Beinn Achaladair and Beinn a'Chreachain

Yesterday me and Keith decided to suck it up and head out into the hills even though the forecast didnt look pleasant. We had been stuck in the Edinburgh for the past 2 weeks so headed up to Bridge of Orchy to tick two more munros off our list - Beinn Achaladair and Beinn a'Chreachain.

The weather was due to improve at lunch time so we had a late start to the day. The walk in to Coire Achaladair was boggy the entire way and the heavy rain didnt make things much more fun. Due to all the recent rainfall the burn flowing through the coire was in spate, making the several crossings of it rather interesting. On a few occasions we were mid shin deep....well I was anyway. I don't know how some people can say theres no point in goretex boots or gaitors!

Inspecting one of the stream crossings

Wild Thyme (I think)

As we reached the saddle between Beinn Achaladair and Beinn an Dothaidh, we came across a small cave - just in time for the heavy downpour. We took shelter in here for half an hour or so until it eased off, and stuffed our faces with some sandwiches and lots of sugary goodness.

view from our wee cave

pleased to be somewhere semi dry

We headed up the shoulder of Beinn Achaladair to be greeted with cloud and of course more rain. From here on we had no views what so ever until we dropped down below 500metres on the descent. Navigation was fairly easy today though as we had around 25 metres of visibility, and there is a convenient boundary line on the OS map to follow between summits.

A rather drenched Keithy

At the summit of Beinn Achaladair

Our view from the summit of Beinn Achaladair

Approaching the summit of Beinn a' Chreachain in much nicer weather

 After summiting both munros we decided to drop down off the hill between Meall Buidhe and Coire an Lochain to take a more direct route back to the car. This slope wasn't pleasant though - steep, very rough terrain and easy to turn an ankle, not to mention the pain our knees endured.

Finally enjoying a view on the return to car

 The walk ended up taking us 7hours 40minutes, an hour and a half longer than originally anticipated but I suppose the conditions weren't on our side. We had our hearts set on chips from the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum, so the last 3km on the estate track had to be done fairly quickly...I had to literally run at points to keep up with Keith as my midget legs wouldn't physically take me any faster when walking. We made it back to the car for 8.40pm though, to Tyndrum for 8.50pm, and were the last people into the chippy before they locked the doors :)

Our Route

Janey and Keith