Baosbheinn is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

mountain situated in the

Torridon Torridon () is a small village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is also applied to the area surrounding the village, particularly the Torridon Hills, mountains to the north of Glen Torridon. The village lies on the shore of Loch ...

area of the

Northwest Highlands The Northwest Highlands are located in the northern third of Scotland that is separated from the Grampian Mountains by the Great Glen (Glen More). The region comprises Wester Ross, Assynt, Sutherland and part of Caithness. The Caledonian Cana ...

. It stands in a remote area within the Flowerdale

deer forest The deer forest ( Gaelic: frìth) is a sporting estate which is kept and managed largely or solely for the purposes of maintaining a resident population of red deer for sporting ( deer stalking) purposes. It is an institution and phenomenon pecu ...

some 39 km NNE of

Kyle of Lochalsh Kyle of Lochalsh ( , "strait of the foaming loch") is a village in the historic county of Ross & Cromarty on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around west-southwest of Inverness. It is located on the Lochalsh peninsula, at the entranc ...

Overview

Baosbheinn which is made up of

Torridon Sandstone The Torridon Group is a series of Tonian (lower Neoproterozoic) arenaceous and argillaceous sedimentary rocks, which occur extensively in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. These strata are particularly well exposed in the district of upper ...

reaches a height of making it the 56th highest Corbett Walking Highlands.
Gives list of Corbetts in height order. and the 277th highest Marilyn.The Relative Hills Of Britain.
Gives list of Marilyns in height order. It is a long elongated mountain with a NW-SE orientation, its summit ridge is impressive, barely dropping below the contour in its length. Its SW slopes drops away steeply and rockily towards Loch a’ Ghobhainn while its NE slopes are less precipitous, throwing out a series of spurs which produces three craggy corries. Strong hill walkers can climb Baosbheinn with the adjacent Corbett of Beinn an Eoin which stands across Loch na h-Oidhche and gives a demanding circular walk of which takes between six and nine hours.Munro Magic.
Gives some details for overview.

Etymology

The translation of Baosbheinn from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

language is usually given by guidebooks as “Wizard’s hill” this comes from the word ''baobh'' but strictly speaking this translates as a hag or bitch. ''Buidsear'' or ''fiosaiche'' is the usual word for a wizard. Scholars have put forward alternatives, one of these is ''beidhis-fjall'' from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

language which translates as hunting hill, with the Norse ''fjall'' later changed to the Gaelic ''bheinn'' . Local residents of

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to th ...

refer to the hill as “mountain of the face”, this is explained by the fact that when viewed from

Gairloch Gairloch ( ; , meaning "Short Loch") is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a golf course, a ...

in the morning light, the hill resembles the appearance of a human head. This is supported by older spellings of the name which use derivations of ''bathais'' which translates as face or forehead. Lexilogos Scottish Gaelic Dictionary.
Gives Gaelic translations. In conclusion, although the translated name is usually given as Wizard's Hill, the alternatives of Hill of the Face, Hunting Hill or Hill of the Hag (or Wicked Person) may have stronger supporting evidence.''"The Call Of The Corbetts"'',

Irvine Butterfield Irvine Butterfield (1936–2009) was an environmentalist, hillwalker and author of several books about mountains and the outdoor environment who took a significant role in the running of organisations with such interests in Scotland. He was a go ...

, , page 36, Gives etymology details.

Geography and geology

Baosbheinn summit ridge is made up of five prominent high points, starting at the SE end of the ridge is the outlying shoulder of Ceann Beag () after a short descent to a

col A col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks; a mountain pass or saddle. COL, CoL or col may also refer to: Computers * Caldera OpenLinux, a defunct Linux distribution * , an HTML element specifying a column * A collision sig ...

at the ridge rises steeply over an unnamed top of before continuing to the main summit (875 metres), named Sgorr Dubh on OS maps. The ridge continues for two km to reach the NW top () before descending to Creag an Fithich () at the northern end of the ridge. Baosbheinn has three north facing corries, An Rèidh-choire is the largest and lives up to its name of Smooth corrie, being quite open and grassy while the smaller Coire Beag and Coire Mor are more compact and are lined by crags. Baosbheinn has one noteworthy geological feature: it being the site of the largest and most impressive

protalus rampart A protalus rampart (or pronival rampart) is a depositional landform of periglacial origin. It forms as rock debris falls onto a steep snow slope from a cliff above and slides down the snow surface to come to a rest at the foot of the slope. Over a ...

http://www.landforms.eu/cairngorms/protalus%20rampart.htm protalus rampart in Great Britain. The rampart is situated at the NW end of the ridge below the crags of Creag an Fithich at a height of around . It formed in post-glacial times when a massive rockslide or series of rockslides involving failure of approximately 200,000 m³ of rock over-rode a former snowbed and accumulated as a boulder ridge.Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Gives details of protalus rampart. The north west end of Baosbheinn where the protalus rampart is situated has been designated a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

over an area of 39,000,000 m².

Ascents

The usual ascent of Baosbheinn starts at a parking place at the Red Barn on the

A832 road The A832 is a road in the Scottish Highlands, linking Cromarty, on the east coast, to Gairloch on the west coast, and beyond Gairloch to Braemore Junction. It is long and runs entirely in the former county of Ross and Cromarty. The road forms ...

(). Most walking guidebooks recommend climbing Baosbheinn along with Beinn an Eoin, this calls for the ascent of Beinn an Eoin first, however a direct ascent of Baosbheinn is possible although the crossing of the river, the Abhainn a’ Gharbh Choire can be difficult in spate conditions. The walk goes SE on the track which leads to Loch na h-Oidhche, the early part of the track goes through a recently sown plantation just to the East of Loch Bad na Sgalag where over 1 million trees of native species have been planted. The original trees in this area were cut down in the 16th and 17th centuries to feed the ironworks on the shore of

Loch Maree Loch Maree () is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth-largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface area is . Loch Maree c ...

.Nar Fir Chlis.
Gives details of native pinewood. The track is left after and the ridge of Baosbheinn can be attained by crossing pathless moorland.''"The Corbetts And Other Scottish Hills"'', Scottish Mountaineering Club, , page 184, Gives ascent route details.

References

{{Authority control Corbetts Marilyns of Scotland Mountains and hills of the Northwest Highlands Mountains and hills of Highland (council area) Torridon Sites of Special Scientific Interest in South Wester Ross and Cromarty