Fantastic hiking in regal surroundings
APPROACHING Kylesku from the north, the first glimpse of Quinag can be intimidating.
On dour days of scudding cloud she can look distinctly menacing, the main backbone of the mountain shy and retiring, hidden away by the perspective of the land behind steep, barrel-shaped buttresses of terraced rock.
From the Lochinver road, in the west, that retiring ridge becomes the dominant feature of the mountain, a three-mile wall of Torridonian sandstone with a splintered quartzite crest.
In the fiery light of a winter sunset she can look fierce and distinctly threatening.
But given a long summer’s day, this old girl of the far north-west shows her kindly side and all her threats melt away.
With a high-level start, obvious paths and wide ranging views the ridge-walks to her three Corbett summits makes one of the best high-level excursions in the north.
Shaped like an elongated Euro sign, with those steep buttresses forming the ends of the two upper prongs, the mountain’s saving grace, as far as walkers are concerned, is that lower prong, which, unlike the other two, fades out into a long and gentle ridge and offers easy access to the hill’s backbone.
Unusually for a Corbett, Quinag boasts three summits – Sail Gorm, 776m, the highest point on the top prong of the Euro; Sail Gharbh, 808m on the middle prong, and Spidean Coinich, 764m on the southern one.
Indeed, it’s this southern top that is supposed to resemble the spout of a bucket, giving the hill the name Cuinneag – Gaelic for a narrow-mouthed water stoup.
For years we knew the hill as Queenaig, giving it a royal and female association. Old habits die hard and I still think of the hill as a “her”. Pronounce it “coon-yak.”
A parking space on the A894, at an elevation of almost 250m, makes a good starting point, but don’t be tempted by the footpath that appears on Ordnance Survey maps showing a route up into Coire Chornaidh.
We met a couple on the summit of Spidean Coinich and their guidebook had told them to follow a path into the upper corrie from where they could climb on to Spidean Coinich.
They looked a little shaken by their experience and I’m glad it wasn’t a guidebook of mine.
Indeed, I’ve had some correspondence with the John Muir Trust, who look after Quinag, and the charity is very keen that walkers avoid this route because of the erosion on the hill above. There is a very real threat of rockfall.
The trust advises walkers to follow the route from the footbridge for a distance of 250m or so before turning left to access the east trending Spidean Coinich ridge.
This ridge leads to some steeper rocky slopes that in turn lead to the rounded summit. A steep descent down a narrow ridge is the highlight of the day, high above the watery wastes that form the hinterland of the Edrachillis Bay coast.
On the other side of the ridge the dark waters of Lochan Bealach Cornaidh reflect the steep slopes of Sail Gharbh, which, in a few hours, will be your final top of the day.
The ridge drops to the broad Bealach a’ Chornaidh from where a well-used path zig-zags up to the ridge just east of a knobby top.
Skirting the top itself, the path traverses its north-east slopes and descends to another bealach before climbing the long ridge out to Sail Gorm, the second summit of the day.
With the waters of Loch a’ Chairn Bhain and Kylesku below your feet, the whole of the north stretches before you, on past the Schiehallion-like form of Ben Stack to Arkle and Foinaven and distant Cranstackie.
From Sail Gorm you have to retrace your steps to the Sail Gharbh ridge but it’s no hardship, with views of massive Suilven and the Inverpollaidh hills illustrating why this is a landscape without equal.
It’s an easy stroll out to the third summit, Sail Gorm, with great views amid truly regal surroundings.
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