Tyndrum

Glen Cononish to Glen Lochy

Sunday 16th November 1980

A late (8.30am) start, a diversion due to a blocked road on Lomondside, and driving rain on arrival at Tyndrum all conspired to modify plans for an assault on Ben Oss. Complex logistics placed a car in Glen Lochy while most of us festered in the caff until the drivers returned.

With no further excuses left, we plunged into the elements to walk through the hill pass below Beinn Laoigh.

the rain lashed walk through the hills

I remember occasionally lifting my head; mostly bowed in the teeth of the gale and rain, once when we lunched behind a wall at Cononish; once to see the huge cascade crashing down Eas Anie;

Eas Anie above Cononish

Again to admire the water white-streaking all over Beinn Laoigh's northeren flanks; and again when Alasdair and Chris Storie pursed voles which were swarming in the dead grasses at the col.

Matters did improve a little thereabouts, and there was a glimpse of steely Loch Awe before we splashed down the Eas Daimh's banks. The burn was a continuous strip of white water all the way down to the culmination of a lovely fall, the Eas Morag. It was quite uncross-able, below the point well upstream, where Ronnie did a Walter Raleigh act, standing mid-stream to hand Martha across. 'I'm no wetter' he said, on re-surfacing.

We used the railway bridge to cross, and then tramped down the line in renewed rain to the bridge over the Lochy River (at G.Ref. 229270) not marked on the OS maps, yet absolutely necessary to cross the spate.

I wonder if anyone was aware of Section 23,
Regulation of the Railways act 1868 (!)

Ten soggy bodies squeezed into Ron's Cortina; three more remained to be collected half an hour later to join the steamy mob in the Tyndrum cafe as darkness fell.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was driving home on a black wet, November night with a fading battery and all electrics failing on us.

Eric Scott