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It was a very dull day but I wanted to go for a quick walk to stretch the dogs legs. It was supposed to dry up in the afternoon and so I picked this wee hill having read
Jaxter's and
Rob's walk reports. Although, as I prefer to go on circular walks, I was hoping to combine them and go up "the easy way" and then come down the other way. As I drove from the Black Isle to South of Loch Ness going through intensifying rain, I wasn't feeling hopeful, but as I pulled up to park the rain stopped and the clouds cleared
.
- The starting gate
Parked in the driveway of the forest track, quite wide and certainly room for a couple of cars. Started walking up the path and soon passed Loch a Choire with views onto Creag Dhearg
- Loch a Choire
Continued walking along the path which then bends to the right and shortly afterwards came to another gate across the track. This gate was definitely locked but was loose enough to let the dog through, but not me, fortunately there was a wooden slatted fence at the right hand side which was easily to climb over. Immediately over the gate there was a wooden log bridge which I crossed and then travelled up through the edge of the wood between the trees and the deer fence.
- Bridge and "gap" in the trees
The ground was a bit damp but not too bad considering it was March! The trees are definitely growing, so in some places there was a wee bit of limbo dancing to get along between the trees and fence. Not too long through this section and then we were out into a fire break.
- Looking down
- Looking up the fire break
Then it was just a short haul upto the western top which had the better views
- Dill at the first top with the real top in the background
- Stac Garm on left behind Loch Ruthven
Then it was just a short trip over to the real summit
- Dill having a bad hair day!
- Looking out to Inverness!
After a short break it was time to set off again, rather than retracing our steps we went SE down over the heather until we found another convenient fire break that took us back to the original forest track. We pottered back down the path through/over the locked gate and as we got level with Loch a Choire I noticed there was a gate in the deer fence around the loch so as Dill loves a swim we went down to the Loch.
- On the beach before the swim with Creag Dhearg in the background
After the swim it was just a short stroll back to the car, a lovely wee dry stroll in the hills
- Back at the car, Stac Gorm still to do this one!