Hill running and climbing in the Highlands: Glen Kingie Round (almost)

A long run I did in early June as a build up to the Cluanie Double.

The road to Strathan must be one of the most frustrating in Scotland with more than its fair share of blind summits and blind bends. Despite the good forecast we drove to the road end at the west end of Loch Arkaig in thick mist. Changing into hats and gloves we set off along the track past Strathan itself and headed north up on the east bank of Dearg Allt. After a couple of hundred meters the cloud thinned and then we broke through. The change in view and temperature was astounding. The peaks, slightly dusted with fresh June snow, rose above a layer of thick mist which snaked far down the glens and straths.

With the sun still relatively low in the sky, I ran over to a low ridge and spent a glorious couple of minutes playing with my brocken spectre. Relucantly we set off to the first top, Sgurr Mhurlagain, up a boggy, broad undulating ridge past several false summits to the cairn. The rocks were still frosted and the mosses had spears of ice on their fronds. We dropped staright down to Kinbreack bothy down a very steep grassy slope. The bothy, inhabited by two walkers still fast asleep, seemed clean, but would be a pain to get toasty on a cold winters night due to large open-plan downstairs area.

River Kingie, which can be notorious in spate was low and easily crossed, and we made good time on a superb track up to the bealach between Sgurr an Fhuarain and Gairich. A stalkers path zig-zagged up the steep side of Gairich taking the easiest line. Hats off to the men who constructed these paths all those years ago. In some ways it is sad to see such labour slowly disintergrating back into the hillside. From Gairich we could see that the mist had thinned and retreated leaving only patches lingering in the shadows. We dropped back down to the bealach and headed up Sgurr and Fhuarain aiming for the left hand sky-line until we reached another stalkers path, filling our water bottles for water-less ridge ahead from a burn enroute. We followed the path up and over the peak on to Sgurr Mor, which at 1003m was the high point of the day. The weather was getting hotter and the lack of water on the ridges noticeable.

My legs certainly felt the pull up to An Eag. After scrambling up some clean, warm slabs we reached a fine sharp ridge leading up to Sgurr nan Coireachan. We back-tracked, traversed rough ground beneath An Eag, and scrambled up to the lochan dotted summit of Sgurr Cos na Breachd-Laoigh. With time running short and being tired we decided to miss out Fraoch Bheinn, which was a bit of a shame. Instead, we scrambed up A'Chioch (a fine rocky pinnacle above Coire Chicheanais seen from Glen Dessary) and then dropped down into the rough corie and gratefully refilled our water bottles. The remaining 5km was all on hard track but the views and heat induced a amble rather than a run back to the car.