Liathach Traverse from Glen Torridon

Liathach rises directly from the road through Glen Torridon, and Walkhighlands records that many mountaineers and hillwalkers rate it Scotland’s finest mountain, challenged only by An Teallach and the Cuillin of Skye. It has two Munros, Spidean a’ Choire Lèith at 1,055m and Mullach an Rathain at 1,024m, as Wikipedia gives them, and it stands on the Torridon estate that the National Trust for Scotland has looked after since 1967, about three kilometres east of Torridon village by the A896.

The route Walkhighlands describes leaves the road beside the Allt an Doire Ghairbh and climbs steeply with some mild scrambling through the sandstone terraces to a cairn on the ridge, then follows the crest over two tops of Stob a’ Choire Liath Mhor to the summit cone of Spidean a’ Choire Lèith. West of the bealach beyond it the ridge breaks into the Am Fasarinen pinnacles. Walkhighlands is blunt about the choice: crossing them along the crest means a considerable amount of exposed scrambling, while the path on shelves below them on the south side avoids it but is, in its words, sensationally exposed and wet in places, where any slip would be fatal. Beyond the last pinnacle the ridge leads to Mullach an Rathain, and the descent from it is very steep earth and scree, through the terraces to the road two kilometres west of the start.

The traverse is 11.5km with 1,326m of ascent and eight to ten hours, according to Walkhighlands, which also records no public transport to the start. An experienced hillwalker who is happy on exposed ground and can pick a clear day will find it within reach, and Walkhighlands advises anyone unsure to hire a guide. A first Munro rules it out, as does any unease on narrow scrambling or a day with cloud on the tops, because the navigation off the summit cone is awkward in poor visibility. For the Torridon landscape without the ridge, the waymarked Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail is three to four hours on a built path, and An Teallach is the nearest comparable ridge, a longer day with a bypass path round its hardest scramble.