Ben Inverveigh & Meall Tairbh - Scotland Day 4

As the weather had been improving with the air temperature warming slightly and winds starting to drop we toyed with the idea of tackling one of the Munros from Bridge of Orchy - Beinn an Dothaidth/Beinn Dorain. The avalanche forecast was still not great and as we drove past them we could see the slope you approach them from was holding allot of snow. Our back up plan was two smaller hills also starting from the same area to get some views of their bigger chums. We went for our back up plan..

We passed a fair few people on our way up until it dawned on us that our path was following the West Highland way which was why it was so busy. We soon left the path though and saw no-one else all day.

Looking down on Loch Tulla


Getting onto Ben Inverveigh







Ben Inverveigh has a nice grassy ridge ascent, you stay high for quite sometime until you reach the cairn. It was the longest we'd stayed at height all week and we felt it through the bitter wind. Emma and I stuck our mitts and down jackets on.





Looking at the Munros we considered doing


The top itself was lovely and had great views to the bigger moody munros and a huge vista of tops in the other direction which I won't even try and name!









Because it was so cold we were keen to descend out of the wind before we stopped for lunch. Our descent route through undulations and bogs wasn't quite as easy as we'd hoped and took a little while.



We were all grumpy and hungry by the time we stopped for lunch and a falling out ensued with us all getting cross. We made up over hot squash in the end and headed on to our next top Meall Tairbh. There is a big dip between the two hills so a fair amount of re ascent to get back up the otherside is needed. In reading other people's reports I think we really should have gone further round before heading up as we didn't have an easy time getting to the top.

At one stage we found our way on blocked by a slope too hard to tackle with Emma so we had to carry on round to an easier section.



After some time of what felt trying to pass through a maze we got to the top and again we did lots of 'wows'. The views from this top were even better than the last. Emma decided she wanted to climb a stack of rocks on the top too (think she was missing scrambling) so off she and Mike went to the top.





Moody skies










Our way down was over a steep broad grassy ridge into the valley bellow to follow the tussocky moorland back. I was tired and not looking forward to this way back but we were entertained by the deer we kept disturbing on the way down and the deer had ploughed rather nice paths taking the best route over the terrain so it wasn't arduous at all.









We made a beeline for the river and bridge and continued back to where the car was parked. On the way back we passed two stages in a garden, they didn't flinch at all when we stopped to watched and Emma was very excited about seeing them. I'm sure the excitement about deer will wear off eventually!



An excellent walk with fantastic views. I'm sure the route between the two hills probably isn't that tricky at all without the snow/ice/child in tow.

It was our first night in the B and B that evening and we ate out in the excellent Glen More lodge (full of character) big tasty plates of stodge sorted out our tired legs and the fire warmed our glowing faces!