The impact generated when sighting Buachaille Etive Mor is profound and permanent. It never wanes, however many times the traveller witnesses its rearing prow surging from the fringe of Rannoch Moor’s barren expanse. Nature has fashioned a mountain from a child’s sketchbook, whose accessibility to the passing motorist has bestowed upon it a Hollywood presence, and one that is wholly deserved as the ‘Buachaille’, to use its familiar stage name, warrants every inch of its celebrity.

The mountain was well-known to local clans who named it the ‘Great Herdsman of Etive’ perhaps as a reference to its bulk corralling their cattle into the glen. The fearsome buttresses would have correspondingly channelled the fleeing clansmen escaping the massacre of Glencoe in February 1692, desperately battling through deep snow in their nightclothes. The conditions had delayed British troops from closing this passage, although many of those in flight succumbed to exposure. Such history is palpable in the atmosphere of Glencoe.

As an automotive travel writer, the Buachaille has frequently provided a stunning backdrop for photography

The Buachaille is considered a mountain of Glencoe, although it belongs more to Glen Etive (hence its name). Arriving from the south, one is certainly shepherded towards Glencoe by its presence, although the true head of the head of the glen lies at the watershed a mile or more beyond. All the rains that fall on the Buachaille drain into Glen Etive, not Glencoe. Nevertheless, the mountain is connected to the western Glencoe massif by the pass of the Lairig Gartain, which leads onto Buachaille Etive Beag. Geologically too the Buachaille belongs to Glencoe. This is a classic, famed area of British geology, particularly in the field of volcanology, being a natural laboratory for the study of a Caldera volcanic collapse. Analysis here in the early 1900s influenced the processes of volcanological studies thereafter.

The map can be zoomed in or out to change the scale

The tourist erroneously considers Buachaille Etive Mor to be merely the shapely pyramid that rises abruptly from the iconic viewpoint around the upper reaches of Glen Etive and the neighbouring Kingshouse Hotel. This is the highest summit, Stob Dearg, although the ridge continues extensively beyond, forming a four-mile wall above Glen Etive and comprising four tops, two of them being Munros. The major drama and excitement may occur on the leading edge, but to truly understand the Buachaille, one should also experience its quieter aspects. The walk described later does just that.

The Kingshouse mentioned above also has quite a story to tell, being built around 1750 on the military road to Fort William, constructed by British troops following the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The Devil’s Staircase close by was a section of this road and is now the route of the West Highland Way. The inn quickly warranted the reputation of being one of the most desolate of all human habitations. So negative were the foul conditions that innkeepers were offered the tenancy rent free. Accommodation improved markedly in subsequent centuries until in 2019 the hotel was completely rebuilt, much larger than before and clad in wood and slate. A popular tourist attraction are the deer frequently encountered hereabouts, leading many to believe the hotel keeps a pet herd. They do not, these deer are wild, only staying close because the vacuous public feed them anything to hand, and such ill-advised nutrition has led to a shortening of life for some, along with many stags now becoming aggressive through over familiarisation.

Proceeding towards the Buachaille, there lurks a grim looking hut on the other side of the river. It is called Jacksonville and though it looks a mountain bothy it is private property. The building belongs to the Creagh Dubh Mountaineering Club, born out of the Great Depression by Glasgow climbers seeking escape in the mountains. The Club was entered by invitation only and thus consisted of formidably tough elite climbers. The old bar at the Kingshouse would have been redolent of their revelry!

Beyond is one of the most photographed cottages in Scotland, popularly known by social media as the ‘Wee White House’. It is even marked on Google Maps as such. The actual name of this former croft house is Lagangarbh and it is again a climbers’ hut, leased by the National Trust for Scotland to the Scottish Mountaineering Club since 1946. Always more salubrious than Jacksonville (if only courtesy of its stone walls), this 20-bed cottage has been upgraded to boast a kitchen, drying room, two toilets and a shower with underfloor heating! The shelter belt of trees close by was planted by the club as respite from the south-westerly gales.

Above the rooftops of the huts rise the crags of the Buachaille, quickly reached by a climbers’ path from Lagangarbh. These precipices form a major page in Scottish Mountaineering history; the rock is sound and the ice plentiful. My old climbing log records my ascents of famous routes such as Agag’s Groove, a relatively easy but spectacularly exposed climb, which I enjoyed on a cloudless day in 1980. In the winter of 1986, I returned to make an ascent of Crowberry Gully, the unusually prodigious depth of snow at the beginning of March ‘banking out’ the gully to reduce the severity of this usually troublesome climb. I should have remembered this because in late June I came back for a summer ascent of The Chasm, only to find snow still blocking progress!

For scramblers there is the Curved Ridge (grade 2 to 3), a means to climb the front face without undue difficulty, which is also used as a rock climber’s means of descent after ascending the harder routes to the summit.

Walkers will keep right at the fork with the climbers’ path, in favour of the ignominiously named ‘Tourist Route’ ascending directly above Lagangarbh into Coire na Tulaich. Despite the scree there is a generally solid path which ascends through an impressive rocky bowl to the ridge, whence a left turn leads pleasantly up to the summit. In essence this is a relatively easy ascent for a Munro, much assisted by the starting point at Altnafeadh being at almost one thousand feet above sea level. The reward far outweighs the effort, something also not always customary with Munros!

From the main summit of Stob Dearg at 3353ft, there is an entrancing panorama, at whose centre stretches the jewelled expanse of Rannoch Moor to a distant Schiehallion. The flat lands of the moor lend an airy feel, like being atop a skyscraper.

In days gone by many walkers would have been content to return by the same route, but since 1997 an additional Munro top has been added to the Buachaille’s tally and it occupies the far end of the splendid ridge leading southwest. Most importantly, following this route to the furthest reaches affords a comprehensive understanding of the true nature of the mountain. The Buachaille is not merely a showstopper view from the main road. The going along the ridge is sure and accommodating, although takes you further and further from your starting point. Stob na Broige, is the hill of promotion at the terminus of the ridge and rewards with a fine prospect of Glen Etive. Out here one feels a long way from home, even though we are still on the same seemingly compact mountain as when we started out several hours earlier. A return along the ridge to the bealach brings into view the obvious, though rather steep descent into Coire Altruim, dropping over 1500ft into the Lairig Gartain. It looks endless but that’s the nature of Highland descents, however, the path is obvious and easier than first impressions suggest. There is a just one slanting drop across a wet slab that might call for a steadying hand. Once in the valley the going is brisk and untroubled, with the mind free to recall the enjoyable endeavours of a varied day well spent on one of the country’s finest mountains.

Status: Worthy

Worthy Rating: 85

Aesthetic – 28.5

Complexity – 15

Views – 18

Route Satisfaction – 16

Special Qualities – 7.5