Wester Ross exchange

by Tish Woulds and Dave Seaman

The benefits of being a member of the AAC(UK) are diverse but this spring a member in Wester Ross definitely highlighted this.

Having organised a spring Highland meet for many years, the challenge is to find a venue that will encourage new members to attend and meet some of the "regulars''. The choice for April 2023 was the Ardmair Point Chalets, in Wester Ross, just north of Ullapool. The chalets are set on a gorgeous bay overlooked by Ben More Coigach (Beinn Mhor na Coigich) and within easy reach of the Beinn Dearg group, the Fannichs, the Munros of lnchnadamph and other fascinating hills such as Suilven, Stac Pollaidh, Cul Mor and more, the list is long!

Three weeks before the meet, I was contacted by Peter Ashworth, a Club member of many years, who lives on the peninsula of Rhue, between Ardmair and Ullapool. He offered to come and meet our group to talk about the area and to suggest some walks and places of interest that we might not have discovered on our own. I was hasty to accept this offer; definitely worth being a Club member for this.

Peter joined us on our first evening and described interesting and inspiring shortish visits, and offered both to lead a walk on Cul Mor and to arrange a boat trip out to Isle Martin, the Summer Isle lying off Ardmair. What a great opportunity for us! This included leading a walk around the "unique off-grid community-owned island". Although uninhabited now, the few cottages grouped around the small harbour and landing jetty are maintained by the community-run Isle Martin Trust. There is a Micro-museum showing how the island was used in the past, a good landing jetty, bunkhouse accommodation, and camping is allowed on the island. Peter took us to visit all the sites of interest, and to the summit of the island at 123m, with fantastic views of the outer Summer Isles. We were just able to pick out the Western Isles with An Cliseam on Lewis just visible. The path was well marked by discreet canes allowing the island to maintain its wild and rugged feel, a truly special place to visit. On our return to the jetty we found that the wind had picked up and was blowing gustily onto the shore by our chalets. The crossing was wet and bumpy but well managed, using the campsite shore which was more sheltered.

The following day Peter led a group of nine on an ascent of Cul Mor (849m), promising to take us to exceptional viewpoints which the average hill walker might easily miss. He did not disappoint. The first part of our route was the obvious one however, along a good path which led northwards from the road for about a mile before turning NW up a broad ridge, bypassing the small promontory of Meallan D1omhain on its north side and then a small lochan before we finally stood on top of a north-facing scarp with fine views of Suilven, Canisp and Quinag to the north. These three don't even come near to Munro status, the highest being Canisp at 847m, but what they lack in height they make for up in shape and in fact looked much more impressive than the Munros Conival and Ben More Assynt which lie further east at about the same distance as Quinag.

From the summit and for much of the remainder of the walk we had fine views to the west and south from which Ben More Coigach presents its finest features, particularly the sharp pyramid of Sgurr an Fh1dhleir. Our gaze was constantly drawn to the diminutive Stac Pollaidh however, only 612m at its highest point but the most rugged of them all.

After visiting the long north-west spur of the mountain and a short outlier to the southwest, offering a fine photo-opportunity with Stac Pollaidh as the backdrop, we climbed Creag nan Calman, the most southerly top, before returning over Meallan D1omhain to pick up the path by which we had come up.

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