Beinn Dearg is the 4th highest of the Torridon mountains

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...

 in the 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...

 of Scotland

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...

. Beinn Dearg offers all the typical features of a Torridon hill, with steeply terraced rocky sides dissected by near vertical gullies

Gully

A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a hillside. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to tens of metres in depth and width...

. The summit ridge is an airy crest that offers some easy scrambling

Scrambling

Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It is often distinguished from hillwalking by defining a scramble as a route where hands must be used in the ascent...

; alternatively this can be avoided by following a path that traverses the terraces on the southern side.

Unlike its higher neighbours, the hill just misses out on the magic height of 3,000 ft, and therefore lacks any peaks of 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...

 status. For this reason, if no other, it is climbed far less than the three major mountains surrounding it. In 2007, the Munro Society commissioned CMCR Ltd to survey Beinn Dearg in order to ascertain the precise height of the summit, and determine whether it might in fact be correctly categorised as a Munro. The summit was found to be 2.42 ft short http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6982110.stm.

Ascent

The most normal starting point for climbing Beinn Dearg is the car park at the foot of the Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil, which is also the normal start point for an ascent of Beinn Alligin

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Alligin one of the classic mountains of the Torridon region of Scotland, lying to the north of Loch Torridon, in the Highlands. The name Beinn Alligin is from the Scottish Gaelic, meaning Jewelled Hill...

. From here the river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 is followed until the confluence with the Allt à Bhealaich. This burn may be followed up to the low 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...

 or saddle between Beinn Dearg

Beinn Dearg

Beinn Dearg, meaning Red Mountain in Gaelic, is a common name, applied to several hills in different parts of Scotland:*Beinn Dearg – 1084 m Munro and Marilyn lying southeast of Ullapool...

 and Beinn Alligin

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Alligin one of the classic mountains of the Torridon region of Scotland, lying to the north of Loch Torridon, in the Highlands. The name Beinn Alligin is from the Scottish Gaelic, meaning Jewelled Hill...

, at which point the walker can strike upwards for the western end of the summit ridge.

Alternative routes of ascent may be made by continuing to follow the Abhainn Coire Mhic Nobuil under the south side of the hill. Two gullies offer routes to the summit ridge, either side of the subsidiary peak of Carn na Feòla at the eastern end of the 4 km long ridge. By combining two of the three routes described above one may complete a traverse of Beinn Dearg.

The summit offers excellent views of the well known surrounding peaks of Torridon.

External links

• Beinn Dearg (Torridon) is at coordinates 57.588762°N 5.521364°W