Left with a few days of spare holiday for the year, I took a solo long weekend trip to the southwest Highlands. I drove up as far as Ruth’s house after work on the Wednesday, then set off fairly promptly on Thursday to drive up through the Southern Uplands where I had chosen Tinto as the objective for the day’s short walk. Although the summit was just in the cloud, this proved to be a fairly attractive hill, with a few crags on the south side and good views up and down the Clyde valley.
In the afternoon I pottered onwards to the Islay ferry terminal at Kennacraig, pausing briefly at Inveraray on the way to stretch the legs. On arriving at Port Askaig just before 8pm, it was only a couple of miles’ drive to my comfortable AirBnB accomodation in Ballygrant.
The next morning dawned cold, crisp and sunny – just what I had hoped for for my long-awaited first visit to Jura. I was the only passenger on the 7:55am ferry across to Feolin, and pretty much the only car on the road around to the Three Arch Bridge. After a rather boggy approach to Loch an t-Siob, I was glad to get onto the steeper, drier ground of the first Pap, Beinn Shiantaidh, and was able to avoid most of the scree in picking a route up to the summit. This was a fantastic viewpoint over the northern reaches of the island, and to the other two Paps waiting ahead.
The short descent down the west of the hill required care as the frosty rocks were still in deep shade and very slippery. I was happy to get onto warmer and grippier ground for the ascent of Beinn an Oir, the highest of the three Paps and just high enough to be a Corbett. Then it was a steep descent on a small path wiggling through the crags of the south ridge, followed by a very steep climb up reasonably secure scree to the third Pap, Beinn a’ Chaolais – another fine viewpoint for the other Paps, and towards Islay. On the descent I particularly enjoyed the views east over the Kintyre peninsula to Arran.
Saturday was more of a travelling day: I took the 9:45am ferry from Port Ellen back to Kennacraig, then drove the couple of hours up the road to Oban. This didn’t really leave time for a hill walk, so I opted instead for an attractive 13.5km run along the coast to Dunstaffnage Castle and back!
To end the trip, I took a Sunday-morning walk up another Corbett, Creach Bheinn above Glen Creran. It was another beautiful sunny morning and the hill offered superb views of the water to Mull and Kingairloch and up Glen Etive. Back off the hill at noon, all that remained was the seven-hour drive back to Derby, with a dinner stop at Ruth’s.
As ever, my full photo album is available on Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qZiviU7z9CT4bEAf8
Only two Corbetts (and three Grahams) to show for four days in the hills, but the amazing weather on Jura and Creach Bheinn meant it was very much worth the long journeys. 204 down, 18 to go!
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