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Ben Loyal (summit only) from Ribigill near Tongue.

Ben Loyal (summit only) from Ribigill near Tongue.

Start/Finish

Small car park about 100 m down the road to Ribigill. From the obvious hairpin bend in Tongue, leave the main road and go south past the bank and hotel. There is a nice shop and cafe a little further down. After about 1.5 miles, just before a right hand bend, the private road to Ribigill forks off left with the “car park” about 100 m down this road.

Distance/Time

13 km.    About 5 – 6 hours.

Peaks

Ben Loyal (An Caisteal), 764 m, NC 578 488.    OS map 10: Strathnaver.

Introduction

From a distance Ben Loyal is a very distinctive mountain with its characteristic peaks. Close up it is not quite so nice. The approach can be quite boggy until one is on the crest. The main path along the crest seems to by pass the summit so be careful in mist. This route takes the easiest route to the summit and returns the same way.

Route

(1) Continue down the private road which forks left at a modern house. Reach the abandoned farm at Ribigill and pass between the house and barns to reach a grassy track. Follow this. When it splits at the end of the wall, take the left fork (main track) and continue to a deer fence. Continue on the track which now has some quite boggy sections necessitating short detours. Reach the stream just before the ruin at Cunside and cross a ford quite easily unless there has been heavy rain. Once across, the track goes left to Cunside but a path goes on ahead. Follow this up, boggy in places, until it joins a very rough old track which goes left. Follow this track/path which traverses well below the distinctive pointed peak of Sgor Chaonasaid. Reach the flatter ground to the N of Loch na Craige Riabhaich where the path starts to pick its way up to the crest between Sgor Chaonasaid and Sgor a' Bhatain. Higher up, the path becomes very faint so just pick a way up to the crest. Follow the crest, roughly S, bypassing Sgor a' Bhatain easily on its E side. Ascend S up the easy angled, mainly grassy, N ridge of An Caisteal. Higher up, a path appears which keeps to the W of the crest. The path passes below a small cliff (more of a vertical slab) with huge boulders just before it. To the left of the cliff, there is a short gully, further to the left is an easy path which cuts back slightly and gains the crest again. Some large very easy angled slabs are crossed just before the stone trig point is reached which is the summit of Ben Loyal, 764 m. There may be higher points close by so it is worth visiting them just in case one of them is the actual summit!

(2) Retrace the outward route.

Notes

(a) This walk took place on 17th June, 2017, and about 20 years earlier when a full traverse was completed.

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