Ben Starav

The route descriptions, pretty much without exception, have it as a brutal ascent. It's certainly steep, and it took a good three hours to get to the summit, but I felt a lot less weary than last time out. Maybe the fact there is an obvious rocky path helps, as opposed to the wide grassy slopes on Sgor na h-ulaidh. At least you're not wondering whether you're missing the easier option. The main factor of course was that last week had given me some exercise!

The path is very boggy until you take the right hand fork, and start ascending properly. After that it's simply a case of keeping the head down and getting on with it. There are sizeable boulderfields as you get closer to the top, and you need to tread carefully but the ever increasing views keep pulling you on. It's not a hill for dogs though - the underfoot conditions on the boulders would make it awful easy for a dug to jam a paw or worse. There are also some cliffs very close to the path, and if you had to keep the dog on the lead it'd be almost impossible to keep your own balance over the boulders.

Good views back towards the Buachailles and Bidean. We kept on over the summit and down to the bealach where you'd go right to Beinn nan Aighenan, or straight ahead to Glas Bheinn Mhor. The weather was closing in by then though, so we decided to head down via a clear - if exceptionally boggy - path. I'm sure we went down by the Allt nam Meirlach, but Andy's equally convinced we descended via the path beside the Allt Mheuran.

For future reference, I reckon it'd be best to ascend beside the latter burn and emerge at the bealach between Glas Bheinn Mhorand Stob Coire Albannaich. Beinn nan Aighenan of course, is the one that I had in mind to save for the Trail overnight camping approach.

All in all a cracking day out. The beasties were terrible though. And Andy ruined a perfectly good photo of the Glen...



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