Sounds dead tough; ‘I hiked the Ring of Steall at the weekend, how ’bout you?’. In reality, it was OK. It would have been even easier were I not to have fallen in a river at the very start of the day…

We had two cars and parked one at the end of the trail, driving the other to the start. This shaves off a fair chunk of relatively boring road walking at the end of a long day. I would recommend this if you can.

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Stage 1 – Getting past the rivers

Parked up in the Ford Explorer (shout out to my adventure car) and headed up the well made path to the Steall Falls. Here we chose to cross a wire bridge. We could have taken our shoes off and waded the river instead. If you don’t like wire bridges this could be an option for you. I didn’t want to get wet feet, and wanted to test my courage on the bridge. I don’t like heights, I don’t like wire bridges – I knew there was a ridge and some scrambling coming up later in the day and reasoned that if I couldn’t manage this bridge I would struggle later.

Bridge crossing a success, we then needed to ford the river anyway. At this point I was at the back and did not pay that much attention to how the others were crossing. It came to my turn and I put my feet on the stones.. suddenly I had slipped in, banged my knee and was floating off downstream on my back. I couldn’t believe it had happened. I was not the person in the river, it couldn’t be that one of our team had fallen this early, into a freezing river, with all their kit. Yep.

Long story short – I had stuff in my pack, in dry bags. I could change most of my layers aside from my trousers. I had single skin waterproofs which I used and safe to say my legs and bum were freezing and terribly uncomfortable all day.

Stage 2 – The four Munros of the day

Climb steadily up the first Munro An Gearanach (982 meters) which was a straightforward climb. I was also very keen to keep moving due to the river incident. As we got to the top, the weather started to close in and we lost the views.

We carried on to Stob Coire a’Chairn (981 meters) and the route required some scrambling (use of hands and feet) which was something that I am still learning and not that comfortable with. It was OK for me, as we were ascending. If we had been descending this direction I think I would have struggled as I have not learned how to downward scramble and the ‘going down on your bum’ approach would have been dangerous.

From here there is a grassy section with a few rises then a steeper final ascent to the next summit at Am Bodach the old man (1032 meters). We had clouds at every summit but did get a few views in between and the sun broke through.

The final section contains a stretch of exposed ridgeline called ‘The Devil’s Ridge’. Like The Ring of Steall didn’t already sound tough. I had been worried about this section of the trail. I knew now that I would also struggle to turn back as the scramble earlier on would be hard to do in reverse. There was only one way to go.

When we got to the section of it that really requires bravery and skill – only some of us went across. There is a detour / bypass path that runs to the left of the scramble section. Even this bypass path required a large step, some confidence and good use of hands and feet. Considering I had already fallen into a river, my confidence in my ability was low. I went first. I did it. I was totally fine. There would have been a risk of falling, and if I were to have fallen it would have likely been bad. Many other hikers / scramblers would have no problem with this section. I did it as a beginner, and I found it scary. Do-able. Scary.

Past that scramble bit, there was another shorter scramble which was totally fine when compared to what I had just done.. and then it was back to a path up to the final Munro of the day, Sgurr a’Mhaim (1099 meters).

Stage 3 – Back to the car

The return section is a long scree slope for the first part. The rock is loose and you can practice scree-sliding (not a technical term) where you dig your heels in a part walk part slide. I have since discovered this technique works on snow as well. you then reach a grassy plateau section before dropping down a steeper path back to the lower falls (where you would have left car number 1 if you had 2).

My knees were terribly sore and I was swearing softly to myself for the whole of this descent. Partly due to the massively increased distance all in one day, partly due to having bashed it in the river at the beginning. It was beautiful though.

Summary

A great circular walk. We did it in ‘summer conditions’ even though it was January – ie there was no snow or ice to make anything more tricky. Basic scrambling skills and a head for heights is advised. Good fitness is recommended, it is a long day, and hell on the knees if you have not built up to it.

If you think you may slip over in the river, just take your shoes off and wade across. That way you will remain dry and only have slightly wet cold feet for a very short time. I wish I had done this.

If you fancy watching my real tiny walk report video 👇 click on this snazzy image and it will transport you to Instagram.