Buchaille Etive Beag

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The 'Little Shepherd of Etive' is a smaller mountain than it's large brother, but has the honour of lying on the watershed between the Etive and the Coe. In the 1997 revision of Munros, Stob Coire Raineach was promoted so I'm sure it has been seeing lots of Munroists returning to keep their lists 'compleat' (sic).

This is a relatively small mountain with a simple 'there and back' ascent, but the fantastic October weather when I visited turned it into a magical day. I followed the route given in the SMC book which consists of a boggy walk across the foot of the mountain followed by a steep section to the Col between the two tops and finally a splendid walk along the ridge to the main southern summit. The view down Loch Etive from here is wonderful, and to the north the high mountains of Lochaber were bathed in sunlight with a wreath of thin cloud at about 3,500'. The quality of light was remarkable, though I doubt my scanner will do it justice when I sort out the photos. I later saw some wonderful images taken by Alex Gillespie probably on the same day - the light and clouds had tempted him out as well.