Meall Onfhaidh and the Harry Potter train

25 May 2010.

Participants - Me and Steven
Where - Meall Onfhaidh, 681m/2,234', Graham, Map 41, NN 010840

 I had been to the Fort William area on many occasions but had never walked up Glen Suileag and both the Grahams on the west side of that glen were new to me. Meall Onfhaidh, apparently meaning hill of fury, looked as though it would be the better of the two so that was the one we went for. The estate seemed to be very walker friendly and there was a good car park off the loop road at Fassfern. The first couple of miles was through a mainly birch forest and it was very pleasant walking. Here is the first view of Meal Onfhaidh through the trees.....

We were not alone! We came across this chap on the path- at least I think it is a chap- how do you tell the sex of a Slow Worm?.....

We got a better view of the hill from where we left the forest.....

after which the path descended to the river to cross it by a bridge near to the old house at Glensulaig before rising again to a col between our hill and the Corbett of Meall a'Phubill. We left the path here and took to the long east slope of the hill where we found a rough vehicle track which greatly assisted progress. The cairn was of course at the furthest away point. Here I am at the cairn; behind me is the Munro, Gulvain.....

There were also good views to the Ardgour hills.....

and to Ben Nevis..... 

Rather than go the long route back down the east ridge, we dropped off the hill in a general southerly direction; it was steep but got us down quickly and we rejoined the path at the edge of the forest. I stopped at a stream to have a drink and was immediately attacked by midges, the first sighting of them this season. Possibly more serious was the fact that I picked up a number of ticks during the course of the day, there seem to be a lot about this year. I had hoped that the severe winter might have substantially reduced the numbers of midges, ticks, clegs etc but the opposite seems to have happened. This walk was about 9 miles and as the start was almost at sea level we must have climbed almost all of its 681m of ascent. It took us 6 hours.

If you're in the area, it's worthwhile going to Glenfinnan to watch the steam train crossing the viaduct- the train and location used in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and featured in a number of other films. We went on the day following our walk. The viaduct has 21 arches and was built between 1897 and 1901.