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Spectacular Faraid Head camp (& a tiny hill)

Spectacular Faraid Head camp (& a tiny hill)


Postby Jaxter » Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:49 pm

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: An Socach (Parph)

Date walked: 10/08/2020

Time taken: 3 hours

Distance: 9.22 km

Ascent: 390m

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A long weekend of good weather before Mummy & Daddy Clark were coming to stay with us - an excuse to get away with the tent for a few days. I was able to manage some small hills, so off we went. I also can't do early at the moment so we had a leisurely start and headed up the west coast, making a few stops in Assynt for a few photos and a lunch stop. It was a beautiful day 8)

Some lovely water at the bottom of the gorge (Allt Chranaidh)
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Quinag
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Stopping off for a view down Loch Glencoul and the Stack of Glencoul for lunch
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Kylesku Bridge
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Impressive Quinag again
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Ben Stack from near Kinlochbervie
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We parked up on the Kinlochbervie road just above Badcall, with views to Loch Inchard
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We headed up a track which would hopefully gain us a decent amount of height before dumping us in the middle of nowhere :lol:
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It was very hazy but we could see south to Quinag
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It was slow work but we made it to the top of the track which dumped us onto a plateau. Our experience of the ground previously is that it's not as bad as it looked, and other than a slightly awkward burn crossing this seemed to be the case
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Foinaven and Arkle
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We plodded our way across towards the hill - there were traces of a path in places which we hadn't expected.
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The final ascent of An Socach
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We got ourselves onto the sort of ridge of crags on the left, before dropping down to a bealach.
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Looking down Sandwood Loch
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Down the coast towards Handa
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The climb from the bealach was steep, but taking it slowly we were managing. Once reaching the top, we realised that it wasn't actually the top - we were expecting this from reading Weaselmaster's report, but hadn't realised how far away the summit was going to look :lol:

Fortunately there was a big bird to keep us occupied (species unknown!)
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Loch an t-Socaich
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Possibly the same large bird?
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Closing in on the actual summit of An Socach - only 362m but making us work for it :shock:
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Finally there!
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To be fair to it, the views from An Socach were awesome. Looking north we could see the radio mast hill above Durness - the route that other people have taken to this hill
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Foinaven and Arkle
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An Grianan above Strathan bothy
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Foinaven, Arkle, Ben Stack and Quinag
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Summit of An Socach
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Some lovely light on the sea
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Time to go - we were getting hungry! To avoid any re-ascent, we traversed back around the hill, aiming to drop off the ridge on the front
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This worked reasonably well. The ground was a bit rough in places but never dreadful, although there were some bogs and hags. We dropped back down to the burn (filling up some water) and discovered bits of a path which led us back across the moorland (but also some midges)

Back at the track
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It definitely could have been worse, and when we arrived back at the car, it was - the midges were out in force and we dived in and drove off pretty quickly :lol:

We drove up to Balnakeil (discovering on the way that Malky had failed in his one task - Cocoa Mountain wasn't actually opening until Monday :shock: No hot chocolate for breakfast after all :cry: ) There were hunners of folk camping near the car park and on the dunes. We were planning to walk a little further and would get away from them :lol:
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Looking back across Balnakeil Bay
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Faraid Head
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We climbed up onto the cliffs and walked a short distance to find somewhere to pitch - it was pretty windy and it was a bit of a struggle :lol:
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Views were out of this world though
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The light was doing some incredible things
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Although there was some interesting light on the horizon, it looked like the sunset would be a bit of a disappointment...
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Until....
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...suddenly the sun popped out the clouds and gave us an incredible show 8)
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Oooft...intense 8)
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Some incredible evening light
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At some point throughout all this we had moved the tent around to behind a wall for a bit more shelter, and Malky had made dinner 8)
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Now a little more sheltered, we were able to sit out and enjoy the evening as the light faded
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Birthday present from my brother of solar powered lights made for cool photos :lol:
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We were just about to head to bed when the moon popped out and I took the tripod for photos round 2 :lol:
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What a night - we slept well in a sheltered tent 8)

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The sunrise didn't seem to be up to much so I enjoyed extra hours in bed (I need all the sleep I can get at the moment) so when we got up and had a nice breakfast (but disappointing when we were expecting Cocoa Mountain hot chocolate :cry: ) the sun was well up and the beaches looking spectacular 8)
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Balnakeil Bay
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We packed up the tent - a bit blowy but doable - and walked back down the cliffs and across the beach
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It was a lot quieter this morning - most of the campers had gone
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We had plans for the evening (concocted last night) but as it was a stunning day we decided to have a drive along the beaches 8)
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Whiten Head
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Loch Eriboll
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Cranstackie
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Cranstackie & Beinn Spionnaidh
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Beinn Mheadonach, the hill we climbed twice
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Looking down Loch Eriboll towards Foinaven
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Ben Loyal across Loch Loyal
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Tongue Bay and the Rabbit Islands
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We had a wander down to the beach at Torrisdale for some lunch
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Then we drove back towards Tongue for the evening's excitement... 8)
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Jaxter
Wanderer
 
Posts: 1486
Munros:217   Corbetts:139
Fionas:90   Donalds:49+13
Sub 2000:129   Hewitts:69
Wainwrights:81   Islands:35
Joined: Aug 8, 2011
Location: Glasgow/Inverness

Re: Spectacular Faraid Head camp (& a tiny hill)

Postby rockhopper » Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:20 pm

Superb sunset, Jackie, and I do like the Kylesku Bridge :) We were up that way only a few weeks ago and walked right along Balnakeil beach (while drinking our hot chocolate takeways from Cocoa Mountain as they're not doing sit-ins at the moment) but didn't get quite as far as Faraid Head. Hope you're continuing to imrpove - cheers :)
User avatar
rockhopper
 
Posts: 7445
Munros:282   Corbetts:222
Fionas:136   Donalds:89+20
Sub 2000:16   Hewitts:2
Wainwrights:3   Islands:20
Joined: May 31, 2009
Location: Glasgow

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