As always the Club went away for the 2nd May bank holiday weekend and this year it was at Achnasheen, details below.

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The base for the May weekend walking trip this year was at Achnasheen which is ideally situated to allow a wide variety of walks in a number of areas in the Northwest corner of Scotland . Prior to the main planned walks on the Friday and Saturday, a number of individual climbs were undertaken en route to Achnasheen such as Fionn Beinn (Achnasheen) and  Maol Chinn Dearg (Strathcarron) although the weather on the Thursday was poor with rain and low cloud base the order of the day.

            The plan for Friday was to tackle two of the most remote Munros in Scotland , namely Bidean a Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor which lie to the east of Loch Carron. The route started at the Attadale estate at the northern end of Loch Carron with a 13km cycle following a landrover track that snaked over a pass at 350m before descending down to an estate bothy set in a beautiful wide glen at Bendronaig. The walkers regrouped at the bothy to let the slower cyclists catch up as well as those delayed by punctures on the way, and was a brilliant spot to fuel up with a spot of lunch. The estate encourage walkers to use the bothy as a base for exploring the surrounding hills which are very much wilderness country and provide magnificent scenery in an unspoilt setting. Although the cycle in to the bothy at Bendronaig had been marred by frequent heavy showers, the walk up onto the first peak (Bidean a Choire Sheasgaich) was completed in glorious sunshine with clear views in every direction. A drop of 200m down to a col was followed by the climb up onto the second peak of the day (Lurg Mhor) where, in complete contrast to the first top, visibility was almost zero with horizontal snow. However, typical of mountain weather in Scotland , this soon passed and we were blessed with wall to wall sunshine for the walk back to the bothy and the return cycle out.

            The Saturday walk split into two separate groups. The main group tackled one of the classic Torridon mountains – Beinn Alligin - while the other group climbed the nearby Corbett of Beinn Dearg. Interestingly, this particular Corbett is currently being remeasured with the hope that more modern, accurate methods may result in the mountain being awarded Munro status – watch this space. The weather on the Saturday continued where it had left off the previous day although there was a good covering of snow on the tops from an overnight fall. The views from the top were excellent with the other Torridon mountains looking resplendent with their white tops. Beinn Dearg, although just below the magic 3000ft mark, proved to be a true challenge for the group with some fine sections on the ridge and good scrambling.

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