The Sleeping Dragon, some rumbles of thunder and a deer fence ..

Beinn  Sgulaird (10th May 2004)


Beinn Sgulaird (seen here across Loch Creran) reminds me of a sleeping dragon, with a long knobbly back and tail stretching  out to the North East, from it's head - the little nameless 488m peak above Druimavuic.   Read on to hear about the rumbles of thunder and the deer fence!




Anne and I had camped overnight at Barcaldine, so it was only a short drive to our starting point at Druimavuic.  

The morning was hazy and warm, and we enjoyed the 5 mile walk alonside the River Creran with the mist gradually rising off the hill.


We continued up Glen Ure on a good track to reach the "dragon's tail" 2 hours after leaving the car at the loch side.  


The view below is looking up the dragon's back (the NE ridge) from the "tail" towards Stob Gaibhre (right) and the main summit (left).  


The sky was fine and blue, but large cumulonimbus were gathering to the east.  After lunch on the summit (below), we continued along the knobbly ridge over a series of small rocky tops.

As the rumbles of thunder grew more and more frequent, I was getting increasingly concerned about our slow rate of progress, and was keen to get back down off the hill before the storm headed in our direction.  So, no more lingering -  we hurried along over the last top, and down towards the "dragon's head"


When we reached the col, we were faced with a decision: go down to the left, go over the top of the "head', or go down to the right.  We took the right hand route - mistake!  


Unfortunately, this led down over some fairly rough ground and then through some forestry.  At last the road was in sight!  Oh no - a high deer fence barred our way!  There seemed to be no gate anywhere near, so we did some rather acrobatic teetering up and over!  Once on the road, we discovered a gate about 200m to the left.  Ah well, we'll know next time!


Later, we heard that a climber had been killed by a lightning strike on Ben Oss, about 20 miles away ....  see http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/2667