Land o' the Leal

Buachaille Etive Mor translates from the Gaelic as the ‘Great Herdsman of Etive’, a magnificent pyramidal mountain which stands sentinel at the entrance to the famous glen itself. It’s such a superb sight from the A82 road through Rannoch Moor and stops me in my tracks, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. It always looks different depending on the light or time of year or weather. It has a long ridge which holds 2 Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet or 914m), one at each end. We had both been up Stob Dearg, the Red Peak which is the peak seen from the road. It’s the highest summit and we went up the usual way via Coire na Tulaich. This route is steep, short , scree and boulder filled and not particularly pleasant and there have been fatalities on the final rocky headwall under winter conditions as it is prone to avalanche. It’s an ugly corrie, in my opinion. The second Munro, at the far end of the ridge – Stob na Broige – had eluded me somehow and the most obvious route was to ascend Coire Altruim , a 2km pleasant walk down the Lairig Gartain. We were keen to up our Munro count for the year so the Peak of the Brogue it had to be, on a November weekend which looked promising weather wise. A Glencoe start also means a high start which is always attractive:) Bagging Munros is a thing in Scotland and there are 282 of them of which I have done a measly 106 to date. It’s only in 2018 that Chris and I decided to up our tally, having previously been happy to do favourite ones or much loved lower hills, over and over again.