Beinn Sgeireach

Rising from the rugged "cnoc and lochan" landscape of Sutherland, this rocky Marilyn offers a quintessential North West Highland experience. The terrain is characteristically broken and pathless, requiring careful navigation between granite outcrops and hidden pools to reach a summit that overlooks the dramatic profiles of Ben Stack and Arkle.

• •Derived from the Scottish Gaelic Beinn Sgeireach, the name translates as "Rocky Hill" or "Hill of the Skerries," an apt description of the ribs of ancient Lewisian Gneiss that protrude through the heather.
• •The summit serves as an excellent grandstand for viewing the quartzite peaks of the far north-west; the sharp cone of Ben Stack and the sprawling bulk of Arkle are particularly prominent to the north and east.
• •This is classic Sutherland territory where the complex drainage creates a maze-like ascent; hikers must navigate around dozens of small, unnamed lochans and peat hags that are not always individually marked on standard maps.
• •For those collecting Marilyns, this hill is often paired with its neighbour, Meallan a' Chuail, though the low-lying ground between them is notoriously soft and testing on the ankles.
• •A compass is essential here, not just for the mist, but to help you remember which direction you were heading before you were forced to detour around the seventeenth boggy hollow of the afternoon.