Schiehallion - the Fairy Hill of the Caledonians

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

It was ages since I walked a hill, poor weather and less than optimal energy levels gave me plenty of excuses. But I needed to change things, so... Schiehallion is rocky and not boggy at all so no issue with saturated peat bogs. As is often the way I was up earlier than the alarm and driving off into the fog. As we neared the Braes of Foss car park a break in the mist showed us a glimpse of a snow capped hill. It promised a Good Day Out.

The John Muir Trust owns the east side of Schiehallion and they've built a pretty smooth path to its east ridge. As the going gets steeper the path gets rougher with many drains and stone steps. Quite early on I was overtaken by a guy who later sent a drone up. It wasn't too annoying.

Above the low lying mist the sunshine was fantastic, and a wee bit too hot. I started to regret my choice of winter trousers.

As we gained height more people overtook us, wisps of cloud came and went, a breeze eventually picked up and the path rougher still. I was comfortable enough, Skye was always ahead of me and obviously having fun. My slow plod was making sufficient progress.

Reaching a large cairn the infamous boulder field lay ahead. The start of a path had at some point been laid out, but quickly abandoned. We still hadn't reached the snow, progress was tedious and tiring, but we carried on upwards into cloud. I pretty much knew we'd make it at this point.

Route finding among the rocks was not always obvious but Skye had kept us on track reliably, only once did I need to to call her over when she went off. Pretty good for her. A wee dusting of snow made it easier and gradually turned into a couple of inches on the final summit ridge.

It got quite crowded at one point. Those that had overtaken me nearer the top had hung around in the hope it might clear to a view, but alas it was not to be. I slipped my Paramo on to ward off the stiff breeze and keep the heat in. I found a flat spot to give Skye her lunch, after which she ran around very excitedly. To be fair everyone seemed to be pretty excited too, lots of happy faces. I snapped a photo of one guy with a big grin. Obviously chuffed to have made it.

We spent just over 10 minutes at the summit before heading back the way we'd come. Back into the mist and that boulder field.