What's the best scrambling day out in Scotland? Obviously there is no definitive answer, but ask keen hillgoers and certain names will keep cropping up - Liathach, An Teallach, A' Chir and the Aonach Eagach being perhaps the main contenders. There's the Cuillin of course, but most of the best days there involve more than scrambling (Pinnacle Ridge, Clach Glas, The Dubhs). It's pretty much a certainty though that nobody will suggest the Ardnamurchan Ring. This isn't because it's not a great day's scrambling, more because people don't know about it - only three people have logged it on UKC, for instance. It easily bears comparison with any of its well-known peers, an endless parade of gabbro slabs and summits that follows a logical line round a feature so well-defined that it shows up in satellite photographs. Because none of the summits are high (Meall nan Con, the highest, is only 437m) it would be easy to underestimate the route, but it's a huge day out, with over 800m of scrambling up and 300m of scrambling down - roughly comparable to the amount on Liathach, An Teallach and the Forcan Ridge added together. The whole day is around 21km, with 1500m of up and down, but if you're expecting to do it in 7 hours you've got quite a shock coming!
I first went to Ardnamurchan in April 1994, a stormy visit to the westernmost point of the British mainland, my main memory being waves breaking over the car on the way to the lighthouse. I had a couple more poor weather visits in the early 2000's but it wasn't until I spent a few May days there in 2010 that I got hooked.
Emerging from the tangled Atlantic oakwoods at the crest above Camus nan Geall puts you on notice that you're arriving somewhere special. Suddenly the landscape opens out and becomes obviously volcanic, then as you climb up onto the moorland the views out to Eigg and Rum give a Hebridean feel. Once out beyond Kilchoan the knobbly gabbro peaklets poised above stunning sandy beaches are like nowhere else in Britain, and there are so many hidden corners that you keep finding new spots even after multiple visits. It's becoming known how good the single pitch cragging is, and it's not unheard of to meet other climbers (though still rare), but the scrambling is still unsung.
That there's loads of the latter is clear from a brief acquaintance, and when compiling Highland Scrambles South the problem was what to leave out rather than what to include. I could easily have filled a dozen pages with link-ups of slabby gabbro but would anybody ever bother to repeat them? Ardnamurchan is famous among geologists for its gabbro ring dyke, bounding a caldera 7km across, and with that in mind it seemed obvious to pick routes that could be fitted into a round of the Ring. It wasn't until 2016 though that I got round to linking them all up in the same day. It's still one of the best hill days I've ever had, though my fingertips and knees were sore for days afterwards.
The obvious starting point is the large car park at Sanna Beach (which means that you can soak your feet in the sea afterwards🙂). The scrambling starts only a few minutes away, with three blunt spurs running down from Meall Sanna almost right to the beach. All have a scatter of rock outcrops but the middle one has the most, giving lots of route choice. It's quite varied, with rough slabs, bouldery outcrops and quite a steep finish. If you're planning to do the whole Ring it's probably as well not to get too immersed in technicalities as you'll need the time.
The spur leads to the 184m summit which feels like the main top (and certainly has the best view). Actually the summit two tops further on is a metre higher, though it's arguable whether the latter is still part of Meall Sanna as the cleft between second and third tops is very sharp and distinctive. It's only 50m deep but is almost completely filled with the tautologically-named Lochan Glacan Lochain, quite awkward to get around.
Once past the higher summit there's an easy descent to Bealach Ruadh then a long knobbly ridge over Beinn na h-Imeilte. A purist could incorporate several smaller bumps before you reach the road as it breaks into the caldera. A few hundred metres north is a large slumped cairn on top of a boulder. This marks the site of the battle of Creag an Airgid in 1518 (or possibly 1519, the sources disagree). The MacIains of Ardnamurchan had backed the Scottish crown in its struggle with the MacDonald Lords of the Isles and a MacDonald and Macleod raid caught the MacIains here, killing the chief and his two sons. The one surviving son was still a child and was made a ward of the Earl of Argyll, who used that to extend Campbell power over the area. Reputedly each stone of the cairn represents someone killed in the battle (well, maybe).
Creag an Airgid itself is an excellent scramble, made up of lots of separate oucrops but feeling like a consistent route. Halfway up there is a steep corner leading to a shelf and an airy step up onto a nicely poised big slab. It looks intimidating but the holds are superb. It's avoidable on either side, though the left hand version isn't actually any easier, just less exposed. Gradually the outcrops ease off to walking angle slabs and eventually grass. The ridge line becomes more amorphous but nice craggy bumps lead up over Meall an Fhreiceadain to the more independent summit of Meall an Tarmachain.
A few minor lumps and a 150m drop take you round to Meall nan Con, the highest summit on the round. An observant geologist might notice that this is actually outside the Ring and not on the gabbro, but it would be a shame to miss it out. Any attempt to carry on directly northwards from here will take you well off route. You need to head south-west, dodge some vertical cliffs and round a set of lochans to get back on track, which feels quite counter-intuitive on the ground.
The summit of Meall Meadhoin gets you back on the gabbro, and hidden below it is an excellent crag of the same name, home to the classic Hard Severe slab of Leac Glas. After this the ridge narrows and gets more continuously rocky, one of the best sections of the round. Off slightly north is a prominent knoll, sometimes called Meall an Fhir-eoin. It's possible that this was its original name, but nowadays that name is fairly strongly attached to a different summit a kilometre further on. The original knoll is called Eagle Hill in the SMC rock guide - a translation of Meall an Fhir-eoin! Whatever the off-route knoll is called it's well worth including, up and down lovely rough slabs.
More rough knobbly ground takes you over the current Meall an Fhir-eoin, more separate but less prominent in the original non-technical meaning. Both it and the following Meall an Fhir-eoin Beag have crags on their south sides, the latter including the oustanding VS of Yir. The closeness of the coast gives this section a real sense of height, despite being only 200m up.
More complicated ground takes you down to cross the Allt Mhic Cailein, an oddity that drains the northern part of the crater. You would expect the whole basin to drain out of the big gap behind Sanna, but the stream that tumbles steeply into the sea east of Rubha Carrach has cut a narrow gorge through the Ring and captured everything north of Glendrian. It doesn't fit well into the Ring Round but the Rubha Carrach area is well worth exploring, with crumpled minor tops, very steep sea cliffs and the Glendrian Caves. Take a torch as the northern cave goes in a surprisingly long way.
From Allt Mhic Cailein a long slabby rib gives an easy scramble up to Sgurr nan Gabhar, the most pointed summit on the whole round. Again there is climbing on the south side and it would be feasible to cut round and include this, via either the easy slab on the right (Grade 3) or the interestingly-named Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria (graded VD but very low in the grade). Both are on immaculate gabbro.
Heading north-west then cutting sharply down left gets you to a narrow col and a steep ascent to Meall Clach an Daraich. This is a surprisingly complicated top and a bit of zigzagging is needed to avoid steep cliffs on the descent. Beyond this is a final knoll above Achnaha Buttress, but you haven't finished yet! Although the road is very close you're separated from it by the Allt Sanna, which is both deep and too wide to jump. It's best to ignore the temptation and from the last knoll head direct to the abandoned village of Plocaig from where good paths lead to a bridge just north of Sanna. The northern beach is usually quieter but further back to the car park if you don't want to put your boots back on again🙂.
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