Walk of the Week: An Teallach

By Robin Howie
Published on 09/07/2012 00:00

SITUATED north of the magnificent wild and remote Letterewe and Fisherfield Forests, and south of Little Loch Broom, An Teallach is a complex mountain with two Munros, Bidein a’Ghlas Thuill and Sgurr Fiona highlighting the differing characteristics of the massif, and seven subsidiary Tops.

Teallach means “hearth, fireplace or blacksmith’s forge”; perhaps a reference to the spectacular dark-red sandstone spires and cliffs that form the south-east ridge of Sgurr Fiona and tower above the menacing Toll an Lochain, with its tautological loch. A contender for Scotland’s finest mountain outside Skye, An Teallach’s most notable feature is that south-east ridge with its pinnacles of weathered sandstone of which two form the awesome Tops of Corrag Bhuidhe and Lord Berkeley’s Seat – but are not covered in the following walk. However, Sgurr Fiona’s name could come from Fionn, “white or light-coloured”, a good description of the peak’s quartzite top.

By contrast, the narrow top of Bidein a’Ghlas Thuill, pinnacle of the grey-green hollow, above the impressive crags of Glas Tholl, is but the high point at the south-east end of an extensive 800m plateau of sandy sub-soil.

Sgurr Fiona’s promotion from Top to Munro status, in 1981, did not meet universal approval. The ascent from the dip between Bidein and Sgurr Fiona is only some 145m (476ft), climbed in less than 20 minutes, and for many An Teallach is seen as one mountain, on which only the highest point, 1062m/3484ft Bidein, should qualify.

But despite its three-metre height advantage, Bidein seems more like a subsidiary Top of Sgurr Fiona, rather than the other way round. It has fewer peaks and pinnacles and, being closer to the road, lacks the feeling of remoteness.