I was heading back to Inverness and feeling weary after climbing the four Cruachan Munros over two days when I saw this – the magnificent Buachaille Etive Mor, standing sentinel at the head of Glencoe.

I’m not going to waste my time exulting the merits of this hill with superlatives. It’s had enough compliments. And there is little doubt that Buachaille Etive Mor is one of the UK’s most extraordinary looking hills, a daunting fist of rock that seems impenetrable to the walker.

The breach in Buachaille Etive Mor’s defences is Coire na Tulaich, where a well-walked path climbs steeply to a bealach. I only had time for the mountain’s north Munro, 1,022m Stob Dearg, from where, on another un-Scottish day of clear skies and bright sunshine, I watched cars on the A82 and the Glen Etive roads scurrying across the tarmac like ants and beheld the vista across dozens of mountains and Rannoch Moor. It is moments like these that remind us why we go to the hills.