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Sub 2k Marilyns: Carn Faire nan Con.
Date: 04/01/2021.
Distance: 5.5km.
Ascent: 400m.
Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes.
Weather: Cold, calm and overcast.
As suspected for the last couple of days, Scotland was set to be plunged into stricter lockdown conditions from midnight onwards. Although still not clear whether this would change much travel-wise, we decided to make the best of the potential last day of freedom and head a little further from home. We had been into the western end of Strathconon a couple of times in November and December as it is conveniently close to home (around 25 miles away), so we decided to go there again. I had bigged up Carn Faire nan Con as one of the most spectacular small hills in the area, and Jackie reckoned that was about the largest thing she would have the energy for.
The road past Loch Achilty up towards the Luichart Dam was a bit icy in places, but nothing that concerned me too much with my winter tyres. It was after 1pm when we started walking, but we thought we would still make it down before dark. The gate to the final km of dam road was open, but it closes at 5pm and we thought it would be tempting fate to drive through it!
On the road to the dam 
Luichart Dam Just before the dam, we followed a firebreak which used to be the route of a power line. I had used this before and found it to be easy going, but this time it was more overgrown and some inconsiderate person had erected a deer fence across it
. Following the deer fence upwards, we found ourselves on a new track (for access to the pylon upgrade that had taken place recently) which hadn't been there on my previous visit, and was missing from the maps. Although it went up and down a bit, it led exactly where we wanted to go. Jackie was not amused - we could have had an easier approach to this point!
Looking north over Strathconon 
Loch Luichart and Sgurr Marcasaidh 
New track along the eastern shore Sgurr Marcasaidh looks really impressive from here - probably more so than it feels when you are actually on it (we had been up there in November). Beyond the end of the new vehicle track, a faint quadbike path led more steeply up the hill following the line of a smaller power line. Again it went exactly where we wanted it to - at least up to the 250m contour. We had stopped a couple of times by now and Jackie was finding the going harder than she expected for a hill of this height - I don't think the initial forest ride (which turned out to be avoidable) really helped much.
Sgurr Marcasaidh 
Back to the dam 
Up Loch Luichart to the Fannaichs 
Sgurr Marcasaidh across the loch We eventually left the path and waded briefly through deeper heather to reach an area which had been burnt away in a wildfire in the last few years. Although steep, this made the going much easier until we were closer to the summit. The last bit was a little soft and wet but not too bad.
Loch Luichart ...and finally the summit! Time for a well-earned proper break. It was a shame that the day was so overcast but the views to the Fannaichs and Ben Wyvis were good, and it felt like a proper little mountain up there.
Strath Garve 
Little Wyvis and Loch Garve 
Torr Achilty and the Black Isle 
Summit views 
Fannaichs As the ground hadn't been awful higher up, we decided to take a more direct route back. I had come up this way previously and knew that the going through the trees was fairly straightforward - it was more the gradient that had put us off coming straight up this way today. First though, we had to dodge about a bit to find our way through the crags above Loch an Dubh-cairn. We made a couple of mistakes here and had to backtrack. The light was beginning to fade but we knew we'd be back on the good track before it was too difficult to see.
Loch an Dubh-chairn 
Descent to Loch Luichart The going through the woods was fine as expected, aside from a final steep bit down by a new deer fence. We briefly wished we had stayed high for longer, as the evidence of a great sunset was visible in the sky to the south. The fence led us to the new vehicle track at the point we had discovered it on the way up. We decided to follow it down, although it was quite icy.
Down in the trees 
Last light over Strathconon Stupidly, we decided to take a shortcut as the track overshot our parking space a little. This was fine to begin with, but left us mired in felled trees and bracken before we had to climb a final deer fence to get onto the dam road. I completely blame Jackie for this detour! A nice short day out - we now headed home to see what restrictions the new lockdown would bring.
