Exploring Quinag: from the air
Last year Iain Young from Lochinver showed me three aerial photographs he had taken of Quinag. I used them to introduce the hill in my talk to the Club on 15th February 2024, but they deserve a wider audience.
The first two were taken in March 2007, when he was flying a Piper Warrior out of Inverness Airport. The first (photo 1) shows the south side of the hill, looking north, with the road to Lochinver (A837) running west along the shore of Loch Assynt in the foreground. The greyish quartzites capping Spidean Coinich and the land to its east are conspicuous, as also the smaller area on the highest part of Sail Gharbh. If you look carefully you can see, left of centre, the grassy areas of two old shielings straddling the road at Doire Cuillinn.
The second (photo 2) is of the northern corrie between Sail Ghorm and Sail Gharbh, Bathaich Cuinneige, looking north-east towards the sea lochs. A conspicuous feature is the scoop out of its south-eastern wall which is the source of the burn flowing down it, the Allt a’Bhathaich. The sharp ridges along both Sail Ghorm and Sail Gharbh show up well, perhaps explaining why montane plants are quite localised in their distribution on the summits.
A snowy landscape
The third (photo 3) was taken in March 2023 from Piper Cherokee G-AVSA, built in 1967, which Iain has been flying since 2018 from a grass strip at Easter Airfield near Fearn (photo 4).
It is a magnificent view of the hill covered with snow, taken from above Glas Bheinn, looking north-west. In the foreground is the road running north from Skiag Bridge (A894), with Loch na Gainmhich conspicuous at bottom right and Loch a’Chairn Bhain in the middle. Top left is the Point of Stoer and top right Handa Island. Showing well on the near face of Sail Gharbh are vertical crags of Torridonian sandstones alternating with finely gullied screes. All but the lowest of these have so far defied exploration, and they may well continue to do so.
Ian M. Evans
All photos by Iain Young