Beinn Alligin - Tom na Gruagaich

About Beinn Alligin - Tom na Gruagaich

Often the first Munro reached on the classic Torridon traverse, this southern peak of the 'Jewelled Hill' offers a sandstone playground of steep tiers and shattered rock. The ascent reveals the dramatic Eag Dhubh gash, leading to a summit with staggering, unhindered views across Loch Torridon towards the Liathach pinnacles.

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Did You Know?

• •The name Tom na Gruagaich translates from Scottish Gaelic as the 'Hill of the Maiden.' In local folklore, a gruagach was often a supernatural being or a long-haired spirit said to haunt the mountainside or look after cattle.
• •The mountain's most striking feature is the Eag Dhubh na h-Eigheachd, or the 'Black Gash of the Wailing.' This is the site of the most significant post-glacial rockslide in Britain, where 3.5 million cubic metres of Torridonian sandstone collapsed into the corrie roughly 3,750 years ago.
• •The summit trig point sits on a broad, grassy plateau that belies the mountain's steep, tiered sandstone flanks. From here, the view south is dominated by the silver expanse of Loch Torridon and the fractured, ancient ridges of the Applecross peninsula.
• •This peak is one of two Munros on the Beinn Alligin massif, usually tackled alongside its higher neighbour, Sgùrr Mòr. Most walkers complete the circuit by navigating the Horns of Alligin, a series of three sandstone towers that require steady hands and a head for heights.
• •The 'Black Gash' takes its name from a grim local legend involving shepherds who, hearing ghostly cries from within the void, would investigate only to fall to their deaths in the abyss.
• •Despite being the lower of the two Munros on the ridge, its position provides the superior angle for photographing the terrifyingly steep south face of Sgùrr Mòr and the distant, jagged skyline of the Isle of Skye.
• •The summit plateau is surprisingly spacious for a Torridon peak; it is one of the few places in the glen where you can briefly lose the sense of being perched on a vertical-sided fortress until you walk twenty paces in the wrong direction.