The northern end of Sail Gharbh on Quinag (photo 1, left side) has very impressive crags of Torridonian sandstone, rising some 280m. They are cut by two very steep gullies, meeting at their base, and defining what we fancifully refer to as ‘the elephant’s head’ (photo 18). The western gulley, which runs up beside the Barrel Buttress, is one of the named climbs on Quinag, although few appear to have climbed it recently.
About 300m to the north-east of these crags, the 1:25,000 O.S. map (photo 2) shows an area called Airigh na Beinne (shieling of the hill), at an altitude of about 250 m. It is in the centre of a 1km square, NC2130, the last of those on the lower parts of the hill that we had not visited. We were able to get there finally on 28th August 2025.
The route up
We left our cars on the road above the Allt a’Ghamhna and took an old Argocat track (photo 3) to a point on the saddle, at NC216317, where we could get a view of the landscape. Crossing the river, we made for a small eastern tributary of the Allt a’Bhathaich, which drains the northern corrie, the Bathaich Cuinneige (otherwise known as the Sanctuary or Byre). A couple of hundred metres up this tributary (photo 4), an hour or so after we started, we were into the square (NC215309) and could start recording.
Following the line of the burn, we climbed up through dry and wet heath, with a very predictable range of species, between outcrops of the underlying gneiss in a range of shades of light and dark rock. The latter, probably more mineral-rich, provided niches for species such as mountain everlasting Antennaria dioica (photo 5) and creeping willow Salix repens in fruit (photo 6).
Other woody plants were, literally, thin on the ground, but the discovery of a small rowan seedling (photo 7) indicated that more could colonise if grazing was further reduced.
Wetter areas
Peaty areas alongside the burn provided habitat for colourful bog-mosses Sphagnum spp., with an embedded round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia (photo 8). Since our knowledge of this group is slight, we sent a specimen to Gordon Rothero, who identified it as a yellow-brown variant of the widespread cow-horn bog-moss S. denticulatum.
He found in the sample a few stems of an uncommon tiny liverwort, Kurzia pauciflora. This has to be teased out of bog-mosses, and Gordon did not record it during his wide-ranging bryophyte surveys for the Flora of Assynt (2002). However, he has since found it at a number of sites in the parish, including a couple on Quinag.
If, like us, you are intrigued by the exquisite, if miniature, beauty of this group of plants, then go to the recording of Gordon’s superbly-illustrated talk to the Field Club on 17th October 2024.
Stony flushes (photo 9), are often somewhat base-rich, and always worth examining. An obvious indicator of interest is yellow saxifrage Saxifraga aizoides (photo 10), here with straggly stems acquiring their autumn colours. Amongst them there were small amounts of pale butterwort Pinguicula lusitanica and black bog-rush Schoenus nigricans.
Further up the hill
We continued plodding up the hill (photo 11), following grassy hollows alongside stone stripes created from material washed out of the very steep gulleys in the vertical crags above us. Some of these stripes are now well-vegetated, and lunch was taken on the edge of one of them (photo 12).
To our west were small crags with a few scattered trees, which Gwen and Zara went over later to investigate (photo 13). On her way she came across other indicators of base-richness in the underlying gneiss, including lesser clubmoss Selaginella selaginoides, the distinctive large shiny leaves of globeflower Trollius europaeus (photo 14) and the much daintier, purplish ones of alpine meadow-rue Thalictrum alpinum (photo 15).
The trees comprised three aspens (photos 16-17) and a small holly. Meanwhile, I had discovered a small downy birch in the tall heather on the stone stripe, bitten off by deer, and the only one we saw; all are evidence of the potential for woodland regeneration.
Over to the shieling
At this point we were as close as we got to the Barrel Buttress and associated gulleys, a magnificent sight (photo 18). With younger legs and more time, we might have reached the base of the crags, although, so far as we know, and with good reason, no one has ever botanised the gulleys themselves.
In the event, we worked our way across the slope to a small area of richer grassland noted earlier from below (photo 19). It was not much larger than a tennis court and had none of the boundary banks or other features that we associate with shielings. However, it is right on the grid reference indicated on the map (NC215304) and in the centre of the area named.
This grassland contained a range of typical species, such as sweet vernal grass Anthoxanthum odoratum, autumn hawkbit Scorzoneroides autumnalis, ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata and dandelion Taraxacum officinale. At its edge there was alpine lady’s-mantle Alchemilla alpina (photo 20) and wild thyme Thymus polytrichus.
Altogether, an unusual assemblage for the area we had been traversing, and one that would provide a good bite for livestock in summer. This, together with the shelter from the prevailing south-westerlies afforded by the hill above it, may have been reasons it was cherished in the past.
Back to the road
It took us over two hours to complete our circuit, with a tea break on a knoll at the south-eastern corner of Loch Airigh na Beinne (NC219309). Much of the lower part of the hill (photo 21) was quite boggy, with sightings of a common snipe, several frogs and a patrolling common hawker Aeshna juncea. We also came across bog myrtle Myrica gale in fruit (photo 22), complementing the observations of female flowers made not far away earlier in the year. After a last look at the hill over the eastern end of the loch (photo 23) we made our way up to the Argocat track, and back to the road.
Results and historic records
The tally for the seven hours we spent on the hill was 78 species, a reasonable number for the range of habitats traversed, with the bonus of splendid views of the north face of Sail Gharbh. It was also pleasing finally to complete our monad survey of the lower parts of Quinag (although the stories for some monads have yet to be written).
Out of interest, the historic records for this area were consulted to see what we might have missed. Ian and Pat had walked along the base of the crags on a very hot day, 17th August 1995, on their way to the northern corrie. The only records specifically from monad NC2130 were of three montane plants, chickweed willowherb Epilobium alsinifolium, mountain sorrel Oxyria digyna and a subspecies of yellow-rattle Rhinanthus minor minor, all at NC214301.
A few years later, on 18th February 2001, Ian and Gordon Rothero had climbed up to grassland in the gulley around a rock pinnacle to the west of the Barrel Buttress (photo 24, NC212300) and logged burrows and dung of field voles and a pine marten scat.
Ian M. Evans and Gwen Richards