Another couple of the mountains of my childhood: Ben Killilan and the wonderfully (if unpronouncably) named Sgùman Còinntich. These in fact turned out not to be the mountain that was visible, neatly framed between two slopes, directly out the front of our house, which I had been wondering about climbing them for years; in fact, after some careful work with Google Maps afterwards, these were the mountains next to that one. Yes, I climbed the wrong mountain. The one I was intending to climb was actually Faochaig, which is much harder to get to. But never mind…

The reality turns out to be, as is usual for Scotland, mostly wading through swamp. The ascent was only about 900m in an 19km walk, but a lot of that was cross country through trackless moor. The top of Sgùman Còinntich was rocky and dry and had some fun scrambling but the traverse to Ben Killilan was a bit of a slog. The descent down the back of the mountain was slow and squidgy and I did put my foot down a hole, but luckily didn’t break anything.

Route here.