Sgurr Mor

Statistics

Area: Knoydart to Glen Kingie

Munro: Sgurr Mor

Date walked: 13/05/2009

Time taken:4 hours

Distance: 16 km

Ascent: 976m

The Route

Introduction

Sgurr Mor is steep and rocky remote Munro with quite a long hike to get to from whichever direction you approach it. However with good conditions it can easily be accessed via canoe or kayak across loch Quoich. This is the way I summited this Munro. Its a nice ridge walk over to the Corbett Sgurr an Fhurain and it is well worth including on this walk.

The Walk

I was on holiday with my nephew for a few days canoeing the lochs North of Fort William and trying to bag some Munros at the same time. On Monday I had a bad experience on Sgurr Fhuaran due to cramp but having suitably recovered by Wednesday we decided to canoe across Loch Quoich and climb Sgurr Mor.

We got up at 7am and by the time we had eaten breakfast, packed our kit and climbed into our wetsuits it was 8am. We had stayed overnight in a campervan at one of the parking areas on the North shore and our plan was to enter the water from the rocky beach at Sheepfold. This is situated half way around the loch, across the bridge and 1km further along the road at the clearing next to the small wood. I had pitched my tent at this small clearing when I had first visited Loch Quoich 9 months previously.

According to my gps it was a distance of approximately 3.16km to canoe across the loch to our landing point, (98575, 00748), and with clam waters we canoed across in 35 mins. After a 20 minute change and dry off we were in our walking kit and heading off on our way up the hillside.

There is a stalkers path which we follow for about 1km and then we crossed the small burn and headed straight up Meall a Choire Charnaich. The ground was a bit rocky but nothing to worry about. We had checked the terrain through the binoculars and it looked like there may be a few crags to climb higher up but the early grassy under foot conditions were quite dry and soft. There was one hairy point when the grass narrowed around a large rock and we had to scramble over it. We then pretty much took a beeline to the summit of Sgurr Mor and arrived at the summit after an hour and a half walking.

After 20 minutes at the summit basking in the sunshine and taking some pictures, Ben Nevis could clearly be seen to the south, we set off for the Corbett Sgurr an Fhuarain. This was simply a small ridge walk, descending 300 metres and ascending 200 metres. After more photos we then head down a clear track to our Kayaks. The track zig zags as it descends and it was annoying running down it left then right lol so as we neared Meall a Choire Bhuidhe we decided to head straight down the grassy slope and join the path back to the canoes. This was a short bit of hairy running and quite steep but it was good fun.

We spent the next 20 minutes getting changed back into our wetsuit’s and packing our gear ready to head of back into the now foaming water. The wind had increased and there were now some quite large waves with foaming tops roaring down the length of the Loch. This made for a rather exciting return crossing of the Loch. All in all a novel way of bagging a Munro. Very enjoyable and restored my confidence after the problem I had two days before on Sgurr Fhuaran.