This Travellers Tale is for walkers, from Jo Mourant a guest at the cottage with her partner Colin Murphy. You hillwalkers will feel you are right in the middle of this. This is why most people come to Glencoe, and this is the kind of story they tell. They remember it for years, and years. The lovely picture was taken on a mobile phone believe it or not. The route is the one just behind our cottage.
(A hard one is to scramble up the slope immediately behind the cottage and keep going. I did it within three days of buying the cottage, 24 years ago. Remember it like yesterday)
Hi John,
We had a great week at the cottage thanks. The weather didn't bother us at all actually as, to be honest we would rather it wasn't too hot for walking and it was pretty clear most days anyway so we didnt really get wet at all. Everything in the cottage was fine, we didn't have any problems at all and were very happy and cosy there.
We went out walking every day locally. The Pap of Glencoe we did on the first day in the afternoon which is a great quick walk to warm up! The next day we did easily the hardest but best walk which was from a walking book I would thorougly recommend - Collins Ramblers Guide to Ben Nevis and Glen Coe. The walk started from the back of Ballchulish just behind the primary school walking straight up to Ben Bhan which felt almost vertical and also tricky as there is no path and a lot of heather to trundle through. Then up along the ridge which was stunning along to Sgorr Bhan and Sgorr Dearg, absolutly worth the climb. Then down the other side and then another tricky steep descent (no path) through the woods/felled trees (again no path due to logging) then back along to the starting point. We went up Ben Nevis one day as I hadn't been, a good walk but very very busy! It was certainly interesting seeing how inappropriately dressed some of the other walkers were. The pub at the bottom is worth popping into for a drink! Another good walk we did was starting at big cairn just past the study on the main road all the way following the river up the valley (Lairig Eide I think it was called) then ending up with a gorgeous view of Glen Etive then back around the back of Stob Dubh all the way back to the road. We also walked one section of the West Highland Way one day up the Devils Staircases through to Kinlochleven which was a nice walk too, lovely views all around.
Apart from that Colin did quite a few runs in the evening so explored a lot of the area around the cottage which he thoroughly enjoyed. We also did a few little drives locally -I would recommend going down past the castle then exploring the single track roads down towards the Seafood restaurant. You won't meet many other cars at all!
Pretty much every evening we popped up to the Hotel just up the road for a quick drink as their terrace has lovely views. We ate out just one night at the Climbers bar which I thought was a fantastic pub especially for drinking - they had 10 different local ales on, a fantastic choice! The food was ok, Col enjoyed his meal but mine wasn't great but I didnt mind as the atmosphere makes up for it.
Attached some photos for you - one of Col looking towards the 3 sisters, one from the top of Sgorr Dearg and then one from the terrace of the HollyTree.
Thanks again
Jo
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