Creise trail head at Clencoe Mountain Resort.
Route towards Meall a' Bhuiridh from top of ski-lift.
Route towards Creise from Meall a' Bhuiridh.
| Meall a' Bhuiridh &
Creise from Glencoe Mountain Resort Meall a' Bhuiridh Creise |
| Estimated net time | 4-5 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but the top of the ridge between Meall a' Bhuiridh and Creise, on the Creise side, is a little steep and you will use your hands for balance. | ||
| Drinking water | The route runs close to streams up to 800-900m. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route, but a little patchy on Meall A' Bhuirish's west ridge (June 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at the car park by Glencoe Mountain Resort. | ||
| Start height | 355 metres (if starting from the car park) | ||
| Vertical metres | 1130 metres for the roundtrip (if starting from the car park). | ||
| Trip distance | 10.2 km (if starting from the car park) | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Your starting point for this hike is the Glecoe Mountain Resort, found approximately 20 km (12 mi) east of Glencoe village along road A82, or 30 km (x mi) north of Tyndrum along road A82. From A82 drive up to the car park in front of the ski-centre.
Start your hike by following the path that runs more or less underneath the chair lift (or you can get the chair lift up to 680m). From the chair lift upper station follow the ski-centre service road 500 metres towards south-west, to its end. From here ascent up to the right (a little steep) and turn a little left to follow Meall a' Bhuiridh's north slopes towards the summit. If you walk quite far to the right (west) you will find a path that will take you through the scree and up to the summit cairn.
From Meall a' Bhuiridh's turn a little right and follow the path down the west/south-west ridge. This path will take you up the steep section below Creise's south ridge. The final ascent to the ridge might look difficult from below but is straight forward in summer; the level of difficulty is best described as "you will use your hands, but you don't really need to". Once up the steep section turn right and walk the final easy 700 metres across to the summit cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
We had had a very nice week in North Ballachullish and were due to start our journey back home this misty Saturday. Our flight out of Aberdeen was on Sunday morning so we had the whole day today to do something sensible. And the main activity was planned to be a hike somewhere in the Glencoe area. I was keen on hiking Bidean nam Bian, but with dense mist I decided to postpone this hike, yet again. Instead we drove up to the ski-centre above Glencoe and shortened the hike a little by getting a ride in the chair lift up to 680m. From here we did a slightly longer route than we had to, and then up to Meall a' Bhuiridh where we had minimal views.
At Meall a' Bhuiridh Elisabeth decided to relax a little and start her ascent, while Njål, Sigurd and I continued towards Creise. This was a nice ridge walk, but unfortunately quite misty. But things improved a little when we returned to Meall a' Bhuiridh so at least we got the chance to see what the ridge looked like.
Back down at the top of the chair lift Sigurd and me decided to walk down, which turned out to be a race with Elisabeth and Njål up in the lift. But the lift was relatively slow so we arrived back down well ahead of them.
After a change of clothes we hit the road and drove up to our hotel in Aberdeen.