Classic walk: Three Corbetts of the Quinag

For years, I admired the iconic outline of the spectacular mountains of Quinag from afar, whether driving or cycling the main road through Sutherland in north-west Scotland.

But it was only as I walked towards the range that I could truly appreciate the magnificence of the Y-shaped ridge with its dramatic corries and high peaks.

I had saved this adventure for a day of fine weather and as I left the Quinag car park beside the A894, accompanied Gordie and three friends Ben, Claire and Rachel, the sun was shining in a bright blue sky.

We followed a well-maintained path, which led us into a cnoc-and-lochan landscape that felt almost immediately wild and remote. Aside from our group’s chatter and the occasional thrum of a car or motorbike, I was surprised by how quickly we were enveloped by a wonderful sense of tranquility.

Reaching a small cairn at a junction, we headed left and continued on the path. Looking ahead, the Quinag loomed up before us with a vast coire headwall and our first peak above. The steep rocky feature was created millions of years ago by glaciation.

Fortunately, our route progressed at a much steadier gradient, although the climb was over rough ground. We avoided wet and boggy areas where possible, finding bits and pieces of path and ascending huge, smooth slabs of ancient Lewisian base rock.

The higher we ascended, the more expansive the views became, including a superb vista down over Loch Assynt and further afield to the Atlantic coast.

A few hundred metres higher – and a growing sense that the walk would challenge our leg muscles – we reached the first of three major summits on the Quinag, Spidean Coinich at 2506ft elevation.

Each summit qualifies as a Corbett and is included in a list of 222 Scottish mountains of between 2500ft and 3000ft height.

Unusually, Spidean Coinich has two large cairns and as we stopped for a while, we surveyed the wider landscape with numerous other peaks and ranges spreading out as far as the eye could see.

The other-worldly Assynt landscape is dominated by Inselbergs, or “island mountains”, which is the geological term to describe the many isolated peaks created from Torridonian Sandstone and laid down as sand in rivers more than 1000 million years ago.

Looking west, the “island” of another iconic mountain, Suilven, was easy to identify with its double humped-back shape.

To the north and east, we could also make out the line of the rest of our ridge walk. Having completed the “stem” of the Y shape, we would now traverse two sides of the upper “V”.

I later read that Quinag is an anglicisation of the Gaelic name Cuinneag, which means a milk pail. Another way of looking at the second section of the walk was to think of the ridge forming two sides of a vast, deep-sided bucket.

From the high point, a fairly obvious path descended steeply over rocks to join a ridge that then rose and fell many times northwards.

Another elevated point, on the northern top of Spidean Coinich took us back up to 2300ft before we traversed a grassy arete and then descended to a bealach at a height of about 1800ft.

More steep ascending took us to an unnamed peak at almost 2500ft at the junction of Quinag’s ridges. We enjoyed superb sweeping views – and then a further descent, where we spotted a rock feature projecting out above an airy drop.

I am not a fan of heights so I walked cautiously along a short, narrow path to reach what looked like the overhanging end of a tabletop. I gingerly sat down to pose for a photograph. Others in the group were brave enough to stand on top of the overhang.

We retraced our steps to the path and progressed north again, first on a fairly steep gradient and then climbing more steadily over a number of high points to final reach the second of the Quinag Corbetts, Sàil Ghorm at 2545ft elevation.

It felt as if this peak had been hard won physically but the rewards were more impressive views. From the large plateau top on Sàil Ghorm, we took in miles and miles of coastline and many islands. Far below in the north-east, we also saw the distinctive curve of the Kylesku bridge that crosses the sea inlet, Loch a’ Chàirn Bhàin.

To reach the third Corbett, which is the taller of the trio, we retraced our steps back almost to the ridge junction. There were many different paths to choose from, starting on a terrain of mostly sandstone and then turning to quartzite before the summit cairn of Sàil Gharbh at 2650ft.

Although high in the mountains, the temperature was still warm and our group stopped for a while to have something to eat and to enjoy another panorama of peaks, sea, isles, lochs and moorland.

Our return route was on the same path we had recently climbed, descending to a bealach at some 2300ft elevation.

A path then headed downwards in a south-westerly direction, steeply at first, before travelling more gently to the south-east.

The walk back towards the car park is around two miles but it seemed further on tired legs. We took our time, chatting and stopping to take in the views, especially of the stunning steep eastern flank of Spidean Coinich.

It seemed like a long time since we had been on that first peak – and surveying the ridge from far below gave another memorable perspective of its impressive stature and length.

Many times, I looked between the base of the glen, where the road slowly became closer, then back over my shoulder to where the magnificent Quinag range began to diminish again behind us.

The path eventually passed the junction where we had much earlier turned left at a cairn and then back to the car park and our start point.

My suspicion that this Corbett circuit would be as fabulous close up as it looked from afar had been proven beyond doubt.