| Date | 14 Oct 2025 |
| Route | Link to Route |
| Enjoyable | |
| Difficulty | |
| Conditions | Cloud inversion, warm and dry above the clouds |
| Summits | ✔ (M) Saileag ✔ (M) Sgurr a' Bhealaich Dheirg ✔ (M) Aonach Meadhoin ✔ (T) Sgurr an Fhuarail |
After a good nights rest at the Inverness Youth Hostel, we were up and checked out just after 6am and travelled down to the start point just before 8am, taking longer due to heavier than expected traffic and loads of deer on the A87.
The steep ascent to the ridge starts from the car park and doesn't let up much, path was rough and muddy in places. After walking yesterday, we surprised ourselves by only taking two brief stops, one just above the tree plantation, and another around 100m below the ridge.
We reached the ridge still in the clouds, but quickly emerged to another fantastic cloud inversion as we climbed up towards the first Munro. Around half way up we got another fog bow, and a broken spectre in the centre of the bow! Once we reached the summit of Saileag, we took our first proper break, soaking in the views.
The hike along towards the next Munro starts with a small descent then up and over a few intermediate peaks, one with a scrambly down section with a steep drop to the north, which would be much easier if approaching the ridge east to west, and another with a bypass path to the south. Eventually we reached a cairn, but this wasn't the true summit, instead you have to scramble over a rocky ridge to the north east to a very well built cairn marking the summit of Sgurr a' Bhealaich Dheirg.
Once back on the path we had lunch, then headed towards the third and last Munro of the day. The rough path begins by dropping a couple of hundred metres before steadily ascending to the summit of Aonach Meadhoin, which has the broadest plateau of the three. Again we stopped for a well deserved break. We had originally planned to retrace our steps, but even with our good pace today we realised we might end up descending in the failing light, so decided to walk down to the Cluanie Inn and hike along the road.
First we dropped down a little and then up to the Munro Top of Sgurr an Fhuarail, then followed the lower path towards the ridge end disappearing into the clouds. We lost the path at one point, so contoured around the bottom of the point marked 843m on the OS map and eventually picked up a faint path heading south east.
The path took us straight down to the finish point, but was grassy, muddy and quite slippery in places, especially on the steeper sections; I think this route would have been easier in reverse.
Once at the Cluanie Inn, we started the long walk back along the road to the car, but were lucky to thumb a lift around half a mile in from some fellow walkers. Turns out they work for Scottish Water and were off to work in Skye for a few days. Many thanks to them for saving us a couple of hours walking along that very busy road!!
