Last time I did Leum Uilleim (yes, the ‘Trainspotting’ hill!), I took the train from Fort William to Corrour. But today I did the ‘intégrale’ from my own door…
It’s a route I’d had my eye on for years with Leum Uilleim’s bulky presence looming large in so many expeditions to the east and me liking to join all the local dots, but I’d never decided exactly where to go and was still deciding on my way round! So I took the new hydro track up to Loch Eilde Mòr, along the initially muddy path which becomes so much nicer as it climbs away from the Loch between Meall na Duibhe and Meall Beag to Meall na Cruaidhe, past the Ciaran Bothy, round the three tops of my peak, down across the foot of Coir’ a’ Bhric Mòr on a long, pathless section back to the monument, and home by the Blackwater Dam and Ciaran Path. At 21.8 miles of mostly runnable ground and easy gradients it’s not a huge outing, but still quite a meaty one where the terrain’s rarely properly ‘fast’. The short leg from Leum Uilleim’s summit to the South Top is a little more gnarly than the carefree ground before, with the highest point of this last top (approached in clag which limited my views from when I left the first summit till I was descending) apparently a kind of unmarked fin/micro ridge north of the only visible (but tiny) cairn, but the long, pathless section was (despite occasional bobbly and/or wet bits) mostly pretty decent going. Despite the exaggerated size of the Ciaran Water as mapped, all fords could be paddled at no more than ankle depth and, apart from a pair of ‘Corrour’ walkers on Beinn a’ Bhric (the West Top), I met no-one between Loch Eilde Mòr and the Blackwater Dam.