Remote but superbly positioned across Loch na Sealga from the magnificent ridge of An Teallach, the two Corbetts, Beinn Dearg Mòr and Beinn Dearg Bheag, provided the perfect adventure on a hot, sunny day this weekend. I am going to go so far as to say that these Corbetts, which form a series of crests, spurs and towers, rank in my top 10 so far.
The outing with my friend David P gave so much, including a stunning glen bike ride – I recommend mountain bikes for the 9km each way on a rough and undulating track – a grade 1 scramble up a ridge to reach the first summit, plus the most incredible up-close views from the south-west towards An Teallach, as well as the wider Fisherfield Forest all around.
Bike to Loch na Sealga
David and I started at Gruinard, where there is limited layby parking. The bike ride there and back proved to be a very similar time and ascent. It is undulating rather than an ascent on the route in and a descent on the route back.
We took our time and enjoyed the fabulous views with An Teallach rising to our left and the ridge and summit mounds of the Deargs to our right. The track charts a route alongside a beautiful river, which took us to the north-westerly end of the loch in around 45 minutes.
Other people has ridden gravel bikes on the same track but I was grateful for my mountain bike because the stones were loose in places and there were a few short, steep climbs.
Hike-run of the two Dearg Corbetts
We left our bikes beside the track and river and near a small fishing boat – and then continued on foot along the track that turned into a narrower path. It was possible to run this section for a couple of kilometres on the shore of the loch. Having crossed a burn that flowed down the side of our first mountain, we decided to turn off uphill and across rougher moorland.
We ran what we could and walked the rest. Up ahead, the northern ridge of Beinn Dearg Bheag looked steep and feisty and I could feel my anxiety rising. I had read various reports about this ridge, which described it as a scramble with some exposure. I am not a fan of heights and exposure, but I knew David wanted to climb the ridge so I resolved to give it a try.
If I felt too uneasy, I’d decided I would retreat and take an alternative route on my own further along the loch side and uphill via a rough moorland corrie to reach the bealach between the two Corbett summits. We met a few people who had done just this during our outing.
However, in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the scramble. There were no sections that I would call very exposed and only a few parts that had steep drops either side. None of it took me out of my comfort zone, although I have been hiking Scottish mountains for at least the last 15 years and I am more confident in tricky terrain than I used to be. Suffice to say, the scramble is not daunting for the reasonably confident.
We managed to find our way fairly easily and ascended via large rocks and crags. The ridge undulate over some big rises for around 1.5km.
The best part was the amazing views. Looking down on the loch and across the the ridge of An Teallach was such a treat.
The summit of Bheag is 820m and we stopped to chat to two walkers before we headed downhill to make our way to the summit of Beinn Dearg Mòr. The drop was around 220m, which is not huge compared to other mountains I’ve walked recently. We descended at jogging pace before starting the very steep ascent to Corbett number two.
Along the way, we bumped into a walker called Kev, who was keen to chat for a while, and then a woman who had just reached her 210th Corbett in the list of 222 total summits. We also passed another couple of men descending and nodded a quick hello.
This next section was possibly the hardest part of the day, although on an obvious path that zig-zags uphill through loose scree at a very steep gradient. It gave our legs a good but challenging workout.
Beinn Dearg Mòr sits at 906m elevation, just below the height of a Munro, and the views are breath-taking. After reaching the summit cairn, we continued a short way along the ridge, heading briefly downhill and then uphill to another prominent point with even more fantastic views all round.
Return route on foot
I mentioned to David that we could perhaps have returned via the ridge, the same way we had arrived, but it is usually nicer to complete a circuit and so we descended to the bealach once more and then broke off to the east down a steep-sided corrie towards a large lochan at the base.
There was no trod that we could find and the terrain was thick vegetation littered with potentially ankle-breaking holes. We were grateful for the long spell of dry, sunny weather, which meant the ground was not as water-logged as it would normally be. I can imagine that after a lot of rain, the steep ground would be very boggy and slippery.
This section of the route was hard going. The descent and then the hike-run across moorland to reach Loch na Sealga seemed to last far too long. The day was warm, especially when sheltered from the breeze and we were relieved when we found fresh running water in the burn further down the mountain. The lochs and rivers in Scotland are very low on water at the moment.
Back at the edge of the loch, we checked the map and realised we had around 5km to 6km to run to reclaim our bikes. The loch loomed long and I was tired and, most likely, dehydrated so this section felt exhausting.
I was thankful to have David with me to maintain the motivation to jog along, rather than walk. In the end, the time passed quite quickly as we ran and chatted companionably.
Bike back to the start
It was great to regain our bikes and cycle the final 9km. I enjoyed the change of pace and muscle use, but we had both been expecting more descent than ascent. As it turned out, the cycle back along the track took almost exactly the same time and included around the same ascent and descent.
Route details: Beinn Dearg Mòr and Beinn Dearg Bheag
Bike route is around 8.6km and 77m of ascent.
Walk-run route is 17km and 1300m of total ascent. See: OS Maps.