📌 Black Mount, Argyll & Bute
★★★★
Between Glen Coe and Bridge of Orchy lies the Black Mount: a rough and wild hill group comprising four Munros linked by fine high-level ridges. At 1090 metres above sea level Stob Ghabhar is the highest of the quartet, a natural focus for the southern half of the range, but fairly easily climbed by its southeast ridge from Victoria Bridge. The superb circuit described below uses this route in descent, instead adding in 945-metre Stob a’ Choire Odhair as an energetic warm-up. Travelling between the two summits requires climbing the northern flank of the Aonach Eagach; this is unrelentingly steep and involves simple scrambling, but is much more straightforward than its narrower namesake above Glencoe village.
📷 Chronological photo guide
Abhainn Shira 
Allt Toaig 
Ascent of Stob a’ Choire Odhair 
Red deer on Stob a’ Choire Odhair 
Great Wall of Rannoch from Stob a’ Choire Odhair 
Rannoch Moor 
Clach Leathad (left) & Meall a’ Bhùiridh (centre) 
Way ahead to Stob Ghabhar 
Stob Ghabhar above Coirein Lochain 
Steep ascent to the Aonach Eagach 
View back along the Aonach Eagach 
Stob Ghabhar 
View down Coire na Muic 
Looking back to Stob a’ Choire Odhair 
View southwest to Ben Cruachan from Stob Ghabhar 
View west from Stob Ghabhar 
View northwest to Glencoe from Stob Ghabhar 
Looking back from the descent 
View across Loch Tulla on the way down 
Waterfalls on the Allt Coire na Muic – cross above the top fall 
Below the main fall 
Fording the Allt Toaig
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish just south of Victoria Bridge, minor road end 2 mi northwest of Bridge of Orchy
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NN 271419
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 56.537038,-4.814040
❌ No public transport within 1 mi
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 16 km / 10 mi | ▲ 1240 m | ⌛ 7.5-8.5 hr
Features: △ Stob a’ Choire Odhair (945 m, Munro); △ Stob Ghabhar (1090 m, Munro); 🌊 Allt Coire na Muic waterfalls
⬤ Tough | After early track section, paths for majority of route: grassy lower down but often rocky high up. Ascent of Aonach Eagach is very steep (hands occasionally required) on a faint and loose path, as is the descent alongside the Allt Coire na Muic waterfalls (again, hands occasionally required). Elsewhere, some faint or pathless sections. Path along Allt Toaig is boggy. Burn crossings on descent are usually straightforward, but may be difficult in spate.
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – Clashgour Hut – follow east bank of Allt Toaig – Stob a’ Choire Odhair by south ridge – descend by west ridge – Couloir Buttress / Aonach Eagach – Stob Ghabhar – Stob Maol – Allt Coire na Muic waterfalls – rejoin outward route – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Dozens of distant red deer on Stob a’ Choire Odhair. Deer keds, a lizard, frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, dippers.
Weather: Cloudless and warm (20°C) after a chilly start. Moderate wind on the tops.
September 2019
