn. As well as Glen Roy bieng home to thre Carn Deargs, it is also where you’ll find two Leana Mhors, one to the west of the glen and the other to the right of the glen.
I think that if I’d known how steep and rugged the first part of this walk to Leana Mhor (west) was going to be, I would have kept it for a day of fresh legs, but once I’d started, I was determined to keep going.
The walk started with a short section on the road, before heading on to a path beside a bridge. This time, I paid a great deal of attention to being on the right side of the corrie – Coire an t-Seilich – and the burn.
The first slope was steep and covered in overgrown heather. I also got a bit of a shock as I began the ascent when I suddenly saw what I thought was a snake at eye level and very close to my face. I jumped backwards and then cautiously eyed the creature.
It was a very bright green so I knew it wasn’t an adder but it also didn’t look like a grass snake. It eyed me as I eyed it and I took a quick photo before leaving it to its sunbathing.
Looking at the photo later, I spotted legs, which means it was a lizard, although I have never seen such a long and green lizard in Scotland before.
I gave the lizardy area a wide berth and continued uphill. I confess I was quite anxious about what else might be lurking in the heather but there was little I could do about this. I simply hoped that my rustling about and the huffing and puffing of my exertions would cause anything untoward to slither in the opposite direction.
The slope seemed to go on and on, steeper and steeper and, at times, I was scrambling while holding on to clumps of vegetation. At around 550m, the gradient lessened a little and the last 180m or so of climb became less arduous.
There is only a small cairn marking the 684m summit of Leana Mhor but the views are huge, taking in Loch Lochy and many Munros to the west.
The ridgeline that would lead to my next summit, a Corbett to the north-east, was easy to see from the Fiona but I needed to drop down above Coire Odhar to an elevation of 510m. The trod from the Fiona summit petered out but it was fairly obvious which way to walk. I could see the bealach below me and a path winding uphill on the next mountain.
I was surprised when I reached the path, which turned out to be quite a substantial quad track. It was lovely to have an obvious route to follow. The gradient was fairly steep to start with, before mellowing at about 700m.
In poor visibility, you would need to follow a careful bearing to avoid walking too far east towards the ridge above Coire nan Eun. On the day I completed the route, the sky was blue and the clouds were high. There was a fairly stiff wind and I took care not to go too close to the edge of the ridge.
Beinn Laruinn sits at the north-eastern end of the ridge and has a good sized cairn. I sat for a while, to eat some food, and enjoy the vista.
Now all I needed to do was to walk downhill to the bealach and then pick up a path downhill through Coire Odhar. The path was a bit boggy in places but easy to follow until the lower section.
I crossed over sections of the parallel roads but they were indistinct in this corrie. I also lost the path for a short section but then retraced my steps to find it again and followed it to return to the bridge and the tarmac road back to the van.
By now, my legs and feet were tired and I headed to the beautiful clear but cold waters of the river that runs through the glen for a soothing dip.
Leana Mhor (west) & Beinn Laruinn:
Distance: 9.5km
Total ascent: 830m
Also see: Glen Roy Fiona & Corbett: Leana Mhor (east) & Carn Dearg