Buachaille Etive Mòr by Coire na Tulaich

Buachaille Etive Mòr, “the great herdsman of Etive”, is the pyramid-shaped mountain that guards the eastern end of Glen Coe, and Walkhighlands calls the view of it from the A82 near Kinghouse one of the most photographed sights in Scotland. The mountain sits within the National Trust for Scotland’s Glencoe and Dalness estate, bought in 1935 largely with money raised by the Scottish Mountaineering Club under its chairman Percy Unna, whose conditions on the gift, since known as the Unna Principles, still shape how the Trust manages the ground.

The walk starts at the layby at Altnafeadh, several miles up the glen from Glencoe village, and crosses a footbridge to Lagangarbh, the locked Scottish Mountaineering Club hut that climbing folklore remembers as the place a young Dougal Haston once redecorated the interior in the style of Jackson Pollock, to the fury of the club’s committee. From there a rebuilt path climbs steadily into the corrie, then threads boulderfields well to the right of the central scree chute to reach the bealach; Walkhighlands flags this headwall as a notorious avalanche blackspot in winter conditions. The ridge above is unexpectedly broad and bouldery, narrowing only as it nears the cairn that marks the summit of Stob Dearg, the higher of the mountain’s two Munros, at 1,022m.

Many walkers turn back here for a straightforward there-and-back day. The fuller route continues south-west along the ridge over Stob na Doire to the second Munro, Stob na Bròige, at 956m and only promoted to Munro status in 1997, before descending north to join the constructed path through the Lairig Gartain back to the road. Walkhighlands gives the full ridge traverse as 13km and 1,110m of ascent, seven to nine hours. It suits a fit hillwalker comfortable on steep, loose ground for most of a day; it does not suit anyone wanting an easy summit, since both the ascent gully and the ridge involve scrambly, exposed sections. For the same Altnafeadh layby with a fraction of the height gain, the Devil’s Staircase climbs from it to the highest point on the West Highland Way.