Wild camping and photography - Màm Sodhail

Outdoor adventure

2 May

Part of a Wild camping and photography series. (View more images from this Glen Affric backpacking trip in my portfolio)

A cloud inversion laps at the ridge leading out from Mam Sodhail to Sgùrr na Lapaich, above Glen Affric in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. — *The moon rises behind the ridge leading out from Mam Sodhail to Sgùrr na Lapaich*

As I’d packed for a weekend’s backpacking with a friend in November, in Glen Affric in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, I realised that I hadn’t missed the weight of a DSLR camera, especially on top of the 12kg of hillwalking and camping equipment I was planning to carry.

Throughout the summer season I’d been illustrating my outdoor activities with a light-weight Sony RX100 compact camera, photographing trail running routes in Edinburgh’s Pentland Hills plus some attempts I’d made on Tranter's round in Glen Nevis. It was a change therefore to be carrying a professional DSLR up and down hills again. The image quality and usability of my work models - a Nikon D810 in this case - is streets ahead compared to my Sony and I was banking on the photographic opportunities a favourable high pressure forecast, squeezed in between two periods of low, looked to offer. Old-school DSLRs and professional lenses however aren’t light and I was conscious I was adding an extra 2kg to the weight of my pack for a trip that we'd mapped out as 40km distance over two days, with 2100m ascent.

The weight penalty of professional camera equipment I felt was worth it on this occasion. Glen Affric is often referred to as one of Scotland’s most scenic glens and the Walk Highlands website describes two of the peaks we'd chosen for our backpacking trip - Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail - as the "highest mountains north of the Great Glen and spectacular viewpoints". Both mountains are Munros, two of the 282 Scottish peaks over 3,000ft high that are listed in Hugh Munro’s tables, with Mam Sodhail, or the ‘Hill of the Barns’, being the smaller of the two by just two metres, standing 1181m tall.

We’d started our trip the previous day at a car park in Glen Affric, camping c.6km from the car on what I imagined were the only two pieces of dry ground that day in Gleann nam Fiadh. The terrain was drier higher up and, in the morning, as we admired the golden colours of the landscape - it was abnormally autumnal weather for November - we ascended Coire Mhic Fhearchair and headed for Sròn Garbh and the rocky ridge that leads from Stob Coire Dhomhnuill onto Càrn Eige. From there we summited Beinn Fhionnlaidh and retraced our steps, our plan being to continue over Màm Sodhail towards another nearby Munro, An Socach, and camp on a bealach beneath that peak, ascending An Socach for our fourth Munro of the trip the following morning.

I distinctly recall standing beside Màm Sodhail's huge summit cairn, pondering the views Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail were said to offer. We couldn’t see much at all but neither of us were even remotely disappointed. Since lunchtime, a thick blanket of cloud had filled the glens beneath us, 360 degrees around. It stretched as far as our eyes could see - at least all the way to Fort William in one direction, almost 100km away. Camping above a cloud inversion is not something I’ll ever turn down and we easily made the decision to stop for the day, much earlier than planned, pitching our tents about 3.30pm as the sun started to dip towards the horizon. Settling in to take in the glorious view we had above the clouds, I thought of the many times I had walked and camped in poor weather. These were special moments indeed. (If it’s any consolation, on exiting our tents the following morning, we found ourselves to be completely within these clouds, with absolutely no views at all).

Getting there

For Glen Affric, head south out of Inverness on the A82 toward Drumnadrochit. Take the A831 towards Cannich and then continue south-west along Glen Affric to reach the car park at grid reference NH215242. For Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail, take the track through the woods which leads you first west and then north into Gleann nam Fiadh. Alternatively, drive further up Glen Affric and park at GR N201234, follow the track along the northern side of Loch Affric and ascend via Coire Leachavie.