The main reason for my second June trip to Scotland was to meet up with some friends and bag a Munro.  One of these friends was Mark, an occasional guest walker on our main Coastal Path.  On the day of our walk rain was forecast, but in the event there was only a light drizzle at best.  Moisture hung in the air, suspended in the silence of the hills.  As we walked it clung to our clothes.  I put on waterproofs.  The moisture already clinging to me warmed up and added an uncomfortable humidity underneath the membrane of my jacket.  I took the waterproofs off again.  The moisture clung to my clothes again.  I put the waterproofs back on.  And so the cycle continued, until I eventually decided that leaving them off was the way to go, and that the body heat generated by my climb would evaporate the worst of the water; I had my own personal water cycle in full flow!

Our Munro was Beinn Liath Mhor, meaning “Big Grey Hill”, in the Torridons.  It stands at 3,034 ft, meaning it only just qualifies as a Munro (to be a Munro a mountain has to stand at over 3,000 ft).

Beinn Liath Mhor has notable hummocks!  Here is a self-portrait (waterproofs on in this shot) as the others skirt round the edge of one such hummock.

These hummocks are remnants from the last ice age, some 14,000 years ago.  Huge ice sheets covered most of northern Europe at that time.  As the ice slowly moved, it formed valleys, ripping up rocks and other debris from the valley floor as it went.  As the climate warmed and melted the ice, this debris, known as moraine, was deposited in piles – these piles are the hummocks.  There are literally hundreds of them.  Can you spot them in this next picture?

As you can probably see, the cloud hung low in the valleys.  We made it to the top of Beinn Liath Mhor, however, were granted no views today.  But that’s Scotland for you, and there are plenty of other Munros to climb.

Points on this walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):

• Car Park at Start:  N 57° 33.315 W 005° 24.902
• Hummocks:  N 57° 32.850 W 005° 24.850
• Summit of Beinn Liath Mhor:  N 57° 30.727 W 005° 24.038

Walk Statistics:

• Date of Walk: 27 June 2013
• Distance covered: 8.56 miles plus the bit where I forgot to turn on my GPS!
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!