Mar 17th, 2014

Author: marionmccune

Climbing the Steeple

I’d had it in mind to climb Benn Donich on Sunday – it seems ridiculous that we have lived here for nearly six months and haven’t managed to get up ‘our’ mountain (well it is at the back of our house). But when we got up in the morning, it was a typical Goil day – but rather windier than most. So we decided to climb the Steeple instead – which is a smallish but pointy hill right next to us, and possibly go on to Cnoc Coinnich if time and weather permitted.

So we started off following the path the Scouts take to a small cliff where they practice abseiling. At this point it was wet but we were sheltered from the wind and there was a decent path. So far so good, but then we came out of the protection of the hill and on to a ridge; the wind suddenly hit us and simultaneously a squall of freezing rain. We trudged on grimly upwards and got to the high point of the ridge. From here there was a fantastic view of the village and the loch – or at least what we could see of it through the driving rain. Suddenly a magnificent rainbow appeared, with one end firmly in the garden of the Shore Inn, and the other end somewhere near our house.

 

The wind was even stronger now and we turned to face the climb to the summit. The path had become a muddy morass and the rain was working its way down the back of my neck. At this moment I am sad to say I wimped out and we turned and went back down. I suppose the trouble with living right next to walks like this is that it is easy to give up on the basis that you can do it any time – if we had driven all the way from Edinburgh I would have been more resolute.

So back on ground level the wind was a lot lighter and we had a pleasant walk round the loch. And we ate our picnic in the warm kitchen – the decadence of it…..