The Custodian, The President, The ex-Custodian, The Engineer and 4-Paws
4 – 7 April 2025
The pre work meet work meet, under the leadership of the current Coruisk custodian, the Oberhütteführer, is now a well-established, unofficialish meet in the JMCS calendar. It is a useful precursor to the main event in May, so stock can be taken of materials needed and jobs to be undertaken at the official work meet. It’s a long way from Coruisk to the nearest B&Q if you forget to bring the right screws! It also serves as a useful test-bed for the Oberkjøkkenführer to try out his menu plan for the main event on some willing guinea pigs.
The advance party, in the form of The Engineer arrived a day early on the Thursday with one eye on the hut and the other on the ridge. The ridge had the bigger draw and he set off for a high bivi but ended up having to head back to the mainland to see to unexpected pressing matters. That meant the remaining attendees were left without someone who knew what they were doing and a surplus of food. Oh well, such is life.
The balance of the meet arrived at Elgol in time for the 14:30 boat to Coruisk. Loaded with a replacement lock and keys (always bring the keys!), toilet roll and large quantities of food, we headed up to the hut to discover that the water wasn’t running (again!). The ex-Custodian and the President headed up to the Mad Burn to check for blockages and spent a fruitful couple of hours dismantling joints and brackets and doing some vigorous rodding to eventually get the water flowing again.
This involved The President having to partially immerse himself in the pool to loosen some hard-to-get-to nuts. The Custodian was not over impressed at this as he’d been happily drinking the water once it started flowing again. However, all was forgotten as we munched into our chicken, bacon and leak pie with mash and purple sprouting broccoli followed by rhubarb crumble and custard. I think the Custodian has his eye on the Golden Sausage Award this year.
Saturday dawned fine. In fact, fine is an understatement as this meet coincided with an extended spell of blue skies, early enough in the season to catch the midgies still snoozing. Gas bottles were counted (good news – no gas lift this year), the lock was changed, the mattresses and pillows cleaned and various other domestic chores completed. Measurements were taken and plans for enhancing some of the hut amenities made. The Coruisk painting was added to the wall and a copy of the Anthology left for the enjoyment of future occupants. We managed to squeeze in a short walk to Loch Coruisk between these onerous tasks before the Oberkjøkkenführer treated us to a starter of mozzarella and prosciutto followed by stuffed pork with braised cabbage and sautéed potatoes and a cheese board with truffle and honey dip.
More good weather on Sunday and the main job was to disinfect the water pipe. This involved splitting the pipe near the source and feeding 40 chlorine tablets into the pipe: 1 every 30 seconds then leaving the water to stand for a few hours before letting it run clean. Our efforts were rewarded with more good nosh – freshly baked focaccia and authentic carbonara (senza panna) with campanelle. We entertained a couple of paddlers just back from a whistlestop tour of the Small Isles (training for St Kilda this summer) and treated them to some legendary JMCS hospitality. Four paws made them especially welcome!
More blue skies on Monday and a final clean up before catching the 10:30 to Elgol. A great trip. Thanks to all involved and looking forward to the main event at the end of May.
