Ladhar Bheinn – the most westerly Munro on Scottish mainland. It’s a fairly big walk in from Inverie and the midges and clegs (horseflies) are terrifying. You’ll love it. Really. The hill has a remote and wild ambience and there should be excellent views out to the islands.
Ladhar Bheinn is Scotland’s most westerly mainland Munro. It’s pronounced – roughly – as ‘laar-vinn’. It means, in Gaelic, hill of the hoof or claw, a slightly sinister label entirely in keeping with how I felt about it that day!
It’s 3346ft / 1020ft high, and feels a bit higher because it is one of those hills you climb from sea level. It’s the 111th highest hill in Scotland. At least it is at the moment.
This is a description of the day we set out climb it a few years ago. I don’t expect the hill will have changed much in the interim.
Following in our footsteps, more recently, my nephew and partner also spent a day on it – and supplied the sunnier photos! (I may have them published by the time you read this…)
So, on this page, you have the same route to Ladhar Bheinn described but on two separate trips some years apart (he said vaguely).
The sun shone in early June as in the pic here that shows the top of Ladhar Bheinn, left of centre. Far right, in shadow, is another Munro, Beinn Sgritheall, above Loch Hourn.
The photographer (ie my nephew) is on Luinnhe Bheinn, yet another of the Knoydart Munros, the day after they ‘summited’ Ladhar Bheinn – but it shows the setting of that hill very well.
Our own day on the hill started from Inverie (accessed by ferry from Mallaig.) We also started out late because our landlady slept in. Grrrr.
(Don’t ask – the accommodation choice is much better now. You can book accommodation with confidence, we hear – though there isn’t a lot of it!) There is also a very basic campsite, and a bunkhouse.
The famous pub/restaurant, The Old Forge, after developing a slightly rocky reputation for a while, is now community-owned – so hurrah for that – and is just the place to sustain you hereabouts.
Climbing Ladhar Bheinn
Clockwise or anti-clockwise from Inverie?
Now, listen up. The usually totally reliable Scottish Mountaineering Club Munros guidebook’s description of Ladhar Bheinn suggests that, if coming in from Inverie, then the route goes northwards into Gleann na Guiserein.
Next, it circles eastwards to the ruined house (Folach), then slogs up the south-western flanks of the hill via Coire Garbh (the ‘rough corrie’ – well, there’s a surprise) to reach the summit ridge.
You can see the line of ascent in the picture here, taken from the woodlands that lead into Gleann na Guiserein. The shallow-looking Coire Garbh is roughly (ho-ho) in the centre.
Look, I’ll stick on an arrow and you can’t go wrong…….
The very weird stick-man we met will probably have gone by now. But he rather set the spooky tone!
Anyway, back on the route…afterwards, the guidebook advises that the route to Ladhar Bheinn should be continued eastwards and upwards, with great views in all directions, especially to remote Loch Hourn.
After that. it’s down and over rough grounds, west along a ridge, before eventually circling back to the village via Gleann an Dubh Lochan. Got that?
So we got ourselves through the glen, the hill looming ahead, then on past the ruined house and turned uphill…the slog had begun.
Views Of The Small Isles on the way up
In the picture above, we have come up the shallow but steep (and tedious) Coire Garbh and have been rewarded by increasingly fine views asa we turn on to the broader slopes of the summit approach.
Also pictured here. Islands of Rum (centre) and Eigg (left) from the slopes of Ladhar Bheinn.
Compare the weather again with the picture above, likewise looking towards Eigg and Rum here – this is how memorable days are made in the West Highlands!
Anyway, the view here looks is well west of the main summit of Ladhar Beinn (if you approach from the south, as both trips did), with views opening out south-east towards the Small Isles – Eigg is on the left.
By the way, the pic further up the page – with the arrow at the top – was taken from the woodland in the centre of this picture.
(Pictured here) Once on the broad ridge that leads on to the very top, the reward was a northwards view, strictly speaking, out of the ‘Rough Bounds of Knoydart’, though it looked pretty rough to me (or was that how we were feeling?).
Anyway, that’s Loch Hourn on the bottom left of the picture.
Having pointed all this out, I would suggest to any reader who has not yet climbed Ladhar Bheinn: do not go this way. Instead, start from the Gleann an Dubh Lochan and do it in reverse – that is, anti-clockwise from Inverie.
In the years of walking and climbing I cannot think of a more tedious, relentless slope than the pull up from the woods of Gleann na Guiserein – a lonely, empty place.
The top, hitherto clear all day, then caught the cloud and removed the view just as we reached the first summit.
Some hillwalkers, at least, will know this feeling: a late start, mid afternoon, in cloud, uncertainty of the route ahead, except a guidebook warning and a map suggestion that it is broken ground. Go on and complete the circular route – or go back?
We applied the usual Scottish hillwalking criterion that if it is difficult to spell, it is often difficult to walk over. You’d be surprised how often this works – I mean, we were going to end up in a glen spelt ‘gleann’.
So we went back – yes, down that tedious slope. Naturally, the cloud lifted again as soon as we turned our backs. Grrr. If only we’d been an hour or so earlier. Moral: stay in accommodation that serves breakfast on time.
Hillwalking In Scotland – Just A State Of Mind
All right, I can hear the hoots of derision from the hardened walkers and hill stravaigers – but it was getting late, honest. Yes, we missed the best bits of the hill on that day.
Sometimes, experiences in wild land have less to do with fitness and more to do with how you react to the landscapes that surround you.
In short, it can be a state of mind. I’ve walked up high hills all my life – but this high bleak ground, and I admit now, looking back, felt oppressive and unfriendly.
And I really think we were uncharacteristically spooked – well, almost. Anyway, some day soon I’ll go back but do it anticlockwise from Inverie via Gleann an Dubh-Lochain.
Clegs and midges too!
Another unforgettable incident on a great day’s walk – yes, it was really – was the attack of the killer clegs – highly intelligent, fanatical horseflies. (Oh, all right, I’m exaggerating.)
There must be repellents that work – and that there were also persistent midges goes without saying – but, let’s face it, Johanna also employed the conventional tactic of running away while screaming.
Girls, eh? More on clegs and horseflies here, where we meet them around Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
By the way, if you are looking for an easier but still rewarding excursion on Scotland’s hills, then a half day is all it takes to climb Creag Leacach in the central Grampians.
Or check out my misadventures on the odd looking Stac Pollaidh.
Take a look at my Ladhar Bheinn view on my painting website. mustpaintscot.com.
Finally, my thanks again for the additional sunny photos, courtesy of Callum Stephen (lucky chap).