Mid-Summer Assynt and Coigach Mountains (Day One)

Three consecutive days of mountain fun in one of Scotland’s most iconic mountain landscapes – Coigach and Assynt, in the far North West highlands. These events follow on from the hostel event at Glen Affric “Scotland’s Most Remote Hostel” if you want to make a week of it.

The area north of Ullapool contains some of the most distinctive, unusual and interesting mountains in Scotland.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 27th, 28th and 29th June, a mountain hike will be on offer (subject to weather conditions). The actual routes and summits will be determined on the day. It is hoped that conditions will allow for the three days to comprise such outings as:

• Suilven
• Stac Pollaidh
• Canisp
• Quinag
• Conival
• Ben More

All routes are long, with several hundred metres of ascent, often very steep, and some easy scrambling can be expected. We can expect to spend 10 hours out in the mountains each day, making good use of Scotland’s long hours of summer daylight.

So, if you’re fit, like a challenge, enjoy a bit of scrambling, don’t mind exposure on high ridges, then head for Assynt and Coigach.

If conditions don’t allow for certain types of route, e.g. high winds making some routes dangerous, there are loads of alternative mountain routes to try.

These are separate day walks. The meeting place for each will vary depending on the precise location – but depending on which walk we will do, we may need to drive to the start.

If you need accommodation, you need to book yourself in somewhere. The plan would be for us all to stay close together, and Lochinver is the suggested location. Lochinver is described as a wonderfully attractive harbour village, with plenty of facilities and a place that sells “truly amazing pies”! This is the proposed base for our stay. Rob, the Leader, is booked into An Cala bunkhouse, in the Curlew Room, £22 per night, Mon to Thurs nights inclusive. Ask for the same room, if you wish, as I've said others from OutdoorLads may book too. Tel 01571 844598 or www.ancalacafeandbunkhouse.co.uk

This would give us the option of eating in the café at the bunkhouse, doing our own cooking, or eating out in the village.

If you need your appetite whetting, the Cicerone Guide to Scotland, by Chris Townsend, describes some of the mountains above as follows:

“Although the lowest of the Coigach hills, Stac Pollaidh is also the most mountainous, a pinnacle crest of shattered sandstone atop steep scree slopes” and erosion has left “the strange spires and towers of the summit ridge.”

“If one peak symbolizes the far north west of Scotland, it is Suilven, an iconic mountain with a distinctive shape and a grandeur that belies its height.”

Of Quinag, “one of the great mountains of the Northern Highlands, it’s a small mountain range rather than a single peak, with three summits on three huge buttresses divided by huge rocky corries and deep cols.”

“Conival and Ben More, the only Munros (in this area) are steep, rough and rocky.”