Beinn Talaidh

11 April 2010.

Participants - Just me
Where - Beinn Talaidh, 761m/2,499', Graham, Map 49, NM 625347

Beinn Talaidh (hill of the view) used to be the smallest Corbett but after resurveying it became one of the highest Grahams. Whatever, it is a fine hill well worth climbing. This is a view from near Salen...

I caught the 9.50 ferry from Oban to Craignure. I am a real fan of the CalMac ferries- here is the ferry, the Isle of Mull leaving Craignure on its return trip.....

But for me it was a short drive down the Bunessan road to the foot of the south ridge of Beinn Talaidh.....

And yes, it is as steep as it looks! There is lots of parking at the start of the track that runs up the glen to the east of the hill and I was glad to see that the trees were not as extensive as the map suggests. I had only gone 50 yards from the car when I spotted two golden eagles circling above the hill and then lower down an even bigger bird- a white-tailed eagle. This is the largest bird of prey in Europe; it was wiped out after centuries of persecution but reintroduced to western Scotland in the 1970's after an absence of almost 70 years. Mull is a particularly good place to see both eagle species, in fact, I saw a total of 6 golden eagles during the few days that I spent there.

Anyway back to Beinn Talaidh..... It was steep and it was a hot day and I was glad to have some respite at around the 400m height where the angle eased and the ridge became more defined.....

Shortly after that, I got my first view of Ben More to the west, still with a few patches of snow on it.....

After about 2 hours toil, I reached the trig and cairn.....

where I was mightly glad to sit down and take in the views. To the east was the Corbett of Dun do Gaoithe which was also on my list of wanted hills for the week if the weather held.....

and of course Ben More which wasn't on my list this trip.....

Ben Talaidh is another of those hills that has aircraft wreckage on it, in this case, a Dakota KK194 which crashed on 1 February 1945. I found a book about the crash in a shop in Tobermory and bought it to learn more about the incident, which was remarkable in that 5 out of the 8 people on board survived.

The hill stats are 4 miles, 650m of ascent, taking 4 hours and 10 minutes car to car.