The bagging year started and finished with breakfast in Largs. In January, after the mist had cleared, I had a stroll up Blaeloch Hill, and in December a fantastic winter's day on wee Cumbrae; not bad to finish on the Hill of Hills. In between, 2010 was a year with many highlights.
In February I was bagging Grahams in soft snow with Chris Watson, having a boat ride around Bass Rock but failing to land, and driving to Torridon to find that only Mat Webster, the hostel warden, had made it through the snow to the Irvine Butterfield memorial weekend. Annoyingly, I missed the rearranged weekend in December because of the snowy conditions.
In March I was in deep snow again in the Angus glens, and in April I failed to complete the Mull Grahams because of poor weather. A week in May was well spent in Lairg with Alan Dawson and Eric Young. Apart from the odd hill, some time was spent devising new lists, while Eric was bagging lodges. Skye and Raasay were completed before the AGM in Ullapool.
Iain Brown, Eric Young and Ben Griam Beg (photo: Alan Dawson)
Michael Earnshaw had organised a trip to the Bishop Isles for July, but the wind and rain were horrendous when we arrived in Castlebay. We arranged to meet the boatman at 3pm the next day to discuss the chances of the boat sailing at all. One of the party, Fraser Mckie, was heading for Eriskay when a stranger he was giving a lift to told him about the meeting with the boatman. He turned around and fortunately arrived just in time. The weather had improved dramatically so it was decided to go for all the five islands. We set off at 3.15pm and returned to Castlebay at 11.35pm, just as it was getting dark (CW: So much for the calm and solitude of the Hebridean islands).
Fraser turned out to be a bagger with a boat, so we arranged to meet on the following Monday on Harris and he conveyed us across to Taransay. Whilst we were climbing Beinn Ra, the wind and swell increased greatly, which led to an exciting 3km crossing back to Horgabost beach. I was impressed by just how seaworthy a small rubber dinghy can be but, unfortunately, the sea was just too rough to risk going across to Scarp.
In the autumn I made two visits to the Cowal peninsula, which could be summed up as 'rain, trees and mist'. It was quite a relief to complete section 19C. In November a spell of good winter weather led to some fine walking with Tony Rogers, to the south of Loch Voil, and Eric Young made a rare visit to Wales for a thrash up Pen y Garn-goch.
