ALTBEITHE to SHEIL BRIDGE.
Since we left Fort William the weather had followed the same pattern each day. The mornings had been fairly dry but by about three o'clock the rains started and we had a wet evening and night.
Today we had to cross the Bealach Dubh Leac, being about 2500 ft we hoped for clear weather. As mornings had been the best we decided to rise early and try to cross the pass before noon. We rose about six o'clock but we were out of luck, although it was fairly bright, broken cloud was quite low and showers were sweeping up the glen and blotting out the hill tops.
We were on the way by seven o'clock and were quite surprised to see a lone tent quite close to the track about half a mile from where we had camped.
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The clear track followed the previous evening continued for a while before vanishing in an area where the river had eroded the banks and flooded out across the glen leaving a large area of soft ground. We could see the ridge we needed to cross about two miles ahead and decided to strike off in that general direction but the terrain was very rough. It was with some relief that we were able to pick up the ghost of a path twenty minute later, we were able to keep with this for about a mile before we had to strike off on a course of our own toward the tiny notch in the skyline which was the
bealach. As we progressed the weather was worsening, It seemed possible that the ridge may disappear before we reached it. We took the precaution of taking a bearing, we new that we had to cross the ridge at the right place to find the route down the steep descent on the north side. There were several crags to be negotiated, we crossed our fingers and hoped the cloud did not come lower.
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The last four or five hundred yards was very rough and very steep but was worth all the effort, the views back down Glen Quoich and forward to the five sisters of Kintall were excellent. We sat for a while enjoying the scene and noted a small snow field just bellow us to our left. Loch Duich was just visible to the west. |
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A boundary wall ran along the ridge, with a low crossing point for those bound for Glen Shell. It's amazing to think of the work that had gone into building a wall in an area like this at about 2,500 ft.
A cairn lead us to the route down, in fact every fifty yards or so a cairn indicated the route, it was just as well as the descent consisted of a very steep scramble among
crags and great slabs of rock. It's easy to see why the loose translation of Dubh Leac means black slates. |
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We soon lost 500 ft or so and as the clouds began to clear we decided to accept the rare chance of relaxing in the sun, we settled ourselves on an airy perch and surveyed the scene below. The route down to the road was in view and through the binoculars we could see two groups of figures tolling up the track towards
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The day
remained warm as we made our way down to the river Sheil and we were soon
on the banks looking for a place to cross. The rain of recent days, meant
the river was high and was crashing its way down among huge rounded
boulders, Paul found a likely crossing point and scrambled over dry shod.
I was not quite so lucky, I had strained an Achilles tendon two days
earlier and was unable to make a long stretch between boulders, I loosened
my pack when I got into a difficulties and nearly ended up in the river
with it. Paul scrambled back down to the river and pulled my pack across,
thus lightened I was able to jump the gap, the only casualty being one wet
foot having gone right under when struggling with the rucksack.
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