There are astounding views throughout this diverse walk, which travels through the spectacular woodland and waterfalls of Steall Gorge to arrive in Steall Meadows – home to the fantastic Grey Mare’s Tale waterfall. A wire bridge here provides a novel way of crossing the Water of Nevis to reach the base of An Gearanach. The Ring of Steall, above Glen Nevis, is one of the classic mountain day-treks, taking in seven mountains over 3,000 feet – four of them Munros (An Gearanach, Stob Choire a Chairn, Am Bodach and Sgurr a Mhaim). Fantastic narrow ridges link many of the mountains, the most spectacular being the Devil’s Ridge linking Sgurr an Iubhair and Stob Coire a Mhail.
[1] From the car park at the end of the Glen Nevis single-track road (NN168691) walk east along an excellent path, climbing through the beautiful woodland of Steall Gorge high above the Water of Nevis. The path can be uneven at points and care should be taken. After approximately a kilometre the path emerges from the woodland into the beautiful Steall Meadows (NN175691), which provides sumptuous views of The Mamores and Grey Mare’s Tale.
Continue through the meadows along the main path, then bear right onto a narrower path leading down to the wire bridge, comprising of two cables for hands and one for feet. Carefully cross the bridge (or if this doesn’t appeal, remove your boots and wade across the river) then turn left to pass Steall Hut. Continue through wooded slopes and across a burn, passing beneath Steall Falls. After crossing one more burn, you reach the base of An Gearanach (NN183683).
[2] Turn right and climb the initially steep path, which then begins to zigzag its way up the rocky slopes.
There are superb views opening out along the length of Glen Nevis and up to Ben Nevis.
The path continues to reach the 982m/3,222ft summit An Gearanach (NN188670), the first Munro of the day.
Its central position within the Mamores range allows for wonderful views of Binnein Mor and Binnein Beag.
[3] From the summit, continue south along the narrow ridge over An Garbhanach (NN188665). A steep descent and re-ascent climbs to the cairn on the second Munro of Stob Coire a'Chairn (NN185661), which has a commanding view of Am Bodach. The gradient eases slightly as it descends southwest to reach the base of Am Bodach (NN178655). However, a thigh-punishing climb southwest up a rocky path is required to reach the lofty summit (NN176651), which has superb views as far afield as the Paps of Jura.
[4] A path then descends west to a narrow bealach (Gaelic for ‘pass’), which then climbs onto the summit of Sgurr an Iubhair (NN165655). This is where the trickiest part of the route begins. Ominously titled ‘The Devil’s Ridge’, the path descends northwest to another bealach, then heads north over the short, but very narrow and exposed Devil’s Ridge. Depending on your head for heights, you may want to opt for a slightly less exposed path descending left from the ridge. But whatever route you take requires extreme care. Once across the ridge, the wide, quartzite slopes climb easily to reach Sgurr a Mhaim (NN165668).
This is the highest Munro of the day, presenting great views of Stob Ban and Mullach nan Coirean.
[5] From Sgurr a Mhaim, a path zigzags northwest down an obvious ridge into Glen Nevis to reach a path beside the Allt Coire a Mhusgain. Then bear right, following the path down to the Glen Nevis road at the Achriabhach car park. Cross over a bridge, turn right and follow the road for approximately 3km back to the start.