Jen and I have been on the Island of Rhum for the last few days. After arriving and settling in to the hostel in Kinloch Castle we went for an afternoon wander up Mullach Mor, which proved to be very rough pathless terrain with lots of tussocks, but gave great views of the island and across to Skye.
A late start the next day allowed us to traverse the Rhum Cuillin over two days with a bivvy high on Trallval. The bivvy was planned to let us hear the 1000s of Manx Shearwaters returning to their burrows after dark. This was an amazing experience with the bulk of the bird’s noisy activity seeming to be around midnight. The ridge gave an excellent walk with easy scrambling or more difficult options if desired, the final descent down from Sgurr nan Gillean is steep and a cup of tea in the well mainatined Dibidil bothy was most welcome.
On Tuesday we headed west via good tracks and stalker’s paths and walked up the granite hills of Orval and Ard Nev, which give great views of the Rhum Cuillin. A representative of the Lochaber Geo Park gave a very good, free and well attended talk on the geology of Rhum in the evening.
Our final day saw us out to the beautiful beaches of Kilmory and Samhnan Insir for some attempted swimming and excellent bouldering/short solos on the Torridonian sandstone in an idyllic setting with great views to Skye. A quick walk back to Kinloch allowed time for one last tasty cake in the Community Hall tea shop before catching the ferry back to Mallaig.
