Beinn Mheadhoin. Kingairloch. Glensanda Superquarry.

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Another 5:00am rise in Glasgow at the invitation of Graeme, David and Alex to bag Beinn Mheadhoin, a remote Graham across the Corran ferry and not the higher more well known one in the Cairngorms. We have been picking off Corbetts, Grahams and Donalds over the past few years in Ardgour, Sunart and Moidart but this was our first trip, or certainly mine, into the region known as Kingairloch.          Beinn Dorain, 1076 metres, above, taken from Graeme's car.

One of the advantages of not driving for an opportunist photographer is that you are free to take photos, albeit  from a moving car travelling up the A82 towards Fort William at speed. This is Loch Tulla just above Bridge of Orchy.

The great rock dome of the Buachaille Etive Mor, 1022 metres, came next, seen through a ribbon of static cloud and heralding the entrance to  Glencoe.

Another fine hill, and a favourite one for me is Creise, 1100 metres, with the famous nose, seen here on the right hand edge, making a fine easy scramble just following a line up the skyline ridge which can be grade 1 or 3 depending on conditions and which route you take up the rock. Having perfect conditions like here helps to see where you are going. If in doubt stick to the shallow gullies running up this rib.

An atmospheric one of the big Buachaille showing the amount of bare clean rock on its slopes and a fine mountain for all grades of rock climb on its near vertical walls of grey andesite and pink rhyolite which usually provides good reassuring grip and holds, particularly important on highly exposed scrambles and rock climbs around the summit. (See video at the end.)

Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe came next and we left the busy A82 and 95 percent of the tourist traffic behind by crossing over here into Ardgour, one of the wildest regions in modern Scotland, mainly because it is free of Munros and therefore invisible to most of the walking fraternity.

That's not to say it's not spectacular, as it is, just empty of most walkers.

Cattle on the minor road to Kingairloch. The B8043. It was a lovely morning which would soon turn warm.

A track was followed from the small lay- by downhill past the big estate of Kingairloch House and I found out later, searching online for info, a previous owner here holds the record for shooting more stags, around 2000 before her own death, than any other woman in Great Britain. A fine collection, just like bagging Munros or any other addiction. They would make a sizable mountain of their own placed together in a big heap. Our mountain of choice seen in the distance, above. The summit is placed well behind this ridge and it seemed never-ending. Not for the first time we remarked to each other that the lesser hills can be just as hard as the Munros to climb.

Low flying jet passing, looking towards Benderloch region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glensanda. Full info on the area including this bizarre snippet about stags, in here.

Another view of the ridge we intended to climb. Purple heather blooming on the slopes.

Although trackless once we left the main estate path and slogged through a small bog and tussock filled wood it wasn't too bad underfoot with short grass higher up on the ridge. A view looking down to Loch a' Choire. There was supposed to be an easy scramble on this ridge higher up but it didn't amount to much at all and would only be sporting under snow or severe winds. Our main hindrance here was the heat and humidity but once we reached the horseshoe ridge we got a welcome sea breeze. Quite a steep unrelenting ascent, although mainly a grassy one.

Graeme and fish farms on Loch a' Choire/ Loch Linnhe.

After passing the summit  at 2424 feet or 738 metres we continued down the ridge to visit the edge of Glensanda superquarry. This massive hole in the ground is one of the remotest large quarries in Europe with access only from a deep water dock and the sea. It has grinding and crushing devices to smash the rock into fragments before moving it down a mile long tunnel to the waiting cargo ships. See info link above. You get some idea of the scale here from this jeep on the internal road system. All the little black squares around the building are roughly family car sized.

Another view of the larger quarry. Although well hidden from most angles at ground level six million tons of granite aggregates are shipped out each year around the world and its estimated there's enough left to last 100 years. Probably make a good landfill site by then as we are fast running out of holes to dump our rubbish in.

The islands of Lismore and Eilean Dubh from the quarry. It is cleverly constructed to minimize visual impact and you can't even see it from most low lying locations. Usual summer heat haze obscuring the distant views here.

Looking back into Ardgour.

Coming down the ridge of Meall an Doire Doire Dhuibh and missing out Sgurr a Bhuic at 1866 feet as time was pressing and we were worried about missing the last ferry back. A 8 hour walk, mainly due to the heat and our advancing years. Over 3000 foot of ascent due to the up and down horseshoe ridge we followed and roughly around 14km or 9 miles. Felt a lot more though and were very glad and footsore reaching the car again.

Got the last ferry back just in time and witnessed a lovely sunset looking back towards Ardgour.

One of the Three Sisters and the Lost Valley in Glencoe on the drive up. A full 17 hour day once back in the house around 10:00pm.

In past years of youth I did a lot of rock climbing on the Buachaille Etive Mor as it's a hot spot among climbers for steep, highly exposed routes at all levels of difficulty. A great video here giving a real feel of this and also the camaraderie of climbing together as a close knit team. Worth a watch in full screen.