It was another sunny day with a forecast for it to be hot, but cooler (16 degrees C) at Munro level, so we made our target Mull’s only Munro. We drove the relatively short distance along the scenic coast road to the parking on the foreshore below Dhiseig. There were several cars already there but still plenty of space for us. There was a slight breeze at the start, and we headed up the “tourist” route, a track to Dhiseig, and then an initially grassy path which headed past waterfalls on Abhainn Dhiseig to a rickety stile in a fence, from where were followed a path through rough terrain. There were various parties spread out along the path, most faster than us, but some slower. The path narrowed to a crossing of Abhainn Dhiseig and then gently moved away from the stream to head up the ridge becoming quite barren with a few zig zags as we got close to the summit. One of the guide books had suggested that some “mild scrambling” was needed but we didn’t notice any!
Starting at Sea level
Vapour trail above Ben More
Nearly there: with Ulva and Eorsa in background
Summit ahead
The views from the summit were very good, although there was a distant haze with a little cloud over the Ross of Mull. The summit shelter and immediate surrounds were busy: we looked for a trig point but found no sign of one (we had noticed on an old map, but not on recent maps so guess if there was one it has long gone). We looked for somewhere to set up to be out of the way and headed slightly south from the summit. It was a little warm but a pleasant light breeze kept the midges away. Radio conditions were reasonably good, and this was the only hill on Mull where Caroline qualified the summit on both 2m and 70cms FM as well as 20m SSB. Martyn qualified it on 60m (just – only 4 contacts) and 40m. We both had 5 S2S including with Tom and Jimmy Read on Sark on 20m, and 2m FM S2Ses with Robin GM7PKT on SI-123 on Mull (definitely line of sight) and Derek 2E0MIX on Scafell Pike.
At the summit
At the summit
At the summit
Looking down Glen More
VHF station with Jura in distance
Both stations looking towards Ross of Mull
Zoomed into Jura
The descent roughly followed the ascent but we ended up crossing the stream a little lower down, and finding a more attractive path running closer to the stream to lead us back to the rickety stile. A really lovely but exhausting day on the hills.
Looking back at the summit on descent
Besides, I have yet to visit Iona.