Backing a winner
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THERE are two thoroughbreds in north Sutherland I’d been yearning to climb for years. But it’s a long way up to Durness and I’d never managed to get there until finally my mountaineering club arranged a meet. With the scene set I’d pretty much decided beforehand that Arkle would be the target, with Foinaven left to another day.
Named after the mountain, Arkle the racehorse was a class apart. He won 22 of his 26 steeplechases between November 1962 and December 1966, when his career came to a juddering halt with a broken hoof in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park.
So a fine horse, and just as fine a mountain. Arkle’s shattered quartzite screes look impressive across Loch Stack and there’s a bit of excitement in store too, with a narrow rocky ridge to cross to reach the summit. Starting from the car park at the south end of the loch, we used bikes to make short work of the first couple of kilometres. The bikes were left at a small forestry plantation under the mountain’s south ridge where two giant boulders act like a portal for the delights to come.
Out of the plantation the track steepens markedly, winding up to more level ground as it weaves its way round Arkle, above the Allt Horn.
There’s more than one way up from here, but whichever line you take the ground is rough, with no well-defined path to rely on.
Mountaineering club companion Fiona and I left the track after it crossed two burns and headed up in the general direction of the intriguingly named Lochan na Faoileige.
Trying to stay on rock, rather than tussocky grass as far as possible, meant upward progress was slightly easier.
Higher up we crossed the bed of the burn issuing from the loch, then made for the top of Meall Aonghais at 581 metres.
Veering left, we continued climbing towards Arkle’s eastern summit at 758 metres, but not before a heavy shower brought in on the wind forced us to don waterproofs.
At the cairn the mist cleared intermittently to give views of the complex massif of Foinaven, which also gave its name to a racehorse – the 1967 Grand National winner.
The best of Arkle was yet in store. Below it looks like a great scoop has been gouged out of the mountain – the corrie of Am Bathaich.
To get round it and reach the summit involves a steepish descent down a rocky path, then a climb back up to a narrowing in the ridge.
Hands have to be used to steady the way but there’s no real difficulty. One section is composed of large blocks split by cracks, resembling the clints and grykes of limestone pavements such as those seen in Yorkshire.
Broader ground ends in the top of this stunning Corbett at 787 metres.
It’s possible to descend to the north-west down Sail Mhor to reach a stalkers’ path leading to Loch Stack Lodge. But that makes the logistics of reaching the start point more complex. As most people do, we reversed our ascent route to get back to the bikes.
