Bealach a Bharnish >’Meggie summit > Moy Wall
11th March 2025
(Above) The Big Picture. Looking W to Sron a Ghoire, the Post Face of Coire Ardair and The Window. The general situation: hard frozen snow fringe some N to E-facing coire rims & gullies with a few outlier patches down to 800m like on Sron a Ghoire in the photo. Not good!
(Above) Approaching Creag Meagaidh summit from the SW with the Moy Coire down to the right. One of the aforementioned fringes of hard old snow. This one projects out about 3m and about the same vertically, and is covered in rime just like the grass.
(Above) Creag Meagaidh summit cairn. There seems to be a bit of of thing with summit cairns on SAIS blogs at the moment so I felt compelled to conform.
(Above) On the return leg. The upper terminus of the Moy Wall at 991m. It forms part of the ancient boundary between Lochaber and Badenoch. Above this altitude the boundary is delineated by a line of old (and broken) fence posts which take a sudden hairpin WSW at 1100m.
(Above) The Moy Wall terminus. A fine piece of drystone dykeing in a distinctly sub-arctic environment. Note the stabilising ‘through’ stones near the top and bottom of the wall and the carefully chosen and positioned cap stones. Great to see traditional work of such a high standard in what is a remote and unforgiving locale. This ancient wall was partly rebuilt/repaired – as a pro bono gesture by the contractors – when the A86 down at Loch Lagganside was radically improved with the help of EU funding.
(Above) The somewhat misty view down into Glean Spean. Viz was poor above about 850m from mid morning onwards.
(Above) Looking across to the East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn. Cold air temperatures but not looking at all wintry over there.
(Above) The approach track to Beinn a Chaorainn. Lochaber MRT were out and about on The East Ridge today which would have been a rock scramble for most of its length.
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Keith Horner
11th March 2025 6:19 pm
Fine dykeing indeed – sadly becoming a bit of a lost art. The stones must have been collected over a vast area given the height and length of the wall…..
meagaidhadmin
11th March 2025 7:22 pm
There’s very few, if any, stone available above about 880m so the vast majority of it would have been handballed up to the higher altitudes over a kilometre or two. The physical challenge of doing just that would have been immense.
I went to a drystone wall ‘museum’ somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales an age ago and recall a couple of memorable quotes from the wall displays:
Terms & conditions & pay to potential drystone walling contractors (some time in the 19th century): ‘It’s a penny a yard and bring your own stone’.
Another one, this time about technique: ‘Two over one, one over two and keep the middle full’.
(A long-standing friend was one of the team of drystone dykers who help build the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick but my interest in the craft is a passive one! I’ll attach a photo later)
Here it is:
