Suilven.
Suilven. Photo: John Davidson

My legs are still aching this evening after an epic trek up Suilven yesterday.

We set off from Lochinver at 9am (after a two-hour drive from Inverness) firstly heading along the minor road to Inverkirkaig, from where a long path leads to Assynt’s iconic mountain.

It’s only classified as a ‘Graham’ but in the grand scheme of things that doesn’t matter a toss; this is a magnificent lump of rock majestically rising from the mass of bog and rocks that surrounds it. Suilven stands proud and impressively tall and we had already walked 81/2 miles before we started the real climb.

After an undulating start, it came as a shock to the legs to scale the steep bealach. Then you see the bizarre wall built up over the bealach. One question – why? But walking through the gap in the wall, a nice easy scramble with some incredible views down over the surrounding landscape leads to the summit. Beautiful!

It’s a long walk back but a good track takes you most of the way, past Glencanisp Lodge to the village – thankfully we were kindly given a lift just after the lodge, which saved us nearly two miles of tarmac walking at the end of a long, long day. One piece of advice, though – if you want to eat in Lochinver in the summer, book a table! We drove to Ullapool to get a well-deserved meal before heading back to the big bad city!

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