The Colby Camp on Creach Bheinn

A 19th Century engraving of the camp being built, looking towards the summit. The massive sheltering walls are not yet built.

Last summer I had a great day out on the Glen Galmadale horseshoe in Morven. The two Corbetts, Fuar Bheinn and Creach Bheinn, together with the Graham, Beinn na Cille were only part of the attraction. I was also interested to have a look at the “Camp” which is marked on the OS 1:50,000 map just North West of the Creach Bheinn summit and only slightly lower at about 840 metres height.

My old Corbetts guidebook wondered if the dry stone walled enclosure had been built as a lookout around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. But I knew that it was a Colby Camp - the ruins of one of the summit shelters used by Ordnance Survey surveyors during the principal triangulation of the mapping of Britain in the 19th Century. In one camp they are reported to have stayed for three months to complete the survey.

These camps were named after Major General Thomas Colby (then Colonel Colby), who became Superintendent of the Ordnance Survey. Colby was no armchair General. In an article in the SMC Journal 2013, Graham Little writes that Colby recced Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, Caithness and mainland Orkney for triangulation stations and camp sites walking 513 miles in 22 days. He had a day’s rest and then went on to do the same in the Cairngorms, walking another 586 miles in 22 days.

Unfortunately, there is no record of the number or location of all the Colby camps in Scotland. but I am sure that we all know of one or two locally. Mam Sodhail has a well built shelter two hundred metres South West of the summit and of course, the huge cairn on its summit was the work of the OS sappers. Ben Klibreck has a ruined shelter just south of and 50m below the summit, although on our last trip to Ben Klibreck we were more intent on keeping upright in the wind rather than searching for a Colby Camp.

Graham Little’s article helpfully provides a list of where good examples of Colby Camps can be found:

Beinn an Oir NR 499 750 Altitude 760m

Ben Lawers NN 637 412 Altitude 1180m

Creach Bheinn NM 870 577 Altitude 835m

Ben Alder NN 496 718 Altitude 1130m

Ben Macdui NN 990 988 Altitude 1300m

Mam Sodhail NH 119 253 Altitude 1150m

Clisham (An Cliseam) NB 154 073 Altitude 790m

Ben Klibreck (Meall nan Con) NC 585 298 Altitude 915m

Ben Hutig NC 538 652 Altitude 385m

My interest in the Creach Bheinn Colby Camp - piqued by the reference in my guidebook and the “Camp’ label on the OS map - was captured when I had a look at Canmore and found a really good aerial photograph of the camp together with an engraving from 1852 of how the camp would look.

An aerial view of Creach Bheinn summit camp. The summit is lower centre right of the photo, the camp in the centre. (Canmore - https://canmore.org.uk)

This is what Canmore records about the Camp:

“An encampment, erected on the orders of Col. Colby, was noted beside the Primary Triangulation Station on Creach Bheinn. The lay-out follows the usual plan for camps of this type. The camp was established in the nearest position to the pillar that afforded any shelter; i.e. in a shallow saddle about 100' away - a well-laid footpath connecting the two, and running through the camp to the guard or cook-house  on the N side. This 'house' seems to have been the only 'roofed' building in the camp, probably because fires were lit there for drying and cooking; it only measures about 10' square. The windbreak wall is still in perfect condition, about 8' high and built of handpicked stones - the top is as level as a pavement. …….. low stone circles …… surrounded (probably) the larger tents in which the labourers and sappers were accommodated. The smaller tent circle ….. lies on its own, and nearer to the trig.: in all probability this was the observer's (officers) watch tent. The footpath is now covered by moss etc. at its W end, but was no doubt once continuous.

Information contained in letter from R J Stone to A R Martin (OS), visited 27 July 1951.”

Despite this piece being mostly about the Colby Camp, the Glen Galmadale horseshoe gives a great hill day with super views of Morven, Ardgour, Appin and over to Mull.  It is well worth doing.

Arthur McCourt