This was really Claire and Stacy 's fault: They let me tag along on an awesome Munro-weekend last year, where, having only done two beforehand, I doubled my Munro-count in a day. When I told Carly about it and how that was probably not going to happen again, she took that as a personal challenge and found South Glen Shiel Ridge which has seven Munros and is doable in a day (even if you set out firmly believing there is an abundance of time and daylight). So Carly and I planned it and finally found a weekend we were both actually in Scotland, and then Rachel who had been wanting to come and visit for ages managed to free that same weekend as well, which meant we did University of Stirling parkrun on the way up.
Stirling RD has also run at Leinpfad parkrun in Merzig (the one I founded)
We hiked the ridge on Sunday and my Munro-count went from five to twelve in a day. The lovely guys who gave us a lift to the start (within three minutes of standing by the road with our sign), one of whom the first person I’ve met who has done all 282 Munros, promptly informed me that I would be able to double my number again if I did the Black Cuillin Ridge – I just checked though and it contains ‘only’ eleven Munros so I think my doubling-challenge has come to an end.
The weather was perfect and the views amazing, we managed to collect a fourth hiking companion for the third and fourth Munro in Meg who had had a bad experience with a guide the day before and wasn’t confident carrying on by herself – it was lovely to see her complete the ridge. There was an abundance of snacks and laughter as well, some very fun scrambling and a very cool crow. My less-than-ideal boots held up, the gorse by our camping spot smelled amazing, and there were three cuckoos competing for airtime day and night.
The light faded fairly soon after we got down, so I sat in the stream in the dark for my recovery dip, which was magical. Needless to say, we had Cullen Skink for lunch at The Green Welly Stop both on the way there and back : D Thank you, Carly and Rae, I’m pretty sure weekends like this are the antidote to sitting, even when nothing's happening.
