Cìr Mhòr and the Corbetts on Arran


The Majestic Cìr Mhòr
I’ve been meaning to get over to Arran for a long time. It’s home to Cìr Mhòr, a striking granite pinnacle and near-perfect cone from almost every angle — and I’ve been itching to climb it.


The journey up the M6 is worth it boss, for another trip on CalMac and a Scottish Island!

I packed up the van on Wednesday and made the long haul up the M6, ready to catch the ferry on Thursday morning. About a year ago I was on another of the Scottish islands, Rúm during a solar event and I had to rely on 2m with HF dead. That was really quite an enjoyable challenge and so in the days leading up to the trip, I decided to quickly throw together a super lightweight 100g Yagi and was keen to see how it would perform on 2m!


Yagi in action on goatfell

Goatfell GM/SI-006 :goat::goat::goat:

Thursday kicked off with the ferry from Troon. Given the time taken to get onto Arran I decided to head up Goatfell, the shortest of days I had planned. Besides a famous SOTA youtuber was after a complete.

But what a day to do it - full on sunshine, factor 30 made me wonder if the midges would be out - which is pretty rare for March! I chose a quieter route via the north summit, which required a little bit of scrambling when traversing across from North to the main summit.


The top was in the bag after a couple of hours

Ganite playground - Goatfell ridge from north to the main summit

At the summit, I set up the Yagi and got stuck in - managing an huge pile up of 31 contacts on 2m! I had promised @MM0EFI a complete on HF and kept him waiting a long time trying to manage all the chatter and calls on 2m. Rather chuffed with that result and great to hear so much activity on the band. I managed to catch Archie @GM4KNU/P on GM/CS-010, and after an extended stay on the summit, I managed to work him again on his next summit, GM/CS-041, just as I was thinking of the descent.

Cìr Mhòr GM/SI-011
Today was the day to bag Cìr Mhòr.


Cìr Mhòr Summit Cone

The approach was through Glen Sannox was stunning - what a fine glen. As I made my way up, Cìr Mhòr gradually came into view, looking more and more impressive with every step.


Glen Sannox

I’d planned an early start to hopefully coincide with some of the ES GM crew activating SOTA summits, but I had a classic slackers’ start, the ascent was very steep and this quickly threw my timing out the window. The climb up was relentless… and I wasn’t exactly moving fast.

But when I neared the summit, the views were incredible.


Not much room here - Cir Mor summit

The summit was rather short of space, - barely any room to operate. I somehow managed to wedge some guys between the rocks and got a wire up for HF. VHF was limited to a few contacts with the HT and rubber duck. Had fine S2S with @GM4ALX, @2M0RVZ and another (#3) with Archie @GM4KNU on GM/SS-156


Cir Mor

It was a short stay on top before heading off toward the next one.

Caisteal Abhail GM/SI-007


*Caisteal Abhail from Cir Mor, Witches step is the notch on the on the right ridge *

Caisteal Abhail has a giant Granite tor on the summit, a fortress that requires a short scramble to summit. What a great place with views out to sea and to Cìr Mhòr from what has to be its finest angle and one of the best views in Scotland! A further S2S with @GW4EKU in south wales and Archie (#4) on GM/SS-156 !


Caisteal Abhail Summit Tor

Witches Step
The descent of Caisteal Abhail involved a scramble of the Witches Step.


The Witches Step

Shadow and I have been over many scrambles in the highlands, so I consider us experienced. But I took one look at the Witches Step and decided it looked like an absolutely insane scramble. Just nuts. The crux which is meant to be a grade 3 scramble is an exposed slab with consequences not worth thinking about.


looking up from the Bealach - crux is the overhanging block on the front left!

So we took the bypass, a steep descent of 100m down a gully and then a decent scramble to get back up the ridge. I decided that the bypass needs a bypass! and at the end of it all, I needed a tripple…

Following this there was a rapid descent passing the Glen Sannox Barytes Mine and back to the start at beachhead of Glen Sannox.


Glen Sannox Barytes Mine - a good detour on the descent. Decided that the dead sheep, nevermind the 1m deep water was quite far enough

Beinn Bharrain GM/SI-027
Today was meant to be my “day off”, or at least an easier day - so I chose Beinn Bharrain with the plan of taking up the FT-857 and trying some 2m SSB. That said, Beinn Bharrain is still a fairly big granite-topped mountain on Arran, and after two big days previously, I was definitely feeling it!


Scottish Clag, the FT-857 and a bag of biltong in action

At the summit, I set up the 2m Yagi, fired up the 857, and started beaming north. To my surprise, once I actually stopped being an idiot, looked at the band plan and got onto the right frequency, I was immediately greeted by @GM4OAS Gordon in mallaig with a beautiful 59 signal - what a start! That was quickly followed by two operators in Stornoway. Incredible results !


Beaming north, weather not so good today

Even more impressive was a contact with the prolific @GM7PKT in Fort William, despite all the mountains between us - amazing probally aided by some aircraft scatter. To top it off, I managed to work Don @GW0PLP in Cardigan Bay, around 250 miles away. Just shows how fantastic 2m SSB can be!


Only 400km to @GW0PLP, what a result

I did put up HF after that, but the bands weren’t in great shape and I soon lost interest.

Huge thanks to @MM0EFI for the Yagi link and suggestion, and to IZ2UUF for the antenna design. Top bit of kit, simple to build, quick to deploy, and clearly gets great results! I’ll be uploading some 3D-printed parts to Printables soon to support the design.

Beinn Tarsuinn GM/SI-008 Final Corbett on Arran!
Beinn Tarsuinn was the final Corbett on Arran that I hadn’t yet bagged, so it was a must-do for my last day on the island.


Cir Mor and the witches step on the Beinn Tarsuinn ascent

The approach through Glen Rosa quickly pulls you into what feels like the heart of Arran, you can see the sea in multiple directions, which makes it all the more magical. For this activation, I decided to go light and only bring 2m gear, and it absolutely delivered: over 20 contacts in the log, including an incredible summit-to-summit with @GM0GAV Gavin way up in the far north of Scotland on Beinn Damh GM/WS-111, in the Torridon area! Beaming north on 2m really paid off again - the Yagi has been performing brilliantly.


2M Journey to Beinn Damh

Another highlight was yet another S2S with Archie on GM/SS-120 who, this year, really is proving to be a top bit of S2S kit! Managed to get a summit-to-summit with him on all six of my peaks during this trip. Brilliant to work him.


Clouds swirling over the summit today


More granite playgrounds

A special shout out to Jack @GM4COX who’s been chasing me on 2m throughout the past few days. Really pleased to get him a complete on Beinn Tarsuinn, especially fitting since he was the first person to activate it, 14 years ago!


waterfall on descent

A fantastic wee SOTA island, which i would recommend to anyone !


If anyone could tell me what this is an why it is in Glen Rosa !

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Tim

Great report and pictures!

Hopefully get my chases turned into completes next week.

Alan

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A great report Tim and thanks for activating Arran. I have been to and operated from their back in the 90’s a beautiful place. Thanks also for the 144mhz SSB QSO which was Vertical to Vertical because I no longer have a horizontal for that band, Tim kindly switched polarization for the attempt which was succesful from Aberporth IO72.

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Great to work you Alan, I’ll keep an eye out for next week on in Arran !

If you need any route suggestions, let me know !

Tim

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Great Tim! 2m working well for you. Superb photos too. :blush:

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It is the local alternative to Andy’s Anvil - Colin’s Caber with a special wheeled trolley to ease transport across the flat bits!

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I thought it was one of the old Haggis Mortars. You use it to fire a small explosive charge into the woods and you get a flash-bang and all the Haggis come running out the trees in to the nets you set up at the edge of the woods. Much quicker and faster than stalking them the traditional way.

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That’s a jolly fine report and SOTApedition Tim.

Some comments in no particular order:

Completes: There’s been a quite noticeable growth in activators in GM the last 2 years or so and this means many more chances to chase GM hills. Some of us old grey giffers who have been active playing SOTA for a long time (19 years in my case) are now getting the chance to chase and complete hills we did a long time back. I’ve completed Mount Blair, Lammington Hill and Dun Rig after a 17 year wait and Ben Ledi after 18 years in the last year. These are reasonably simple hills so completing the more involved and “exotic” and much less frequently activated on Arran is even more pleasing.

Off-centre Yagi: it’s such and obvious way of solving some of the issues with making a 2m Yagi you have to question why nobody thought of it before!

2m: well if it’s not line-of-sight it’s most likely going to be scatter of some kind. Unless it’s ducting or Es. and Es is just quite rare. Your QSO to Don is classic troposcatter with maybe some marine ducting at the ends as so much of the path is over salt water. Just a small amount of QRO and a beam makes such a difference to 2m. Of course GM3SEK set a 70cms world record on SSB with 100W to D41CV (4565km) in Cape Verde and a 2m FT8 record to the same station from 120km South East of you. So it shows the power of tropo over water with a bit of scatter. If only there were sufficient people active you can easily work 6 DXCC from there (GM,GD,GI,GW,EI,G) We definitely need a 2m SSB SOTA weekend organising… like when there may be Es about.

Dogs: I am envious your dog can scramble. Probably better at it than me. I was telling my XYL about it and she pointed out that our time-share dog used to be able to climb up the wall and then clear a fence when she was younger in her desperate attempts to catch the greys. (Not aliens but vermin squirrels). If the greys were daft enough to sit under the bird feeders she could burst out of the kitchen in a standing start and catch and kill them. She’s slowed a lot with age and barks at them now. The dog equivalent of “get orrf my land”. But still it must be extra special to have such a hound with you. Though Shadow does have a “you said treats, where’s my treat” expression in one of the photos.

Now Alan MM0VPM gets to go and complete them in a week or so and I get to chase him as he’s doing some 13cms from there. It’s LOS to my local SOTA hill too. Better still from the visit with Tom M1EYP last week, there’s no beasts in the field at the moment.

Good stuff all round.

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Great photos - what an excellent trip all helped by the (mostly) great weather! Peter Jackson could’ve filmed Lord the the Rings on Arran instead of flying all the way to New Zealand.

We have a family trip to Arran in the summer, hopefully I can negotiate some time to do some activating!

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I briefly heard you in Penicuik just south of Edinburgh. You were speaking to GM4KNU and briefly mentioned air craft scatter. Sadly my crap duct tape Yagi didn’t have the stuff to chase you.

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Glen Rosa to Glen Sannox is the route to do, especially if you’re short of time !

Via Beinn Tarsuinn GM/SI-008 , Cìr Mhòr GM/SI-011 , Caisteal Abhail GM/SI-007 and the Witches Step !

Looks great

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The Shadster is pretty good at scrambling. The previous spaniel, no chance. The most important aspect I’ve found is Shadows ability to actually just to sit and wait, when I tell him, no matter what. I mean staying put no matter what. That means I can just use the grab handle on his harness to get him up or down the worst obstacles, sometimes with a short leash. Incredibly he now just takes a look at a short scramble and he knows… time to wait without being told what to do…

He’s done some great ridges, the pinnacles on Liatach, Am Bastier, Forcan Ridge, Horns of Allign, and the most exposed of the lot…. Creag an Duine ridge on Seana Bhraigh.


Horns of Allign in the distance

He broke a dew claw boulder hoping on Liathach, that’s the only time I’ve had to rucksack him until he got his confidence back:

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Excellent. My Lora igate picked you up on APRS :grinning:

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Excellent Tim,

really like the Arran Corbetts also, great walking. Good to get a complete for Beinn Tarsuinn GM/SI-008, very good signal for that distance. I was just using Icom V86, 7w and half wave telescopic whip. I had a few other Qso’s on 2m also, quite unusual that I could have activated Beinn Damh GM/WS-111 on 2m FM with a handheld!

Agree that Glen Rosa is quite a long walk in, We did it from Brodick so a longish day doing Beinn Tarsuinn and Cir Mor. Straight to pub for food after!

73 Gavin
GM0GAV

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Superb report Tim! Thanks for sharing the photos and details of your adventures!

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Now there’s a perfect story for the date!

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How convenient. Like me, you review sotl.as before choosing your destination?

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Yes, plenty of future Scotland holiday destinations on the list :sweat_smile:

Seems like you need some new glasses:


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I always was a secret POTA guy.

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I’ve just worked Alan MM0VPM on Goat Fell for an S2S on 13cms. 59 each way for a true LOS path at 105km. He’d worked 3 including me and was trying to pull the 4th out of the noise to qualify on 13cms. Back home for a coffee before I nip out to work him (hopefully) on Cir Mhor as well as Tom/Jimmy somewhere in the borders.

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