Am Buachaille sea stack vid!

Warmest greetings Mountain Projecteers from over the pond in the UK!

Here's a wee video about a trip last summer to climb and film the classic Am Buachaille sea stack located in Sutherland, the Far North West of Scotland.

Am Buachaille aka The Shepherd is one of the coveted "Big 3" sea stacks in Scotland along with the Old Men of Stoer and Hoy. With it's 4 mile walk in from Blairmore followed by a tricky descent and approach culminating with a "character building" swim across a 15 metre channel of water only exposed at low tide, this Old Man is considered to be the most remote and serious of them all. There is no walking to the base or setting up a tyrolean traverse on this Torridonian sandstone 50 metre high behemoth...

Anyway it was a lovely day clambering up the excellent 3* VS (about 5.8 in US money?) Landward Face route in perfect weather on possibly one of the best adventure routes in the UK, before collapsing on the beautiful Sandwood Bay beach. Featuring the beautiful walk-in, approach and swim, sandstone sea stack shenanigans, fearsome fulmars, eye-popping exposure plus some aerial drone footage this is the story of our day:

All constructive feedback welcome, please feel free to share to anyone who may be interested and hopefully it will brighten up your lunch or tea break with a vicarious trip up one of Scotland's finest!

Another really nice one, thanks! Do you have to wait for a tide to swim back? A bit of the abseil and that swim, at the end would be nice.

Best, OLH

Old lady H wrote: Another really nice one, thanks! Do you have to wait for a tide to swim back? A bit of the abseil and that swim, at the end would be nice.

Best, OLH

Hey Old lady H and many thanks for taking the time to post your kind words! Am Buachaille is only really accessible a few hours either side of low tide when a 15 metre channel you can swim across becomes exposed. At any other time unless you had a boat I would imagine this crossing would be too dangerous. The guys and I swam over about 2 hours before low tide and it was quite rough with lots of swell but on our return swim about 1 hour after low it was lovely and calm! Glad you enjoyed the vid! :-) Happy Climbing! Dave 

Fantastic video.  Really enjoyed the watch.

Theo   wrote: Fantastic video.  Really enjoyed the watch.

Thanks a million Theo and I'm delighted you enjoyed my wee video! :-) Cheers Dave

Bloody beautiful! 

Buddy Smith wrote: Bloody beautiful! 

Aaaww thanks a million Buddy and I'm delighted you enjoyed my wee video! :-) Cheers Dave 

Excellent!  Loved that Skeleton Ridge one as well.

rpc wrote: Excellent!  Loved that Skeleton Ridge one as well.

Heya rpc and many thanks for the positive vibes about my Am Buachaille and Skelly Ridge vid's! They are both fantastic "adventure" routes and well worth doing before they both fall down into the sea... ;-) Cheers Dave