Pronunciation/Translation: Beinn Narnain - byn narnyn (hill of the notches)
Well, it's been a few weeks since my last posting and not much has been going on with regards to our climbing. The weather has been foul for the most part, constant driving rain and high winds.
Instead I'll take this opportunity to return to the warmer weather of May this year, when we headed to Arrochar to bag Beinn Narnain.
It wasn't hard to remember it was a warm, hazy Sunday, the car park at Succoth was crammed full with vehicles abandoned for a days hiking in the Arrochar Alps. Fortunately we managed to find a small space on the verge to park. Gear quickly adorned we crossed over the A83 road and onto the forest trail that would lead us up onto the main path along the Alt a' Bhalachain.
It was rather warm and so we stopped for a snack at the small dam. Shona took the opportunity to cool her feet in the water and attempted to entice Alfie in for a swim, but he was having none of it. We continued along the path untill our next short stop at the Narnain Boulders. Of course I had to climb the big one beside the path, and made quite a meal of the down climb without the aid of my sticky soles.
It wasn't long before we came to the path junction at Lochan a' Chlaidheimh. Here the options are Ben Arthur (The Cobbler), Beinn Ime or Beinn Narnain. Today we were doing the latter so we followed the path north for a short distance before ascending the ridge eastwards to the summit. The path is steep but easy to follow with only some very light scrambling required further up.
We go from 630m to 850m very quickly and can feel the temperature dipping considerably, the sun is still shining however through the whispy clouds rolling across the summit.
On reaching the top (926m) we take a few photos and hunker down beside the summit shelter to finish off the rest of our lunch. Someone before us has built a little statue out of stones which had managed to survive the whipping winds thus far.
We decide to descend Beinn Narnain in a southeastern direction. This way takes in a steep downwards scramble to The Spearhead, then joins a path onto Cruach nam Miseag.
Continuing southeasterly the path cuts down towards Creag an Fhithich. At about halfway we move south and down the slopes back towards the small dam which we had passed on our way up. No path here, it's just a case of finding your way over gnarly heather, long grass and drainage ditches.
Back onto the main path once again, and it's a nice pleasant descent towards the forest trail and onwards to the car park. Boots off and jumping into the car, yes it's time for our usual post hike meal at the Drovers in Inverarnan.
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