Beinn Trilleachan

There were a lot of photographs taken today and for good reason too, the weather in the Highlands was special. I took my opportunity and headed north from Edinburgh after scraping the ice from the car. All the way up the road, the temperature gauge hovered on freezing. I crossed Rannoch Moor just as the sun was starting to touch the summits of the Blackmount. There must've been 10 cameras and tripods set up on the edge of the roadside lochan to capture it.

I continued down a dark and frozen Glen Etive, passing several red deer stags standing motionless beside the road. Their breath rose in clouds. I left the car at the road end (14miles of single track in the frozen dark) and squelched onto the open hillside avoiding the wettest bits of bog. Soon enough I reached the snowline at about 3oom and the views to the north back to Glencoe opened up.

I won't rave about it much more. Suffice it to say, I spent a lot of time pressing the camera shutter - there was so much to see!

The summit was a tranquil spot. Not a breath of wind, cloudless sky, silence. I was alone for a few miles around.

I decided to head down by the south ridge, which although not described in any guidebook, looked great on the map and it would mean walking into the sun for another hour or so. Once back to sea-level on the shore of Loch Etive, I then followed an unmarked track through a beautiful wild oakwood for a couple of hours. A flock of long-tailed tits played in the trees as I passed. The water of the loch was like a mirror and reflected the steep snowy ridges of Ben Starav across the way.

Eventually I reached the car after 6 or so hours walking, and enjoyed the setting sun over the end of the loch. As I drove back up the Glen, there were numerous cameras and tripods out again. It was a day for photography for sure.

It was very difficult to choose a blip for today, but the one I have selected shows the ridge of Beinn Trilleachan overlooking Loch Etive with Ben Cruachan in the distance as this is the view I faced for most of the day.