Beinn Fhada

About Beinn Fhada

Dominating the skyline above Morvich, this sprawling Kintail Munro lives up to its Gaelic name, 'long mountain'. It features the Plaide Mhòr, a vast and ancient pre-glacial plateau. The ascent reveals a complex character, from the steep, furrowed slopes of Gleann Lichd to the craggy ridges overlooking the Affric hills.

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Did You Know?

• •The name Beinn Fhada is Scottish Gaelic for ‘long mountain’, a literal description of its five-mile-long ridge. It was historically also known as Ben Attow, a phonetic corruption of the Gaelic name that appeared on many early maps.
• •The mountain’s upper reaches contain the Plaide Mhòr (the 'Great Blanket'), a vast, undulating plateau that represents the largest surviving remnant of the pre-glacial land surface in the western Highlands, possessing a character more akin to the Cairngorms than the jagged peaks of Kintail.
• •The southwestern slopes falling into Gleann Lichd are scarred by three kilometres of deep trenches and ridges. Known as a rock slope failure, this geological deformation is the largest of its kind in the Highlands, where the mountain flank has slowly slumped toward the valley floor.
• •From the summit, the view across the deep chasm of Gleann Lichd is spectacular, framing the steep northern faces of the Five Sisters of Kintail, specifically Sgùrr na Ciste Duibhe and Sgùrr Fhuaran. To the east, the view extends over the remote, treeless expanse toward Loch Mullardoch.
• •Critics who label the mountain's broad plateau as 'featureless' generally change their minds the moment they have to find a safe descent line in a sudden Kintail mist.