Highlights
- An Gearna is an unclassified 563m spot height on a shoulder of Ben More’s NW ridge, quite prominent when viewed from the road to the west. An anomalous well built historical cairn offers great views but surrounding rough terrain means few visit today. An Gearna and Ben More are separated by steep loose rough scree slopes, which is why the main Ben More path goes a different way.
Routes
1 summit • 13.1 km • 1,156 m gain • 6 hr 25 min
Latest summits
"Start 0820h + Finish 1440h = 6h20*, 13.7km, 1360m ascent
*Time includes some impromptu canyoning and 20mins backtracking A’ Chioch to retrieve my dropped phone, doh! The gpx log came off the phone so my actual distance and ascent were more than above.
Summits today:
BEINN FHADA NW TOP - Dodd, Highland Five
BEINN FHADA - Marilyn, Hump, Simm, Graham, Yeaman
A’ CHIOCH - Simm, Subhump, Corbett Top, Yeaman
BEN MORE - Munro
AN GEARNA - Unclassified spot height with large old cairn
Ultra early start for the long single track drive to catch the first Lochaline-Fishnish ferry at 0705h. Animal road hazards galore in the small hours; sheep fast asleep right in the middle of the road, loads of crossing deer, and even a startled pine marten. Did a clockwise circuit avoiding the standard Ben More path. A little ridge scrambling from A’ Chioch to Ben More then a rough pathless direct descent via rarely visited An Gearna, which somehow merits the biggest, best constructed cairn of today. Initial fast progress scree running down steep upper slopes was wiped out by a couple of km+ of rough clumpy ankle turning grass lower down. On the plus side I stumbled on the Gleann na Beinne Fada wa..." — davidb • Oct 14, 2020