Walk Report for Sunday 18th September 2011 by Lesley

Five Sisters of Kintail

Six of us met at 7.30am at the car park by the ‘Jacobite’ restaurant at Kintail. The mist on the Five Sisters was a bit low but the forecast was good. We drove to the lay-by (GR 0079-1362) and were walking through the gate by 8am. The very good path zigzags up the east side of the burn through a field of heather, crosses a very pretty waterfall and then heads WNW (approx 285) climbing steadily across open moor land. After about 1½k (GR 9946-1431), we left the path and headed NW towards the Bealach between Coirein Nan Spainteach and Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe which we could see as a scoop (with a pointed rock in its base) on the horizon. The mist was still covering the peaks but there were good views behind us across to the south Shiel ridge. We reached the Bealach at 10 o’clock and walked up the ridge path with the mist clearing. We were on Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe (1027m) for a 10.30am snack stop and had wonderful views between swirling mists.

The weather was clearing as we set off again along the ridge, so that we had the most fantastic views in every direction with mountains, disappearing as far as the eye could see. The only low cloud was occasional mist, still swirling up from the south side of the ridge, which just added to the atmosphere. We were on Sgurr na Carnach (1002m) by noon and stopped for lunch just before 1pm on Sgurr Fhuaran. All the way along the ridge we had the most spectacular views across to Skye and beyond, with mountains disappearing into the distance all around us. It was breath taking.

As we walked on along the ridge (now heading north) the edge drops spectacularly, almost vertically, to the east side. We watched a golden eagle souring quite close just above us, and also saw some ptarmigan quite close to us. We reached Sgurr na Saighead at about 2.30pm and Sgurr na Moraich just after 4pm.

We then walked back to the bealach between Sgurr na Saighead and Sgurr na Moraich and followed the rather wet path down the north side of Allt a Chruinn to arrive back at the ‘Jacobite’ restaurant just before 6pm. This has to be one of the best days out!