Quinag

From the car park an easy approach along an obvious path soon leads onto the edge of the south east ridge of Spidean Coinich. Here there are a variety of possible launch points.

Quinag is the most northerly of the great mountains of Assynt and comprises three tops, Sà il Ghorm, Sà il Gharbh and Spidean Coinich, connected by broad ridges arranged in such a way as to form a rough ‘Y’ shape.

Viewed end-on from the north side, the steep faces of Sà il Ghorm, Sà il Gharbh form an imposing sight that dominates the surrounding landscape, whilst, from the south, Spidean Coinich presents a broader south east shoulder dropping down towards Loch Assynt. From a paraglider pilot’s perspective, the beauty of Quinag lies the fact that this shoulder of Spidean Coinich can be reached in a matter of minutes from the high point of the A894 - offering the potential to easily explore this dramatic mountain from the air.

The south east shoulder of Spidean Coinich takes a northerly or north north-easterly breeze. Because the craggy slope beneath take off is relatively small (initially just a couple of hundred metres high), there does need to be a reasonable breeze at take off in order to maintain height after launching. Optimal conditions require just sufficient breeze to soar the edge of the shoulder towards the point where the slope steepens towards the Spidean Coinich summit and thermals track up the shallow grassy gully. Just beyond this point, a series of much bigger cliffs commences. Unless above summit level, be extremely wary of heading too far west of this point, as deeper into the coire between SÃ il Gharbh and Spidean Coinich it is very likely that there will be rotor.

It is important to keep a very close eye on the overall wind direction as any change to a more north westerly or westerly wind direction will result in this side of the mountain becoming leeside. Given Quinag’s proximity to the coast, it is quite common for a sea breeze to develop, hence this is a good site to fly early on in the day with a view to getting up and away before conditions change.

It is worth noting that Quinag can be usefully linked with the flying site at Ledmore Junction just to the south. Given suitable northerly conditions, this can offer the possibility for an early launch and flight to Ledmore to take advantage of Ledmore’s more westerly aspect as the day develops.

Takeoff altitude: 355m