Title: HILL-WALKING ON SOUTH UIST – WINTER WALKS
Author: Preferred Customer
Company: Dell Computer Corporation

THREE SHORTER WALKS: TRINAVAL, SHEAVAL AND EASABHAL
	
I have written before about winter walks.  As this is the last month in which the subject will be timely, I shall take the opportunity to describe two of my favourites.

Some prefatory cautions:  First, the winter days are short (for instance, there are only six to seven hours of daylight in December, when the sun shines at all), so the walks should be short also.  You don’t want to be abroad at night.  Second, the weather can turn nasty in an eye blink.  That’s true at any time of year; I recall the fog that overtook my sons and me during a summer hike up Stuleval. In winter it becomes really nasty.  Do not, therefore, replicate George Bush’s mistake in Iraq:  have an exit strategy.  Third, avoid the highest hills, for example, Mhor and its neighbours, for the temperatures up top can dip below freezing even when ground temperatures are mild and no snow is visible.  And it’s wise to keep civilisation in view, so you can signal with a flashlight if something goes wrong.  (Definitely carry a flashlight or a mobile phone, which can serve the same purpose, but do not count upon the latter for making emergency calls, because many places off the beaten track lack service.)  The following two walks meet all these criteria.  
	
One of them takes you up the adjacent hills of Sheaval (223 metres) and Trinival (198 metres) on the south side of Loch Eynort.  Mind, neither hill is easy.  Both have steep ascents, pesky barbed wire fences, and false peaks (Trinival’s even has a cairn on it) that make their summits seem closer to the road than is actually the case.  Still, they are not as tall as the other hills I have mentioned or as Arnabhal (257 metres) on their left, and unless you push your luck by venturing down their south slopes you are never far from the comforting sight of the South Locheynort houses.   

To conquer Sheaval, the more westerly of the two, drive east along the South Locheynort road till you come to a left-hand bend.  Park there, off the road, and walk for about five minutes in the same direction towards a small old house on your right.  Uphill from the house is a gate where two fences intersect.  Make for the gate and walk through it.  Sheaval’s peak, or what appears to be Sheaval’s peak (it isn’t really; the true peak is behind it), will now be on your left.  Do not, however, head directly towards either peak, for the ground is boggy.  Instead, proceed obliquely right, to the hill’s western base, and climb the ridge to the trig point at the summit.  The walk takes 45 minutes.

It is another 45 minutes from the trig point to the true top of Trinival by the shortest route, across Bealach Sheaval (Sheaval Pass) along a line of old fence posts.  To get to the Bealach, though, you must scramble down Sheaval’s steep and sometimes slippery eastern slope. The southeastern descent is easier, but lengthens the journey somewhat and propels you further from those South Locheynort houses.  From Trinival back to your car is, again, 45 minutes.

The views, both from the tops and along the way, are perhaps the island’s most stunning because, the hills being relatively low, the landmarks are clearly visible.  To the south, loch-studded Glen Labasdall stretches toward Lochboisdale; Eriskay, Barra and Mingulay lie beyond.  To the north, across Loch Eynort, looms Beinn Mhor, at 620 metres the highest hill on the archipelago.  To the northeast, past Stuleval (374 metres), Loch Eynort empties into the Minch.  But the grandest spectacle of all is west and northwest, over the machair to the Atlantic, where on a sunny day one can see the Monachs and St. Kilda.  

Another favourite winter destination is Easabhal.  Tallest of the hills below Lochboisdale, at 243 metres, it is nevertheless easily accessible if you do it right.  Drive toward South Glendale past the Eriskay causeway and next past a lone white house, both on your right.  Turn left immediately afterward onto a short gravel road that ends at Easabhal’s base.   Park, and then follow the natural contours of the terrain.  They will lead you on a zigzagging course to the top.  “Top” is perhaps a misnomer, for Easabhal is unique in having no peak; rather, the summit consists of a long, wide plateau, extending from Ludag to South Lochboisdale, the true top of which is difficult to discern.  (Previous sojourners have left multiple cairns.)  Here too one enjoys excellent views, especially east over Roineabhal and Thairebreac to the Minch.  The plateau is broad enough to provide a sense of isolation, but one is always within reach of surrounding villages.  Enjoy.  Stay safe.