Meall a' Ghiubhais and Ruadh-stac Beag

Sculpture near the Beinn Eighe visitor centre

The small village Kinlochewe with its tourist services (accommodation, shop, café, fuel) sits on the A832 at the southern end of Loch Maree in the north-west highlands.

Around 1km outside of the village, on the approach to Loch Maree, is the Beinn Eighe Visitor Centre, which is well signposted by the roadside. Plenty of parking spaces available, including a shaded area specifically for dogs in cars. The visitor centre is worth a look in.

Meall a' Ghiubhais from the pony track

Facing the visitor centre, there is a path on the left hand side of the building by a slate sculpture. Head up this path and pass another sculpture with a seating area. A little further on there are two junctions both with a stone sign on the ground - at the second of these junctions, take the path heading off right.

The path, well constructed, climbs up through woodland and after around 750m leaving the car-park comes to a stone dyke seating area, just beyond which it meets with the 'pony track' .

Turn right onto the 'pony track' which is a decent path, if quite rough, and travels uphill following the Allt Sguabaidh with Meall a' Ghiubhais in view ahead. After around 2km on the 'pony path', a burn is crossed and a junction in the path is met with a cairn and post just above - keep right.

The path crosses another couple of small burns, and a further 1km on meets with a small cairn on the pass between Meall a' Ghiubhais and Creag Dhubh on Beinn Eighe - leave the path here and head north-west over deer-grass, heather and some soggy ground.

After crossing a line of boulderfield at the base of Meall a' Ghiubhais, aim for the ground slightly above a burn that flows down a heathery gap from the Corbett's summit. Hike to the top of this burn , cross it and keeping to heather and grass beneath boulderfield, follow a line directly to Meall a' Ghiubhais's summit . Only on the final 100m of distance to the summit are boulders and stoney ground encountered.

On the summit of Meall a' Ghiubhais looking to Ruadh-stac Beag

On the summit of Meall a' Ghiubhais looking to Ruadh-stac Beag

On the way to Ruadh-stac Beag

After the relative and possibly unexpected ease of Meall a' Ghiubhais, prepare for a completely different experience to bag Ruadh-stac Beag !

From the summit of Meall a' Ghiubhais, return to the top of the burn , then follow the burn downhill. Cross the bealach, possibly a bit more west than earlier, then drop to the Allt Toll a' Ghiubhais and cross where convienient .

Once over the burn, plod through some deep heather and gradually begin to gain height. Higher up a grassy bank heading south-west above boulders for around 300m is crossed which ends in scree - above a path can be seen climbing south-west, though to get to this, a clamber up loose ground will be needed.

Once on the path, follow it as it climbs a height of over 100m, then contours above screes to travel around Ruadh-stac Beag's south-eastern aspect. The path becomes vague and loose as it turns around Ruadh-stac Beag's southern shoulder , then begins to climb directly uphill.

A final pull of 100m gets onto Ruadh-stac Beag's summit plateau, where a walk of 500m leads to a small cairn indicating the highest point.

Summit cairn on Ruadh-stac Beag

Summit cairn on Ruadh-stac Beag

At the lochans below Ruadh-stac Beag

From the cairn, return along Ruadh-stac Beag's plateau. Instead of descending the way you came up, a more obvious route can be seen picking a way on light-coloured scree through steep grey boulderfield. This drops to grass covered ground pitted with a few small lochans - a fine place to pause and take in the awesome Beinn Eighe ridge !

Head south-east and cross the upper reaches of the Allt Toll a' Ghiubhais , then pick up some faint deer-trods to follow north-eastwards.

The deer-trods fade into the grass and stoney ground, by which time, terrain is quite easy-going underfoot. Looking back up to Ruadh-stac Beag, you'll wonder at the route traversed earlier !

Returning down the path just before the junction with the pony track

Returning down the path just before the junction with the pony track