Spidean A' Choire Leith (Liathach)

Traversing this mountain above Torridon is a thrilling day out

- by ROBERT WIGHT

MORE than any other Scottish mountain, Liathach looks utterly impregnable. It's a vast lump of a hill, intimidatingly steep. End to end, the mountain stretches for 7km (4.4 miles) and a finer, more exhilarating 7km you won't find on the mainland.

Liathach has two Munros. Spidean a' Choire Leith is the highest and lies toward the eastern end of the mountain. The western peak - Mullach an Rathain - was only promoted to Munro status in 1981.

Like the other Torridon mountains, Liathach seems to thrust almost directly from sea level to Munro height. All the hills here sit apart from one another, great solitary giants rising from the plains below.

The area gives a sensation of remoteness, wildness. More than that, it feels old - a feeling of age that goes beyond millennia of human understanding. The bedrock here is among the oldest rock on the planet, but even without that knowledge, the sense of that tremendous age somehow permeates the area.

Liathach has a claim as the most visually stunning of Scotland's mountains, and it's hard to contest. Torridon is the most incredible place for hillwalkers in Britain - and Liathach is arguably the finest of the area's mountains.