UKH

Has anyone done Clachaig Gully recently, from the bottom up?  The SMC guide suggests you drop into it 'at 340m altitude' below the Great Cave pitch but wondering how how viable the first part is. It's (reasonable) dry at present, and its an old guide....

I was in there in 2018 and I think started quite low down and it was no more terrifying and dangerous than what we found higher up.  I remember struggling to identify the pitches form the guidebook description, but then again it was raining quite hard and there was a lot of water coming down. 

Always meant to go back in conditions like this weekend, hope you have a great time!!

As I recall, it's fine to just start at the base.

Start in pub carpark. Get in stream. Off you go. 

Dropping into it, and by that I assume you mean by abseil, would not be a great idea. The sides are rotten and loose. The normal way is to walk into the bottom of it and start climbing/grovelling until the top. It was about 30 years ago that I did it, but to the best of my knowledge this beta is still current. 

guidebooks now recommend coming in at 340m (as per OP) just above the stream that joins from other side of the gully.  We did this a few days back, you could ab from the trees (the path starts at top of grassy shoulder with trees below) but we walked down a very poor loose path, not great but not hard - sort of sets the scene

We did it in 1981 or 82, a very dry April but still got water running down our sleeves. Climbed from bottom in boots (not rock boots). Very enjoyable. I think the older guide books describe it as "character building"' I imagine at present the midges will be the most desperate thing you'll find.

Thanks all. Yeah, well, we did it from the carpark, as advised. Bit of seepage unfortunately from heavy rain the day before but the water level was still low after the dry period. What bothered us most was all the loose rock. Objectively quite a risky venture.