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Despite being super-duper careful, I'd managed to pick up a cold. On top of the Never Ending Covid this wasn't exactly ideal and had me laid low for a bit, typically coinciding with some excellent weather. Frustrating or what.... After a couple of days indoors we thought some fresh air would do me good. Malky suggested Knock Farrel as I'd never been there.
We drove past the car park a couple of times before finding it
but eventually found ourselves parked up and heading along a good path past a big bird box
We followed the track and the sign posts towards the maze, looking out towards Strathpeffer
A little further on we could see Ben Wyvis and Little Wyvis clearly
It was very cold - the summer really is over now - but beautifully crisp. We reached the maze - rather than being a Harry Potter Triwizard-style maze it is designed more as a sort of sundial (
loads of interesting info here) and is made from lots of different types of rocks from all over Scotland!
We followed the maze all the way to the centre
Malky was not impressed
From here, we followed easy paths along, gently climbing towards Knockfarrel
Sgurr a' Mhuillin & Meallan nan Eun
Our path reached the bealach - and we carried on towards Knockfarrel. Knockfarrel is an old hill fort, which explained why it was basically a big pile of rock! This would be our furthest point today but the views were worth it - looking along the ridge to Cnoc Mor
Dingwall and the Cromarty Firth
Loch Ussie
We sat and enjoyed a cup of tea and a snack, while allowing me to have a rest. It felt amazing to be out but my chest felt rubbish
Eventually we got moving - it wouldn't do to get cold! We decided to head along the ridge and see how far we got...
Across the bealach there was a short steep section which warmed us up but didn't seem too bad...after all it was probably the equivalent of a couple of flights of stairs, and I have to do that every time I need to pee at Malky's house
Looking back to Knockfarrel
From here the gradient was a lot easier, and it was a nice wee woodland path. We decided to carry on towards Cnoc Mor, keeping a look out for paths to get back down afterwards!
There were a couple of ups and downs right at the end which seemed a bit unfair, but at last, after dragging ourselves up a steep loose bit of path, we could see the trig point!
Summit of Cnoc Mor
I have the high ground!
The views from the trig weren't really a thing, so we climbed a stile and followed a path along towards a gap in the trees where we could see across Loch Achilty to Sgurr a' Mhuillin
The path looped around to join another path leading downwards from just before the final ascent to the trig. This dropped down steeply but seemed to be taking us in the right direction to cut off any extra distance.
This path led us all the way down to a track, which took us past a house with a lot of wooden carvings in the front yard!
A few minutes walk from here got us back to the car park, where I was able to throw the keys at Malky and get him to drive home, while I struggled to keep my eyes open
