Glas Bheinn

About Glas Bheinn

Standing as a rugged sentinel in the heart of Assynt, this Corbett offers a rough, quartzite-strewn ascent. While its stony slopes are demanding, the reward is a front-row seat to the dramatic peaks of Quinag and Conival, alongside a rare perspective of Britain’s highest waterfall, Eas a' Chual Aluinn, spilling into Glen Coul.

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Did You Know?

• •The name is derived from the Scottish Gaelic 'Glas Bheinn', typically translated as 'Grey Hill'. This is a direct reference to the pale Cambrian quartzite that litters the upper slopes and summit, giving the mountain a bleached, skeletal appearance even in summer.
• •The hill’s eastern flanks host the source of the Eas a' Chual Aluinn. At 200 metres (658 ft), it is the highest waterfall in the United Kingdom—over three times the height of Niagara Falls—dropping into the remote deeps of Glen Coul.
• •From the summit, the view southwest provides one of the best perspectives of the 'Assynt Giants', where the isolated monoliths of Suilven, Canisp, and Stac Pollaidh rise abruptly from the lochan-studded Lewisian gneiss moorland.
• •Glas Bheinn sits within the North West Highlands Geopark and is part of the Moine Thrust Belt; the mountain's structure is a complex result of ancient tectonic plates sliding over one another hundreds of millions of years ago.
• •Despite being a Corbett, the terrain underfoot is famously unforgiving; the descent toward the Bealach na h-Uidhe consists of a boulder-field that seems specifically designed to find the weakest point in a walker's boot soles.