An Ruadh-stac is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 mountain situated in the Wester Ross

Wester Ross

is a western area of Ross and Cromarty in Scotland, notably containing the villages on the west coast such as:* Lochcarron* Applecross* Shieldaig* Torridon* Kinlochewe * * * Aultbea* Laide* Ullapool* Achiltibuie...

 region of the Highland

Highland (council area)

Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

 council area. It is located 26 km north east of Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village on the northwest coast of Scotland, 63 miles west of Inverness. It is located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye...

.

Overview

An Ruadh-stac reaches a height of 892 metres (2926 feet) making it the 30th highest Corbett, it also qualifies as a Marilyn

Marilyn (hill)

A Marilyn is a mountain or hill in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland or Isle of Man with a relative height of at least 150 metres , regardless of absolute height or other merit...

. It is a distinguished looking mountain which is prominent in views because of its light grey coloured quartzite

Quartzite

Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...

 rocks, it stands in the ancient Coulin hunting forest, an area of rough mountainous country between Glen Carron

River Carron, Wester Ross

River Carron is a river in Wester Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland. The river rises in Ledgowan Forest. It gathers its head-streams through Carron Bog, then enters Loch Scaven and flows out from there....

 and Glen Torridon

Torridon Hills

The Torridon Hills surround Torridon village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is usually applied to the mountains to the north of Glen Torridon...

. The mountain is situated four km from the nearest public road but there are good stalkers paths within the deer forest which aid access to the foot of the mountain. An Ruadh-stac is closely associated with the adjoining Munro

Munro

A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet , who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain...

 of Maol Cheann-dearg

Maol Cheann-dearg

Maol Cheann-dearg is a Scottish Mountain situated between Upper Loch Torridon and Loch Carron, in the Coulags deer forest in Wester Ross, Highland region...

 with which it is often climbed.

The mountains Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....

 name translates as the Red Stack or Red Conical Hill, this is slightly confusing and misleading as it is invariably seen as a light grey hill due to its quartzite rocks. Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown M.B.E. is a professional writer, lecturer and photographer specialising in mountain and outdoor topics. He is best known for his walking exploits in the Scottish Highlands, having completed multiple rounds of the Munros and being the first person to walk all the Munros in a single trip...

 comments on the name thus: “An Ruadh-stac is a grey hill, sometimes touched white by the sun but never red like its ruddy, bald headed neighbour (Maol Cheann-dearg).”

Geography

An Ruadh-stac has the classic triangular mountain shape formed by three steep ridges, the NE ridge is the least steep and the one usually used for ascent and descent by walkers. This ridge drops to the 600 metre high Bealach

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 a’ Choire Ghairbh which links the mountain to Maol Cheann-dearg which stands two km to the north across Coire

Cirque

Cirque may refer to:* Cirque, a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , an album by Biosphere* Cirque Corporation, a company that makes touchpads...

 an Ruidh Staic. The south ridge leads over the subsidiary top of Ruadh Stach Beag (758 metres) before descending towards Glen Carron over rough, boggy ground. The north and west side of the mountain are ringed by steep crags making the NW ridge out of bounds for walkers.

The mountains finest geographical feature is the north face a precipitous rock wall which shows off the mountains layered geology when viewed from a distance. These crags rise over 400 metres from the shore of Loch Coire an Ruaidh-staic and have received the attention of rock climbers with Tom Patey

Tom Patey

Tom Patey was a Scottish climber, mountaineer and writer. Although he was a leading Scottish climber of his day, particularly excelling on winter routes, he his probably best known for his humorous songs and prose about climbing, many of which were published posthumously in the collection One...

 and Chris Bonington

Chris Bonington

Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest and the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna.-Early life and expeditions:Educated at University College School in...

 pioneering a 180 metre long route in 1960.

The lower slopes on the SE side of the mountain are composed of ice polished slabs dotted with long flowing mounds of debris, this is fluted moraine

Moraine

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

, deposited from a glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

, the mounds are less than four metres in height but up to 400 metres in length. The mountains visual attraction is further added to by the presence of four small loch

Loch

Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could also be called a firth, fjord, estuary, strait or bay...

s around its NE flanks, they are all on different levels. One of these lochs, Loch a’ Mhadaidh Ruadh, is rated as one of the most beautiful in the Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

, it is located on the Bealach a’ Choire Ghairbh and is enclosed by walls of quartzite rock, giving it an almost artificial look. All drainage from the mountain makes the short journey to the west coast of Scotland, either going directly west to Upper Loch Torridon

Loch Torridon

Loch Torridon is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland in the Northwest Highlands. The loch was created by glacial processes and is in total around 15 miles long. It has two sections: Upper Loch Torridon to landward, east of Rubha na h-Airde Ghlaise, at which point it joins Loch Sheildaig;...

 or SE to Glen Carron and then Loch Carron.

Ascents and view

The summit of An Ruadh-stac is a long way from any road but the closest starting point is on the A890 road at Coulags in Glen Carron at grid reference . This route follows the footpath north up the valley of the Fionn-abhainn before crossing the river and going west and climbing up to the Bealach a’ Choire Ghairbh. From the bealach it is a tough 340 metre climb up rough slopes of scree

Scree

Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...

 and slabby rock to the summit. It is possible to climb the mountain by a longer route from Glen Torridon starting from Annat at .

The summit is littered with quartzite boulders with the highest point marked by a cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

 of rocks and gives a view which includes the Skye Cuillin

Cuillin

This article is about the Cuillin of Skye. See Rùm for the Cuillin of Rùm.The Cuillin are a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The true Cuillin are also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish them from the Red Hills across Glen Sligachan...

 to the SW, Upper Loch Torridon appears next to Beinn Damh

Beinn Damh

Beinn Damh is a Scottish mountain situated in the wild mountainous area between Upper Loch Torridon and Glen Carron, 25 kilometres north northeast of Kyle of Lochalsh...

to the NW while the Torridon hills are further round to the north. By exploring the summit plateau further it is possible to look 1000 feet down the cliffs of the north face to Loch Coire an Ruaidh-staic.