After more than 18 months, my friend Rob and I were finally reunited a few weeks ago – and we headed off in our respective campervans to walk a couple of Corbetts. This first was Glas Bheinn from Inchnadamph in Assynt. The next day we walked Breabag.
One lesson we both learned over our two days of walking was that if you are too busy walking and talking, the chances are you will head in the wrong direction for a while. This happened twice!
There were a number of reasons why I had not seen Rob for so long. Partly it was due to Covid and the pandemic restrictions. I also moved to the Highlands last year and Rob lives closer to the Central Belt. In addition, Rob has been focusing on training and nurturing a new dog, Storm. While we have stayed in touch on the phone and WhatsApp, it was brilliant to see him in-person again, to meet Storm and for us both to get two new ticks on our Corbett bagging lists.
Glas Bheinn from Inchnadamph
The walk of around 16km starts close to Inchnadamph Hotel in the small settlement located in the stunning north-west area of Assynt. There is a fairly large car park where you can park without charge. Signs tell you there is no overnight parking, although I am not sure this can be legally enforced.
Inchnadamph is on the Cape Wrath Trail and the first part of our walk followed this long-distance route, which extrends from Fort William to Cape Wrath.
As I mentioned before, Rob and I were so busy chatting and enjoying the undulating track that we failed to look at the map frequently enough. We also walked right past a small cairn that indicated a path uphill towards the Corbett.
We realised our error about 1km further along the track and feeling a little sheepish we were forced to turn back and retrace our steps. Luckily, we had plenty of time and the weather was fine.
I decided that a silver lining was that it also gave us an extra 2km of chatting time.
Uphill towards Glas Bheinn summit
After the flatter and wider track, we turned on to a narrow and rocky path that headed immediately uphill. This section was still on the Cape Wrath Trail. The steeper incline meant we gained height fairly quickly.
Lochans, small and larger, scattered the landscape and we walked along the shore of one, crossing a river at the western end on well-spaced rocks.
The path curved to the north-west and some way on we left the Cape Wrath Trail. As we continued north-westerly and on to the ridge of Glas Bheinn, the CWT swung to the north-east.
After another steeper climb, we reached the higher plateau of the Corbett. There were long stretches of snow at higher altitude and Storm enjoyed the cooling sensation on his paws. He also loved having a roll on the snow.
Looking down steep ground to the north was another area of water. This is called Lochan a’Choire Ghuirm, which translates as the Loch of the Green Corrie and was made famous in the book, the Loch of the Green Corrie, by Andrew Greig.
We finally reached a summit cairn. The views over wider Assynt were beautiful and included Suilven and the Quinag. Rob and I reminisced about a fantastic summit camp on Suilven a few years before. I am yet to walk the three summits of the Quinag, while Rob has already walked this apparently brilliant route.
After a sit down in the stone shelter next to the cairn, we returned the way we had come. Well, it was almost the same route except we didn’t include the extra 2km detour!
We felt very lucky with the weather because it turned out to be much drier and calmer than forecast.
Glas Bheinn route details
16km (if you don’t make an inadvertent detour)
Total ascent: 770m
Height of Corbett: 776m
Route: OS Maps.
Corbetts bagged: 79