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Sgùrr Marcasaidh circuit from Conon Falls House (Luichart Dam) with Kids (8, 11, 17 yo)Stats:Total distance - 11.1 km
Total time - 7h28m
Walking time - 3h41m
Altitude gain - 520 m
Terrain:2 km - Road
2.1 km - Farm track
7 km - roughly half and half deer paths and pathless (a mix of grass and short heather, boggy in some places)
Sgùrr Marcasaidh has been on my hiking list for a long time, and finally we did it!
It is an extensive hill, crisscrossed with deer paths, so the second part of our way up was along them. The first part was along the road and a good farm track.
The deer paths were easily walkable (Thanks deer!
) and we managed to find a fine path uphill, but the descent from Sgùrr Marcasaidh East Top was quite tricky, especially for the kids. It was very, very steep in some places
and I had to think about each step twice, so that the kids could manage it.
Parking spot at Conon Falls House close Luichart Dam:
The sign front of the house:
Luichart Dam and Sgùrr Marcasaidh East Top in the middle:
Loch Luichart and the Sub2000 - Càrn Faire nan Con on the right:
There is no track marked on the OS map beyond the dam but the track continues beyond it:
Almost all reports describe the start of the way up behind this gate, alongside the fence up (the red arrow). I think that is an unnecessarily hard way up therefore we continued along the track towards Glenmarksie:
Glenmarksie:
Love!
We continued on the track behind Glenmarksie to the gate on the grassy branch track on the right side:
The grassy track ends after 100m beyond the gate.
From the end of the grassy track we walked the deer path which take us onto the ridge close to the transmitter (the red arrow - transmitter):
There are several deer paths to take, does not matter which you follow, you just need to get yourself close to the transmitter (the red arrow). The red line - our way up:
The deer track crossed a few boggy places (all of them easily avoidable), was indistinct in some places, otherwise was excellent:
View back:
Close to the transmitter:
From the transmitter we walked more or less pathless.
Trigpoint in sight:
Finally!
Conni on the top, View towards W:
The Munros - Fionn Bheinn and Slioch zoomed:
The Munro - Liathach zoomed:
Towards NE - The Munro - Ben Wyvis in the middle:
Way down.From the summit we walked along the ridge to the East Top. There was no deer path in our direction but the walk through the mix of grass and short heather was not difficult. We easily crossed several peat hags.
On the ridge:
Deer!
Sgùrr Marcasaidh East Top:
Loch Luichart and the Sub2000 Càrn Faire nan Con (the red arrow):
From the East Top we walked straight down to the fence. But it was not so easy. The descent was very, very steep:
Steep, steep, steep...
:
In the lower part of the descent we found a deer path which helped us to walk down:
Almost down:
We continued alongside the fence back to the farm track. It was very steep in some places as well
There was one low fence to climb:
Finally on the farm track at the gate I mentioned earlier:
We returned back to the car along the track across the dam.