Taking advantage of staying in Achnashellach to head up into Coire Lair and re-climb the Munro of Beinn Liath Mhor

Date: 16th September 2026
Distance: 15.94km
Ascent: 1168m
Time: 6.1hrs
Hills: Beinn Liath Mhor (Munro (926m)) Weather: Low cloud and mist with increasing rain
Route: View on OS Maps

Back in early 2010 I did a crazy winter's hillwalking day, driving across from Aberdeen to Strath Carron on the west coast, climbing a Munro, and then driving back the same day. Door-to-door was probably somewhere in the region of 12 or 13 hours. Today's Munro was the same one, but the before and after was somewhat different as we were staying in Achnashellach, on the access road to the station up which I would have walked 16 years ago...

The weather for the whole week was fairly dismal but Wednesday had forecasted a slight improvement through the early part of the day, with more rain blowing in by mid-afternoon. I hoped to take advantage of this window so headed off around 9am with scraps of blue sky appearing overhead and the lower hills clear for the first time in a couple of days.

I walked up to the station and crossed the tracks and then headed up the hill to a point at which the track forks, one way heading left to Coire Lair and the other right towards the Coulin Pass. I took the left track and soon rounded the corner where the impressive cliffs of Fuar Tholl could be seen rising above the pleasant thread of pines that lines the River Lair.

On my last visit I'd missed the small path which runs down to the riverbank and through a gate in the deer fence. Since then a sign now clearly points the way to this riverside path and after threading through the trees I climbed up the good path to reach Coire Lair itself. There was some sunshine about and it seemed like the mist might be lifting from the hills.

As I reached the point where the Fuar Tholl track leaves the main path a shower blew through and there was a brief rainbow spanning the coire. Unfortunately Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor continued to be shrouded in cloud which was moving through but stubbornly refusing to lift.

I followed the coire path along to the next junction where I forked right, heading now for the eastern end of Beinn Liath Mhor. I'd previously done this route the other way round, ending with this steep descent which had seemed ok with compacted late winter snow. Now though there was a clear path that zig-zagged up the slope and soon had me at the point where I disappeared into the cloud. The path was easy to follow, even through bands of shattered quartzite and after stopping to observe a family of ptarmigan I arrived at the far eastern top to a complete lack of views.

There is a good wind shelter here and I took advnatage to get out of the cold mist and eat a snack. Checking the weather it didn't look like there was going to be much of an improvement sadly. I knew this was a spectacular ridge in a wonderful part of the country and was saddened to be missing out on the views. Nevertheless it was a joy to be out and enjoying the hills.

The ridge soon narrows and has a couple of scrambly bumps along its course. I negotiated these easily enough, crossing a narrow bealach and then rising to the middle top.

The cloud thinned at times, offering tantalising glimpse of the ground below the hill, but sadly a true clearing never materialised. From the middle top there was another descent that involved an easy scrmable down a rocky step, before the ridge rose back up to a final quartzite arete. This led in short time to the summit of the Munro itself.

There is no weather shelter here but the cairn is substantial enough to wedge yourself behind and out of the wind. I decided to settle in here for a half hour or so and see if that promised brightening around midday would appear.... Despite eating my lunch and mooching about the cloud continued to sit stubbornly over the hills and the wind blew chill. With no sign of any change I eventually decided to head off.

In mist the descent west from Beinn Liath Mhor down to the head of Coire Lair is interesting. I followed a clear path most of the way but at some point large slabs of granite needed to be traversed and it was only spotting a small cairn that got me to the point where there is a steep descent down a gulley to get to an intermediate lochan below the southern top. From here the path was easier to follow as it contoured around the top and then dropped more steeply down to reach the lochan at the head of Coire Lair.

As I got below about 700m I finally got back below the cloud and had a slight improvement in the views. The lochan was a cold and somewhat damp place and I didn't hang around too long. The clear path descends down into Coire Lair with the dark shoulder of Sgorr Ruadh to the right and the mist-shrouded slopes of Beinn Liath Mhor to the left.

I made my way downhill, occasionally having to draw my hood up against wind-driven rain that was never heavy but did succeed in soaking my waterproofs.

The burn was a nice accompaniament and above me the cloud occasionally seemed to thin but never gave me much of a view of the encircling hills.

I rounded the corner of Raeburn's buttress on Sgorr Ruadh and followed the track as it wound along the northern side of Coire Lair. Eventually Loch Coire Lair appeared below the misty slopes of Fuar Tholl. It was another quiet and lonely stretch of water on this grey day.

It took about an hour to get down the full length of the coire, eventually reaching the cairn where I had paused in the morning and split off towards Beinn Liath Mhor. The views were no better and the rain had continued off and on so after a brief pause I retraced my steps down towards Achnashellach.

The views were a little more expansive as I lost height although rain continued to be blown through on a stiffening westerly wind. I was glad to be getting out of the hills before it got too wild.

Back besides the river the day felt quite different - it was much milder and there was bird song and the rush of the water. It was a very pleasant way to end an otherwise slightly uninspiring day in the northwest.