Long live such autumns: clear skies, frost-cold rock and an orange-filtered low sun. Finally the bouldering season seems to have kicked into gear... I've been projecting at Dumby before the sudden sunsets above Langbank on the other side of the Clyde, and enjoying the pseudo-grit of Craigmaddie higher up on the moors for a change of geology. It seems everyone else is burrowing into their projects and enjoying what free time can be stolen in the shortening days. A full afternoon at Dumby went by in stop-motion oblivion as the tide crept up to the sea boulder from a low tide... no better way to dissolve the stress of deadlines and office life.
Viaduct and Beinn Dorain Once you cross the bealach under Beinn Odhar north of Tyndrum, the shapely peak of Beinn Dòrain is a visual fanfare to the Highlands. The mountain and its environs are richly detailed in the poet Duncan Ban MacIntyre’s poem Moladh Beinn Dòbhrain (‘In Praise of Beinn Dòrain’). [i] Its symmetrical convexity, deeply gullied flanks like pencil sketch-marks, and stern domed summit, make this a moment to instinctively reach for the camera. It is a steep but invigorating mountain to walk, which is more leisurely explored from its eastern corries, though the traditional ascent from Bridge of Orchy, up to the toothed ‘Am Fiachlach’ ridge quickly brings fine views from the heart of the Central Highlands, encompassing Cruachan in the west to Lawers in the east and the Mamores to the north. If you were set the task to name the features and character of this mountain, before a Gaelic toponymy, you may have come up with a similar voc...