Mam Sodhail, or ''Màm Sabhail'' in

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

(meaning "rounded mountain of barns"), sometimes anglicised "Mam Soul", is a mountain with a height of in 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 ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Classed as a

Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

, it is beside

Carn Eige ''Carn'' is the official magazine of the Celtic League. The name, a Celtic word which has been borrowed into English as 'cairn', was chosen for its symbolic value and because it can be found in each of the living Celtic languages. The subtitl ...

in the secluded country on the northern side of

Glen Affric Glen Affric () is a glen south-west of the village of Cannich in the Highland region of Scotland, some west of Loch Ness. The River Affric runs along its length, passing through Loch Affric and Loch Beinn a' Mheadhoin. A minor public road reac ...

, some 30 kilometres east 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 ...

Landscape

At 1181 metres (3875 feet), it is the second highest mountain north of the

Great Glen The Great Glen ( ), also known as Glen Albyn (from the Gaelic "Glen of Scotland" ) or Glen More (from the Gaelic "Big/Great Glen"), is a glen in Scotland running for from Inverness on the edge of the Moray Firth, in an approximately straig ...

(after neighbouring Càrn Eige) and the fourteenth highest in the United Kingdom. Càrn Eige stands just one kilometre to the north of Mam Sodhail and the two are regarded as twin mountains, being roughly identical in height and appearance. They stand together above Gleann nam Fiadh (Glen of the Deer) and are linked by a high col of around 1045 metres, making the traverse of the two mountains a natural day's walk. Mam Sodhail is mostly grassy without too much rock, however its sheer size, long ridges, and fine corries together with its four "tops" named in the Munro Tables make it a first-rate mountain. The hill casts three ridges down towards Glen Affric, the most impressive of these being the east southeast ridge, which has two "tops" on it; Mullach Cadha Rainich (996 metres) stands at the midpoint of the ridge which runs for four kilometres to conclude at the other “top” of Sgurr na Lapaich (1036 metres), which is the most prominent part of the mountain when viewed from Glen Affric. It has the characteristics of a separate mountain and was regarded as a Munro in the original 1891 list, with

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 ...

saying, ''"The peak certainly does not lack character and many were disappointed to find that its original status was not restored in the seventh edition of Munros Tables"''."The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland" Pages 199 (Gives this quote). The other two ridges, which form a horseshoe around the Allt Coulavie valley to the south of the summit, carry the “tops” of An Tudair (1074 metres) and Creag Coire nan Each (1055 metres).Database of British and Irish Hills
retrieved 18 Dec 2011.
Variorum of Munros Tables giving changes at each revision. The mountain's western flanks fall away towards Gleann a’ Choilich, which drains northwards into Loch Mullardoch.

Summit

Mam Sodhail was an important part of the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

’s initial mapping of the northern

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

in the 1840s, and the summit carries a massive

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

which was used by the

surveyors Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

in their work. The cairn is hollow and its walls have to be climbed to get inside."The Munros and Tops" Page 158 (Gives info on hollow summit cairn). Unusually, there is a visitors' book inside the cairn.The Angry Corrie.
Mentions the summit visitors book. A few feet below the summit is the remains of a small

bothy A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...

, complete with walls, fireplace and a chimney, which was formerly used by deerstalkers and watchers to keep sheep and walkers off the mountain. The bothy was mentioned by Sir

Hugh Munro Sir Hugh Thomas Munro, 4th Baronet (16 October 1856 – 19 March 1919), was a British mountaineer best known for his list of mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (914.4 m), known as Munros. Born in London, Munro was the fifth child of ...

in volume one of the

Scottish Mountaineering Club Established in 1889, the Scottish Mountaineering Club is a club for climbing and mountaineering in Scotland. History The Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) was formed in Glasgow, Scotland, in March 1889, as one of Scotland's first mountaineering ...

Journal along with tips to circumvent it and its inhabitants."Hamish's Mountain Walk" Pages 257 (Gives info on summit bothy). There is evidence of some quarrying south-west of the main summit on the ridge to Creag Coire nan Each. There are a number of pits about three metres deep and several metres across, and it is probable that this was the source of the stone for the summit cairn and the bothy."The Munros and Tops" Page 158 (Gives info on small quarry).

Climbing

The ascent of Mam Sodhail starts at the car park at the road end in Glen Affric at grid reference . The walker can either ascend by a stalker's path up Coire Leachavie, or by climbing Sgurr na Lapaich first and then following the long ESE ridge to the top of the mountain. The view from the top takes in the impressive sights of Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan and Càrn Eige close by and the distant view is crowded by the mountains of the north-west Highlands. Most walkers will take in the nearby Carn Eige as part of the walk and strong walkers may take the opportunity to climb the remote Munro of Beinn Fhionnlaidh, which lies three kilometres to the north and is difficult to access from any other place.

References and Footnotes

* ''The Munros (SMC Guide)'', Donald Bennett et al., * ''100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains'', Ralph Storer, * ''Hamish’s Mountain Walk'', Hamish Brown, * ''The Munros and Tops'', Chris Townsend, * ''The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland'', Irvine Butterfield, Footnotes {{Coord, 57.279801, -5.120267, display=title Munros Mountains and hills of the Northwest Highlands One-thousanders of Scotland

Landscape

Summit

Climbing

See also

References and Footnotes