Sàileag is Scottish mountain located on the northern side of

Glen Shiel Glen Shiel ( gd, Gleann Seile; also known as Glenshiel) is a glen in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The glen runs approximately 9 miles from south-east to north-west, from the Cluanie Inn (216 metres, 708 feet) at the western end of Loch ...

, 27 kilometres south east of

Kyle of Lochalsh Kyle of Lochalsh (from the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''Caol Loch Aillse'', "strait of the foaming loch") is a village in the historic county of Ross-shire on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around west-southwest of Inverness. It is loca ...

Overview

It lies just to the east of the famous Five Sisters of Kintail group of hills to which it is connected by the

Bealach A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migrati ...

an Lapain (725 metres). It is part of a mountain group called the North Glen Shiel Ridge which also includes two other

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 Nevis ...

s ( Sgurr a' Bhealaich Dheirg and

Aonach Meadhoin Aonach Meadhoin is a Munro mountain situated in the Kintail region of Scotland. It stands on the northern side of Glen Shiel some 31 kilometres south east of Kyle of Lochalsh. Overview Aonach Meadhoin reaches a height of 1001 metres (328 ...

) and with a height of 956 metres (3136 feet) it is the lowest of all the six Munros on the northern side of Glen Shiel, making the mountain's translated name of “The Little Heel” quite appropriate. Sàileag seems to have lost three metres of height in recent years, many older guide books have its height as 959 metres in comparison to 956 on the newer

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maps.

Topography

Sàileag is mostly grassy although its north west face is steep and craggy as it drops to the Allt an Lapain. The mountain is formed by the junction of three ridges, the eastern ridge connects to the neighbouring Munro of Sgurr a’ Bhealaich Dheirg while the western ridge connects to Sgurr na Ciste Dhuibhe, the most easterly Munro of the Five Sisters of Kintail. The northern ridge is rocky and descends to the head of Gleann Lichd where it connects with the lower slopes of Beinn Fhada. Sàileag's southern slopes which drop to the

A87 road A87 or A-87 may refer to: * A87 autoroute, a motorway in western France * A87 road, a road in Highland, Scotland * Dutch Defence, in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, first cited in 1789 * Stuart Highway, a South Australian highway signed as A87 ...

in Glen Shiel are clothed in the trees of the Glenshiel Forest below the 500 metre contour, these southern slopes have a reputation of being some the most uniformly steep in Scotland. A traveller going down Glen Shiel in 1803 commented of the slope, "an inclined wall, of such inaccessible height that no living creature would venture to scale it".

Ascents

The most common starting place for the ascent of Sàileag is the car park on the A87 road at grid reference where there is a considerable gap in the trees which allows easy access to the mountainside. The climb to the top of the Bealach an Lapain is steep and unrelenting on grassy slopes. From the Bealach it is a further 230 metres of ascent east to reach the summit. The highlight of the view is a fine vista of the Five Sisters of Kintail and a good aerial view down Gleann Lichd. An ascent of Sàileag is invariably combined with some or all of the other six Munros on the northern side of Glen Shiel.

References

* The Munros (SMC Guide) Donald Bennett et al., * Hamish's Mountain Walk, Hamish Brown, * The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland,

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 ...

, * 100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains, Ralph Storer,

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saileag Munros Mountains and hills of the Northwest Highlands