Reasonable forecast, so we headed up to Goat Fell. We were shown the way to the path by a local dog-walker. On the way we passed a tame heron called Old Bill, who did not seem disturbed by the dog. The path was well graded and well maintained – not surprising as it seemed quite busy, including a good-sized German party. On the lower slopes we passed a stag which seemed fairly unconcerned by the passing walkers. Then on up the mountain, with ever-increasing views over the Clyde and Bute and beyond. For a while this became lost in a snow shower, which stopped before we reached the top. Goat is a bad adaptation of a Gaelic word so “Goat Fell” roughly translates to "Windy Hill”.
After a brief lunch near the top, we continued to North Goat Fell. This is the more dramatic side of the mountain, and contained no other walkers. We then went down a long way onto The Saddle, and then decided that we had enough energy to try Cir Mhor (pron: Keer Vor). All of these mountains are granite, some of it really solid, some rather crumbly, some eroded into strange shapes and some so rough it was painful to use as handholds. The granite does not make great shapes for holding on to, but this route did not seem to require much scrambling, so that was not a problem. Anyway Cir Mhor was a steep and tiring climb up and I was glad when we started to descend the path down towards Glen Rosa. Walking down the Glen took ages, but was on another good path. Near the bottom we found some more deer which were fairly careless of our presence.
Track of the walk, totalling 22.6 km
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| Ridge to North Goat Fell |
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| Cir Mhor |
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| Deer |
