Torr Achilty route - cow free & mainly undergrowth free

[Hills4dogs]

The goal for today "towering" over Contin!

I have been interested in this hill for a while, I see it frequently as I am driving through Contin each time I go out for the more northern hills, it is also pretty much the closest Marilyn to the Black Isle (that is not on the Black Isle). Shortly after moving up here, we went for a walk around the hill just for a gentle stroll, starting out at the car park for Loch Achilty and walking along Loch Achonachie. At the dam we had to do a bit of trackless walking but it wasn't too bad and at the time I noted that the prominent deer fence marked on the map was not in a good state of repair so it was easy to get through. We then carried on the farm tracks into Contin and then back along the minor road to Loch Achilty. At the time, as we walked through the farm it was clear that the farm access track ran through a large field of Aberdeen Angus cows and their calves, fortunately that day all the cows were off in the distance and didn't bother us, but that fact has put me off returning to go up the hill, in addition the other walk reports, which have all been from Contin, going through the farm described battling heather and bracken on the way up.
Since I had a spare morning recently, I decided it would be worth a try going up the hill from Loch Achilty as an alternative route. My logic was: there would be no cows that way ; walking up through the forest would mean there could be considerably less heather/bracken to have force my way through; and if the fence at the bottom was anything to go by maybe the deer fence that appeared to completely block this route would possibly have a gap in it somewhere.
The route for today

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So I parked up at the Loch Achilty car park and walked out along the road for about 150m before turning off onto a good forest logging track. Walked along these tracks for probably a couple of km when the logging track finished at a large turning circle with good views over Loch Achonachie.

Good forest tracks

Loch Achonachie

Although the logging track ended a good track continued through the wood.

Still good forest tracks

At some point I had to decide where to turn off, this was pretty much guesswork. I decided to go up when I was opposite the power station on the other side of the Loch. I picked this spot because it seemed the closest place to the fence that didn't look to steep on the map. It was still pretty steep at the start and did make me wonder if it was going to be fun coming down if the deer fence was blocking my path. Apart from the steepness, it was pretty easy going through the trees, just picking my way around the odd fallen tree but there were not even that many of those. With hindsight it would have been easier to set off up the hill earlier and make my way up on a more diagonal trajectory (the way I actually came down) to avoid the steepness.

T'was a bit steep initially!

When I got to the deer fence, I was very pleased to find that on the corner the fence was down, it was very flat and could easily be stepped over by both me and the pup.

Corner of the deer fence is down at NH 441 552

After the deer fence, there was a clear path through the bracken and we surprised an owl which quickly flew off. A barn owl I think from its colouring but not entirely sure. After coming out of the bracken and the end of the wood we then had about 0.5 km to go with ~70m ascent. This was the hard bit as it was mostly through pretty high heather and was particularly tough for Dill as it was above spaniel height! There weren't even any obvious animal tracks to help.

Just this bit still to go!

After a wee battle we were there.

Torr Achilty summit

Ben Wyvis

Beinn Dearg with snow on in the distance (I think)

Strathconon corbetts in the distance over Loch Achonachie

We then battled our way back through the heather to the deer fence. When I got through the fence there was a clear path leading away from it on a much more gentle decline than the way I came up, so we followed that initially. It pretty quickly disappeared but we just carried on the same gentle trajectory down the hill through the forest and soon came out back on the forest path close to the logging track turning circle.

The path leading away from the downed deer fence

As always, one of us managed to have a "warm down" swim getting access into the River Conon further along the logging path on the way back to the car.

Hydrotherapy after all the heather hopping!!

View of the hill just as you get into Contin.

Although just a wee trip, a very enjoyable morning in the hills.

[gld73]

I think you're probably the first person to talk about Torr Achilty as an enjoyable walk, so your route must be better than the one I took ... It is an attractive looking hill, so if you've found a decent alternative route I might go up it again after all!

[jackiewilson]

Thanks for sharing this. Inspires me to have a go!