Birthday! Meall Nan Cleireach & Ardsheal Hill sunset - Scotland day 10

So the criteria for my birthday walk was to get a decent view of Ben Nevis without too much ascent. We also wanted a shortish walk as we wanted to have tea early evening at the nearby hotel before heading up another hill to see the sunset. The plan was to head up Meall Bhanbhaidh from Fort William. As we drove in towards what looked to be our chosen hill we saw it was black and wiped out by fire. We realised this must have been the site of the 3 mile fire from a few days prior.

We tossed up what to do, Cow Hill was an option but I felt it was a bit low and too near Fort William, so we drove up past it looking at various hills en route. We found parking near the end of the road by Loch Lunn Da Bhra. I was in a bit of a huff at the point, annoyed my plans had gone awry. The steep grassy ascent up the side of Meall Nan Cleireach didn't help too much either!





Yay Ben Nevis!


Once it levelled out a bit we all cheered up. The landscape was very peaty and there were peat hags all over the place, which sucked my foot in a few times! It must have been a cold night as all the hags had ice hanging from them. The landscape reminded me more of the Berwyns in Wales than what we had seen of Scotland so far (until you look to the distant craggy hills!)





You can see the extent of the fires in this photo


It didn't take us long to get to the top and we were soon having lunch at the cairn. I was eyeing up the next hill (Beinn Na Gucaig), but knew we didn't have time to do it due to wanting to go up another hill later that day. It would be a nice hill to combine as an easy route though.



Sorry, squinty in the sun!









We followed the haggy ridge from the top along a bit then headed down, avoiding a few steep gulleys as we went. We got to where the farm buildings were and rather than joining the farm track we stayed above the farm to pass through field gates which took us out to the lane beyond the farm. We were glad we had done this when we saw the sign on the gate saying people couldn't go that way. We headed to the loch shore where we found stepping stones out to a small island which Emma loved. It must have been really exciting for a young child to go out onto their very own island! I tried to paddle in the water but my feet were so hot from the steep descent and the water so cold they didn't stay in for long.









We headed back to change into our smart clothes and head out for a sea food tea at the local hotel. Emma bravely ordered mussels (which was on the kids menu!) and woolfed them down.

The view from outside where we ate (squinty me again) smart for once..


We then headed back to change back into our hiking gear to head up our local hill (Ardsheal Hill) so see the sun go down. We'd lingered a bit too long at the cottage before going back out so had a mad dash to get to the top - luckily there is a track nearly all the way to the top. It was an excellent sunset and we ended with cake and candles trying desperately to light the candles in the light breeze. Probably my best birthday ever.