Sunday 17 May 2026 - Around Loch Cuaich

Our home for a few days - Craiglea Cottage in Fort William.

On a showery day, Sue and I headed towards Glen Quoich so that she could climb Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach.

There's a parking spot just next to where the stalkers path up Gleouraich starts through a tangle of vegetation. 

Sue set off in the rain, and after a while I went for a stroll along the road, reaching the Glen Quoich bridge after 2 km. I passed lots of bright yellow gorse and was followed by a black redstart at one point.

Major roadworks are in progress here. Luckily they don't work on Sundays, so we avoided delays.

There's a good view from the bridge, down Glen Quoich to Alltbeithe and the South Kintail ridge.

(Though the actual ridge was doused in cloud.)

The western ramparts of Sue's hill were clear, though I suspect the top was in cloud.

A short way along the Glen I turned around and headed back towards the bridge, not wanting to be late for Sue. Here's the view back from my furthest point along the Alltbeithe road.

Back at the bridge, there's a friendly sign broadcasting onward paths from this point. 

The path does however suffer, a few metres further on, from a locked gate and an obnoxious sign. Walkers certainly don't require authorisation to pass along this ancient route.

A few metres before the locked gate and it seems that the road to Kinloch Hourn, currently closed to traffic, is being prepared for something big.

The weather cleared as I found my way back to the car.

Here's evidence of my modest day out - a 'there and back' walk of 7.5 km with 120 metres ascent, taking rather less than two hours.

Sue was back down by 3:30, having set off into the rain at 10:30. She volunteered a 'snow report'.

Saturday 16 May 2026 - Cnap Cruinn

Paul and Jeanette left early to do a parkrun at Oban before going home. That left just five of us to enjoy Sue's scrambled egg and smoked salmon breakfast. 

Then Tom, Julie and Roger set off for home. Sue and I said goodbye to the excellent house at Taigh Mor then we headed to Fersit, just beyond Roybridge.

Sue nipped up the two Easain Munros whilst I drove back towards Inverlair, from where a track leads to the foot of Cnap Cruinn.

After a gentle ascent through woodland, serenaded by cuckoos and woodpeckers, Cnap Cruinn appeared as a brown lump on my horizon.

Other, higher, mountains were poking through the gaps.

Just beyond the last plantation, after an easy 5 km walk, I left the track and started a steep slog up to the broad summit. It was squishy underfoot but my trail shoes proved a match for that. My pace dropped from 4 kph to just 1 kph.

The 742 metre summit is marked by a small cairn, next to a comfortable and nicely sheltered rock seat on which I enjoyed my lunch. Meanwhile, Sue was enjoying her own lunch on her second summit - in the centre of the next picture.

Several pictures were taken before I left to descend via an easier gradient.

Wood anemone flowers accompanied me all the way down.

 

Inverlair is a small hamlet with nice houses and bullfinches in residence.

I was soon back at the car and chatting to a couple of chaps in the Fersit car park, to which Sue soon returned.

There was noone else on Cnap Cruinn today, nor any sign of a path to the summit, whereas Sue had paths all the way and encountered twenty or so people.

Here's my route - 15.3 km with 645 metres ascent, taking over 5 hours.

Then we adjourned to Craiglea Cottage, on the outskirts of Fort William, our home for the next few days.

Friday 15 May 2026 - A Bike Ride to Fort William and back

Today's pictures start with one from last night's sunset from our dining room.

They continue with a picture from August 1995, courtesy of Martin Whittle's wonderful scanner. I wasn't always first to be ready to set off. Dave Scruby beat me to it on this occasion. 

Today's itinerary was more modest. David went to the Lake District; Sue, Roger and Tom went to Glenfinnan to climb some Munros; Julie went to Mallaig to climb a small Marilyn; Paul and Jeanette pedalled off on a repeat of Tuesday's bike ride to Fort Augustus (I think they extended it to 100 km), and I embarked on a modest bike ride to Fort William and back, starting with a 30 mph descent to cross the canal at Gairlochy.

All the way to the series of locks at Neptune's Staircase, my route followed the good surface of the towpath.

The route I took followed Sustrans bike route number 78, missing a right turn after a weight challenging bridge that would have taken me along the Great Glen Way. Anyway, the route through housing was fine, and I passed a sculpture in memory of workers at the nearby aluminium plant.

Continuing to the harbour, I reached the Morrisons supermarket and stopped for a first lunch next to a plaque signifying the start of the Great Glen Way.

On the return journey I did locate the Great Glen Way path that follows the River Lochy, avoiding housing, and wends its way to join the towpath at Neptune's Staircase.

Some of the shipping seems to have foundered to a sad end in the Lochy estuary. 

I continued around the estuary to Corpach, from where it was an easy ride along the towpath, with good views towards the Ben, and the fragrance of coconut, to the café at Neptune's Staircase. Coffee and cake.

After re-crossing the canal at one of the locks it was a straightforward ride back to Gairlochy in continued good weather, stopping near Moy Bridge for a second lunch. Nice boiled egg.

An enjoyable morning's ride, covering 37 km in 3 hours, with just 100 metres of ascent.

There were a good number of folk doing the first section of the Great Glen Way today. Some already looked weighed down and exhausted. I hope they get the pleasure to which they've been looking forward.

Thursday 14 May - Creag Bhan

Julie's continued assault of the 1550 'Marilyn' (relative hills separated by a 150 metre drop) summits proceeded to summit number 1396, where she was joined by me and Tom on the 510 metre monolith known as Creag Bhan.

After parking in a lay-by on the A830 road beyond Glenfinnan, we soon found the path that goes under a small railway bridge near Lochailort.

Looking back, the Corbett summits of Moidart beckoned, but our objective today was in the opposite direction. 

We rose gently to a good viewpoint overlooking the iconic railway line. A horn blared but no train appeared. We continued upwards, failing to capture an image of the DMU as it passed below.

I've been wanting to walk up this path for some years, as it is a TGO Challenge route from the Lochailort starting point, notorious for failed attempts to find Prince Charlie's Cave, and the difficult shore line of Loch Beoraid. In the event our path took us to the left of the cave, becoming an easy grassy slope up the flanks of Creag Bhan.

Here's the view along Loch Beoraid. At least I established that the route so far as I went was on a good path.

Up at the summit, after my hat had blown away and been recovered from a pond, it took several attempts to negotiate the windy, rocky ramparts, but Tom did eventually gain a position from which to record me and Julie on the top.

It was windy.

We enjoyed good views to Moidart, as well as to Eigg and Rhum.

A good spot sheltered from the wind was found for lunch.

A direct descent to the path on which we had started up the hill got us all the way down with no incidents. Here's Julie on the last part of the descent. 

Here's our route, just 7 km with 500 metres ascent. It took Julie and me a good 4 hours. Tom ran down a little quicker and had gone to his next appointment by the time we reached the lay-by. 

Thanks go to Julie for suggesting this jolly excursion.