This weekend, three Perth locals, Dale Cairns, David Gardiner & Rorie Fegan set their sights on An Teallach, all in the name of Archie Foundation. As part of the ‘Archies On Top Of Scotland’ event, the boys spent a weekend up North facing new challenges and soaking in some of Scotland’s most picturesque and impressive views.
The Archie Foundation is a children’s hospital charity in Tayside, Grampian & The Highlands. Formed in 2000, they have been working hard across North Scotland to improve access to and quality of children’s healthcare. Including supporting the development of the new Aberdeen Royal Children’s Hospital. Supporting community pediatric healthcare across the Highlands and working to transform the Tayside Children’s Hospital at Ninewells. Archie hosts a range of events across the year to fundraise for their work, including ‘Archie On Top of Scotland’ which took place on June 4th 2022.
The ‘Archie On Top of Scotland’ event was a bid by the charity to have people summit all 130 Archies, Scottish Munros over 1000ft, in one day. They were looking for as many people as possible to sign up to do one of the Munros and to raise money for the cause simultaneously. The event was a huge success, especially for these three.
Perth fellas Dale Cairns, David Gardiner & Rorie Fegan set out on the Scottish mountain traverse An Teallach; they each set up their own JustGiving page a few weeks ago in prep for the day. So far, they have raised almost £1,900 between them for the cause, with plans to keep the links live just a little bit longer in case anyone else would like to donate.
An Teallach means ‘The Family’ in Scots Gaelic
A perfect mountain for these three to tackle together for this event. Having been bagging Munros with each other for the past year Rorie, Dale & David set about this challenge with their sights set on a win. These mountains are no mean feat. All being accomplished hillwalkers, these guys stepped up for the charity; not only that, they made a weekend of it and bagged Ben Wyvis on the way back – because why not?
Dale Cairns, 28, has done 43 Munros in the past 13 months. Starting his Munro journey with Gardiner and Fegan just last year.
“I was swimming in the sea, drinking beers, shouting too much, skinny dipping, getting naked on the hill. Living my best life, ”
The entire weekend, however, was a huge success for the boys. Raising £1830 for Archie Foundation between them in the process. A well-deserved blowout was warranted.
When asked about how the trip up An Teallach was, Dale told me that he was blown away. An Teallach is a traverse that consists of two Munros, Sgurr Fiona & Bidein a Ghlas Thuill, as well as a grade 3 climb and ridge walk amongst other pretty incredible spots along the way.
Dale said: “It was unreal, perfect weather, perfect company. There was a graded climb on it, which is much more intense than your average Munro. It’s not one you would want to do yourself. None of us were scared; we were all really excited, but we were being very careful as we understood the risks of these Munros.”
The hills have brought camaraderie to these three. Also allowing them to push themselves with each hill but have a blast whilst doing it…
“We all managed it pretty well; we supported each other, helped each other up, definitely a group activity. The views were absolutely surreal; they were amazing. I can’t describe the drops. And the views of all the other hills around us. Scotland is beautiful .”
“The Arches are the 130 Munros, which are above 1000 metres. And An Teallach was meant to be one of the most dramatic and beautiful mountains. It’s quite challenging. And we fancied quite a good challenge. As we’ve been recently ticking off some of the easier Munros”
“I can’t actually describe how amazing it was.”
The weekend didn’t stop there. On the way back, the boys stopped at Ben Wyvis.
“We did Ben Wyvis on Sunday, which is just above Inverness. And we could look back and see An Teacllach from it. Which was pretty cool. We’re trying to get 50 hills each this year – and I’m already on 22 so far. We’re planning to do the Glenshee 9 and also going to do the Fisherfields Five. Which is actually just beside An Teallach”
David Gardiner, 29, joined the group having done 48 Munros in the past year. Rekindling his Munro Bagging journey with Rorie last year after what was a pretty dodgy start to his hillwalking career.
David said: “I started hillclimbing because of Rorie. At the end of lockdown, we did Ben Vrackie, then we went to Ben Nevis the week after. And since then we have just continued on and have been bagging Munros ever since. I tried a hill before that in Crianlarich. And we failed massively. I wasn’t prepared for that one at all – we didn’t even have a bottle of water, only Cola! We also had a German shepherd that loved chasing sheep. So it didn’t go so well.”
David also had his Garmin watch, which allowed him to give us some detailed stats on the walk itself. As well as the route they took:
“An Teallach was amazing. It’s probably the best Munro I’ve done so far. I’m on 48 now, and I started last year. And definitely the best I’ve done yet. A lot of climbing was required, and loads of exposed ridges. It could have been quite dangerous. We actually lost the path a couple of times. At two points we were off track, but we managed to find our way. ”
“Instead of climbing down the bad step, we climbed up. Everyone else on the hill did An Teallach anti-clockwise, but we did it clockwise. Just to make it even more of a challenge. We walked 16.74 kilometers and were about 9 hours 50 on the hills. But we probably took about 6 hours of views in.”
“I definitely enjoy hillwalking. It’s like an escape. A nice break.”
“We went up the week before to scout the camp spot – so it cost me two tanks of fuel. So the groundwork went into that spot. If someone else wants it, they will need to put the work in too!” telling us about the secret camping spot thy had found.
Rorie Fegan, 32, another seasoned Munro bagger, has raised an almighty £925 for the cause.
Rorie said: “I’ve done 57 Munros now. I started back when I was 24. My step-dad actually got me into it. But I had only done around 10 hills up until last April. Then David [Gardiner] gave me a shout and wanted to do Ben Nevis. After doing that I think he got the bug and we’ve been ticking them off consistently ever since. Now it’s one of my favourite things to do.”
“We did the route clockwise so that you go up ‘the bad step’ rather than down. The bad step is a scramble that consists of 2 x 12 metre pitches; it could be fairly difficult for some. A grade 3 climb. There is a bypass path around it though if you get there and don’t fancy tackling it.”
“When we were up I got the chance to dangle my legs off Lord Berkley’s seat. I definitely got a rush doing that.”
“I heard about the event from a YouTube video. After that, I looked up the charity and knew that I wanted to get involved. We chose the hill because it sounded a bit challenging and I had heard a lot of really good things about it.”
“It also meant taking care of 2 of the 130 Archies needing done for the event.”
Rorie, Dale & David joined hundreds of others on Saturday in climbing ‘The Archies’. There were huge achievements across the board on June 4th, with the charity raising an amazing £22,000 so far. A huge congratulations to everyone involved. What a truly incredible achievement for such a wonderful cause.
An Teallach Itinerary:
- The guys left Perth on a Friday evening and camped near An Teallach – however, we are not privy to this secret camp spot – they did say that there are plenty of camping options 20 miles around the hills, so you won’t be stuck
- BBQs, beers & swims all round
- They stayed in the same spot two nights in a row. Saturday they took on An Teallach and were out for the day for around 11 hours.
- On Sunday they packed up and headed from Dundonnell to Ben Wyvis, which is about 20 miles north of Inverness. Here they each time trailed Ben Wyvis.
- They drove back down from Ben Wyvis to Perth on Sunday evening
An Teallach on Walkhighlands.
Ben Wyvis on Walkhighlands.
You can donate to the challenge through the guys’ JustGiving links; Dale Cairns, David Gardiner & Rorie Fegan.
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