Hills to myself on a dry bank holiday weekend Saturday

[gld73]

Good forecast on my day off and I was intending to do Seana Bhraigh ...but I set off from the house later than planned and by Garve had decided that I might not get parking at Inverlael if this dry Saturday on a summer bank holiday had tempted enough people to do the Beinn Dearg four or Seana Bhraigh. So at the last minute I turned off to do what I thought would be less popular hills in Strathcarron, a couple of grahams I'd read reports on previously but just hadn't got round to doing yet. It proved an enjoyable walk, and as I'd originally been meaning to have a bigger mountain day anyway, I extended the day's walking by stopping off to do another hill on the drive home, the sub-2000 of An Cabar by Loch Fannich - though taking a different approach from others who've done it from the Fannich Lodge estate road. Despite the bank holiday and decent weather, there wasn't another soul on these 3 hills.

1st Walk:
Beinn na Feusaige and Carn Breac (2 grahams)
15km, 830m ascent
4.6hrs

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I parked at the old entrance to the forestry, room for a couple of cars there though plenty parking further along the road where I came down off the hill at the end of the walk. From the car it was straight up the firebreak in the forestry, alongside a fence. When I got to the top of the forestry and the deer fence running across I thought I'd have to clamber over, until I saw that someone had cut a section of the fence and folded it back, leaving an easy route through to the open hillside. Steep ascent continued, but on nice ground, natural 'steps' in the grassy, heathery hillside making it easier.

Gate at start of the walk to head up the firebreak

Walked up alongside a deer fence and reached a deer fence running along the top of the forestry - but no need to climb over, holes to crawl though are there

Looking back down as I headed up Beinn na Feusaige's steep slope - firebreak clearly seen in the middle of the photo. Moruisg in the munro on the other side of Loch Sgamain

Looking west towards Carn Breac gives a better idea of the gradient?!

Beinn na Feusaige's eastern cairn: Slioch is in the middle, Beinn Eighe far left

Looking NE to Fionn Bheinn

Looking from the eastern cairn the short distance to be covered to the actual summit of Beinn na Feusaige

I went to the eastern cairn first, then headed about 300m west to the other one, not knowing which was the actual summit (having looked it up now, it seems the western one is the true summit, the eastern one being a couple of metres lower at 625m).

Small cairn at the summit

View south to Morusig and Sgurr nan Ceannaichean. The layby for the start of the route for those 2 hills was full, but nobody else seemed to be doing Beinn na Feusaige and Carn Breac today

Zoomed view NW to Beinn Eighe

Starting the descent west from Beinn na Feusaige, the curving route ahead past Lochan Meallan Mhic Iamhar, up the slopes on the right to Carn Breac and then down on the left via Coille Bhan is fully visible

Continued west, down and skirting round the right hand side of Lochan Meallan Mhic Iamhar before heading over Meallan Mhic Iamhar. This section involved a bit more zig zagging around hags and up and down over lumps and bumps than I'd expected when looking at it from further away, but nothing too bad. Once I finally made it on to the slopes heading south west to Carn Breac's summit it was a nice walk again. Big summit shelter around the trig point makes it clear where this summit is, and it's a fantastic viewpoint. Spent 10-15 mins sitting having my lunch and enjoying the Torridon and Strathcarron views here.

Carn Breac summit, with a backdrop of Fuar Tholl, Sgorr Ruadh and Beinn Liath Mhor. A good reminder that I still have the impressive corbett of Fuar Tholl to do!

View down Loch Coulin to Liathach and Beinn Eighe, tops of the munros going in and out of cloud through the day. I've still to do Liathach, but I'll leave it for a clear day.

The descent rote down Coille Bhan and Coille Bhreac (Beinn na Feusaige on the left)

Rather than descend down the glen, I followed the broad ridge around to descend over Coille Bhan and Coille Bhreac. More hags and bog, but nothing which couldn't be avoided. After the steeper final descent I reached the forestry area, but rather than look for a gate off to my left to get through the deer fence and walk through the forestry area, I just followed the outside of the fence down to the right to reach the old unused section of road, and the final short stretch back to the car.

Trainspotting - on the stretch between Achnashellach and Achnasheen stations

2nd Walk:
An Cabar (sub2k)
8.5km, 480m ascent
2.4hrs

I still had plenty time to do another short-ish walk on the way home, so had a look at my OS maps to see what I'd be passing near that I hadn't done before. I vaguely remembered reading walk reports for An Cabar, but from its eastern side, starting from Grudie or the Fannich Lodge estate road. Looking at the map, approaching from the south west and going along its western ridge to the summit looked a possible option - even if it didn't work out, I'd already done a good walk today, so nothing lost if I didn't get to another summit. From the A832, I intended to try and take a path shown going from Strathbran Lodge up to Loch na Curra, so when I passed the entrances to the Lodge, I immediately looked for the next place to park. I didn't have anything behind me, so was able to stop abruptly and nip into a car-sized area of tarmac shortly after the lodge, but no doubt there are larger, easier to spot laybys or parking areas in the vicinity.

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The lodge driveway has 2 entrances, I walked along to the western one. It didn't look particularly public, but my map showed a footpath as going off to the left a very short way up the drive - and so it did, a nice bridge going over the burn and the clear path then heading up through the woods. On reaching a hydro scheme building, this then joined a vehicle track coming in from the left (so if the lodge gates were shut, I guess you could just start from the vehicle track entrance a bit further west along the A832). The footpath was shown on my map as going all the way to Loch na Curra, so I assumed this new vehicle track would now go all the way there too, but it ends just past the top of the forestry, and from there it is just a grassy path through the moorland alongside the small burn.

Through the gates at the western end of Strathbran Lodge's driveway. I was a bit tentative going in despite my OS map showing it as a footpath ...

...but just a few metres in, this gate is on the left and the path takes you over the burn into woodland

The nice woodland path then joins a hydro scheme vehicle track - this is looking back down it to the south, with the Strathconon corbetts across Strath Bran

The vehicle track ends soon after leaving the forestry, just beyond this recent memorial stone to one of the estate stalkers and his wife. An Cabar is the hill about 2km ahead.

The path shown on OS maps going to Loch na Curra is just this worn grassy path after the hydro track

Left the path and headed over the rough ground pretty much on a direct line towards the western top. The main summit is the eastern one, visible in the distance on the right here

I didn't go all the way to the loch, crossed the burn (literally stepped across it, it is small!) and headed up towards the western top of An Cabar. I knew the summit was the eastern top, but thought the west might give better views. It did have good views, and it was an easy walk east then to the summit trig point and more views. I took a more direct line from the summit back to the path and then retraced my steps back down the track.

Fionn Bheinn lies to the west, to the left of Loch Fannich

Pano of the Fannichs from An Cabar's western top

From this wee cairn on the western top, it's a few hundred metres over to the summit on the eastern top

Trig point at An Cabar summit. Ben Wyvis is in the distance, middle of shot

I haven't done the route from the Fannich Lodge road for comparison, but this shorter route from Strathbran Lodge was an enjoyable one, a straightforward hill walk with great views.