Weather/Conditions: Clagged in on the hills, some wind and drizzly on the ridges. Cold as well.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 11.5km / 1250m / 8h 45m
Accompanying: Gilchrist

I was working on Skye through September 2018, doing Monday to Fridays for the first time in my life. This left the weekends free, and though I usually ended up knackered on Saturday morning, I made sure that on one of the weekends I would get off into the hills and climb something that would go toward my third Munro round.



Gilchrist also mentioned going for a walk, and Beinn Alligin was a logical choice: not too long, a round trip, some scrambling and enough of a drive north to feel I was actually travelling somewhere with the weekend.

The weather was alright when we began, and followed many others who had all come with the same idea. The car park was busy, and the path onto Tom na Gruagaich looked similarly so. We took our time, talked a load of Gaelic, either speaking Gaelic or speaking about Gaelic!



Tom na Gruagaich was a bit wild on top but in spite of having arrived in mist, it all blew off the summits spectacularly in a few minutes. We headed onward to Sgurr Mor, taking a break mid-way just under the crest and out the wind. The coastal fringes looked wild today: a grey sea and dull brown moorland. The first week of my Skye stint in September had been beautifully sunny, just like summertime. About a week into September, the weather seemed to change overnight and from then on had just been variations of windy and wet for weeks.

We climbed Sgurr Mor in drizzle and wind - not the warmest conditions, and we barely stopped en route to the Horns. They were bigger than I had remembered, and I was getting a bit cold. So we scrambled most of the crest, bypassed a couple of little bits.



The glen below was a lot warmer. In fact the walk out was a real highlight. I ended up in my happy mountain place and enjoyed walking through the woodland with this curiously perfect blend of pine, bracken, path, water and rock.

A good day - cheers for being up for it, Gilchrist.

The following day I got up late and drove around to Glen Brittle. There was only a few hours light left and the weather was pretty grey - so I just went back to Sleat for another week of work.