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As January draws to a close and before the slightly lighter and more optimistic February begins I thought of my least favourite hills of 2022. The hills themselves and the conditions on the day lumped these two at the bottom of the pile by some margin.
they aren't the most attractive mountains
- Kevin Woods (.co.uk)
The hills themselves lack interest
- walkhighlands
an unexcitint monroe
Kiwi Boy, UK Hillwalking
to say this pair are not the most exciting hills in the country would be an understatement…..For a lot of people they are a necessity for a couple of ticks.
- Alan Rowan, Moonlight Walker
Sitting at 277th and 278th respectively on this site’s user rating list, these are two hills that appear to be universally regarded as miserable lumps. To that end I decided that with a forecast of moderate wind and rain as well as limited visibility they would be an ideal choice for an early November day trip.
I left the car at around 8.50 after the drive up and immediately noted the stiff breeze as I negotiated crossing the A9 to get started. Across the road and onto an estate track I climbed the moderate slope and after a 100m up took a final look at the limited pockets of blue sky before disappearing into the clag.
Around this time the drizzle began, then it increased in violence and sustained itself as the track steepened. It’s not a difficult or a long climb but a steady drag up a well made track which with wind and rain and low visibility was decidedly miserable.
I reached the point where where a decision is to be made which to tackle first so I headed towards Carn Na Caim. Recent rain had made this boggy place possibly boggier than usual. Not the type 2 fun extreme bogs of somewhere like the Ben Lui forest but a uniquely sodden type of unremitting sinkable brown carpet.
I reached the unnamed 914m top and walked by the fence posts to Carn na Caim. By now wet through I tried to cleverly cut the corner and take a more direct route which, as it turns out, is 98% bog.
On reaching the point where I had left the ascent track earlier I kept going on the path towards A’Bhuidheanach Bheag, surely up there with the less pronounceable munros.
The wind dropped a bit and the rain let up and I warmed up taking a brisket pace. Out of a combination of laziness and reluctance to get the map out again and fiddle with my bag clips in undextrous gloves I walked into the clag towards what I thought was the right direction. As I ascended slightly and then descended I thankfully questioned whether this was right and after a short skirting round what I think was the other side of the 879m A’Bhuidhneach top I was back on track.
- Come for the views
With not much ascent remaining it feels as though you’ll hit the trig point at any moment but with the cloud down a bit of care is needed to find it perched in the middle of an almost flat plateau. By this point my iPhone was obviously dejected at recording the sights of the day and my customary summit selfie captured only part of my jacket and thermos lid:
As I headed back through the damp cloud I took a lot of photographs of a hole into which water ran, generating foam or bog spume as I have named it. I think at this stage I was beginning to grasp at anything for a point of interest.
- Bog spume or, to the academics, dissolved organic content (DOC) -
A gentle stroll along an obvious path and back down the ascent track was straightforward enough and at this point I was just looking forward to the piece I’d left in the car (sandwich rather than firearm….)
I was questioning my choice of hobby as I descended when suddenly the clouds shifted and the hills west were lit up by narrow streams of sunlight.
- Zoomed
The photo doesn’t capture how the fast movement of the clouds with the wind refracted the light in different ways and it was one of those moments when you stand for a second and take in all of it around you feeling totally still and at peace.
Overall a relatively wet, dark and dull day - but one with a redemption at its conclusion that made it all worthwhile.
