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This weekend was supposed to be our trip to Skye to tackle various scary Munro Tops along the ridge. From the start of the week it was not looking promising, as the screenshot from the Met Office suggests: thunderstorms, heavy rain and high winds. One of these hazards would be enough to cause concern, at least to me, but the triumvirate was sufficient for our guide, Paul, to advise on Wednesday night that we weren't going to Skye. I did think of titling this report "The Skye Nope Song" but thought that was going too far in the punnery department.
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Al, on Flickr
So what else could we get up to in the absence of scrambles? I must admit I'd been psyching myself up for the trip to the Cuillin and was a little disappointed, but I won't argue with the risk of lightning. The East looked reasonable weatherise - the other option had been to go to Lochcarron/Torridon/Poolewe and finish off my three remaining Grahams, but I suspected the weather would be fairly similar to that on Skye over in the West generally. I think Allison was surprised and relieved that we were going to do mostly tracked hills.
We headed up on Thursday night as usual. I had the idea that we'd walk in and camp at the top of Cat Law, which I remembered as being flat at the summit, that would get the weekend off to a quick start. Then we could do a mix of Corbetts, Grahams and maybe a few Simms. I hadn't bothered to take my GPS or a paper map, relying on my new allegiance with OS Maps. I quickly discovered a flaw in my system - I'd route plotted on my laptop, but hadn't opened the routes on my phone. When we needed to check directions to Balintore and the start of the route, there was, of course no signal and my route hadn't (yet) downloaded to the app on my phone. Just as well I recognised the parking place at Westerton Farm. Lesson one learned...
We spent some time getting our kit ready - Allison wasn't feeling great, she had some kind of lurgy and a sore throat, which - as the next 24 hours developed - made me glad we hadn't been on Skye. We spoke to a local man come to sort out his recycling and prepared to set off on a cool but pleasant evening. The previous times I've done Corwharn with Cat Law, but we didn't need to this time, refusing to accept the "pretendy Grahams" in my rounds. So it was 5k each way, on good track.
We walked past the farm with the ancient Morris 1100 outside that looks like it might still go, got to the gate to the sheepfield which doesn't open (or if you can open it you have many more muscles than I do) then walked through the inquisitive sheep onto the hillside. The sun was a ball off orange behind fluffy clouds and it looked as though we would be getting a cloud cover overnight which was disappointing. We found a suitable spot just past the trig column and set the tent up - barely any wind tonight, nice and quiet.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Cat Law - I've heard of Martial Law and Sharia Law - I wonder what life would be like under Cat Law? Would our prospective feline overlords make a better job of it than the Tories? I doubt it could be worse.
As expected, we woke in a cloud with views of nothing, but there had been enough breeze to stop the tent getting too damp. Packed away and back down to the car about 8am - no-one in the farm or adjacent houses seemed to be up, all was silent. Lazy folk about here, I said. Allison thought maybe they'd been up and done all their work already. We drove along assorted back roads til we got to Glen Clova, somewhere we haven't been for ages. On the way we passed dozens of little swifts sitting on the road...most odd. I wondered if they were eating ants or something - a pretty dangerous place to be. I had drawn three routes for Ben Tirran - two from this side taking in 3 Simms each and one audaciously joining Hunt Hill over at Glen Mark/Glen Lee with Ben Tirran. However, as Allison was feeling rough she wanted the easiest one. That seemed to be the standard WH route via Loch Brandy with the three western Simms thrown in - I'm a kind hearted soul really...
We parked at the small visitor car park, reminisced about arriving once when there was a beer festival on in the grounds of the Clova Hotel, and set off up the track. We could see a helicopter buzzing around up and down the glen. A slow, but steady pull up towards Loch Brandy. The helicopter came low over our heads and hovered then landed by Loch Brandy. A Scottish Air Ambulance copter - wonder what it was up to? We stopped for lunch when we reached the loch before climbing top the nose of The Snub and losing our visibility in clag.
The Snub
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
The three Simms seemed easy enough, all grouped together to the west of the Snub. However the terrain was peat hags and tussocks and visibility was poor. Then the rain came on. I found out the second disadvantage of relying on OS Maps on a smartphone to navigate by in clag and rain: the screen gets wet, raindrops make weird things happen to the pages and it's definitely inferior to my GPS under these circumstances when you have to consult it regularly. Lesson two learned. We managed to get to all three Simms, including the weirdly named Cat Hell Houses (well that's what it's called on my map - other map may say Cathelle Houses) continuing the cat theme of the weekend. There was also - to digress for a moment - a Cat Hill over to the west of Mt Battock which is a Simm and was going to be included if there was enough time...Back to the matter in hand - Ben Tirran or The Goet as it's known to its friends...Simms eventually done, with much fannying around, we got back to the Snub and some recognisable paths. Past the little monument to Luke Ireland, with a bottle of whiskey beside it in case you wanted a nip, then onwards to Green Hill, all covered by mist and rain. We reached the fence line that eventually leads to the summit - normally this is a boggy mess, but after the recent mostly dry weather it was possible to walk on almost all the dried bog - with the exception of one lagoon that needs to be skirted round.
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Al, on Flickr
By the time we arrived at the summit, Allison looked more dead than alive. She'd had some back twinges during the week so hadn't taken any painkillers today so that she could monitor this - she said that every single part of her hurt, like a symphony of pain. She didn't look very well either. I decided the best thing to do was get back to the car and not get lost. Unusually for me I managed to do just this, keeping to tracks or paths all the way down. We still had a couple of miles to walk back along the road. You see a lot of things on the road when you're walking rather than driving. Tiny frogs, no bigger than smallish houseflies (maybe they were what the swifts had been eating?), caterpillars, Dumbledore beetle pursuing each other, a newt. We got back to the car and proceeded to drive towards Invermark, where I'd planned to camp.
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Al, on Flickr
I'd looked at my map at the top of Ben Tirran which told meat was 6 miles from where I was to the parking area at Invermark. By road, however, it was 44 miles as you had to drive right down Glen Clova then right up Glen Esk. Ridiculous! It therefore took an hour and a half to get to the car park and get ready for the off once again. Allison could have slept in the car, but I was having none of that - it was only a mile at most to the spot I'd chosen to camp. We met a couple of guys from a camper van out walking their dog. They seemed pretty toasted and were amazed that we were off to camp. The spot I'd used when I was here 2 months ago was ideal, apart from some midges which made cooking the (late) tea unpleasant but not impossible. It was about 9.30 by this point so we both crashed out.
A good sleep proved a tonic for Allison's lurgy and she was looking and feeling better when we got up. The plan today was to leave the tent, go off and do Hunt Hill by the direct route then return and collect the tent and head off to Mt Battock. Our spot was concealed from the track so I didn't mind too much. We walked along the track beside Loch Lee, took the footbridge that one might use to go to the Falls of Damff then just cut straight up Hunt Hill. Deer paths helped avoid the worst of the tussocks and brought us out onto Dog Hillocks (getting away from the feline theme here) then quite gently up to the summit, across loads of blaeberry and cloudberry plants. The blaeberries were ripe, the cloudberries not quite. I remarked that the south side of Hunt Hill is much stonier than the north side. Sunshine was interspersed with heavy but beef showers - heavy enough to make you put waterproofs on, which then boiled you alive. We took the same route down and met legions of folk out for walks up Glen Lee. The car park was absolutely rammed when we got back to the car...
Loch Lee...with horses
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Hunt Hill
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Al, on Flickr
The more impressive Creag Maskeldie
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Not sure what this little fellow is
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Al, on Flickr
Summit Hunt Hill, Lochnagar in backdrop
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Al, on Flickr
It was around 2.30 when we reached the starting point for Mt Battock. The wind was now very strong and any thought of adding on some Simms had dissipated. Instead it was a matter of getting up and down. Or getting up and camping. I reckoned it would take us 5 hours to do the 15k circuit, which meant we'd be back at the car about 7.30 or so. Then we'd have to drive to Hill of Wirren, where I had spotted a suitable camp site on the walk in. Allison didn't really fancy such a long day, having already walked 15k and we decided to take our gear with us and try to find somewhere sheltered enough to pitch on the way up. I was concerned - the Met Office suggested Mt Keen, just a little way off, was getting 45mph winds with gusts of 55 for the remainder of the day and tomorrow morning. Whilst we were getting ready there were really loud explosions/gunshots - sounded more like a howitzer than a shotgun. Welcome to the war zone.
We walked up the road, passing a sheltered spot beside the house with the weird conical cowl where a cloud of clegs were suspended in the air. Too windy even for them out in the open today, may Cat be thanked. Then onto good track. Lots of farm or estate people going around - they could teach the folk of Balintore a thing or two...We continued up the track, passing a couple of possible pitches and hoping we might find something around Hill of Turret. After a good search we did find a spot with some shelter at 400m elevation and set the tent up, with some difficulty before continuing to the summit - 4k each way from there. The wind was fierce and my new Tilley hat (natural camp colour to ward off the sun) was flapping about like no-one's business. My face definitely felt weatherbeaten. The bulldozed track finishes at the top of Hill of Saughs and it's peat hag then grassy footpath along the fence line to the summit of Battock. We didn't linger, just sat in the wind shelter and had a handful of fruit and nuts before heading back down. Rain was falling in various places on the vista we had, but we remained dry. Back to the tent, a welcome meal of Huel, no midges given the wind, and a quieter night than I'd feared after last weekend's very noisy/flappy night in the wind (I'd used the extra guys this time, which no doubt helped).
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
I'd planned to get up early and off to Wirren but somehow we didn't get away til after 8.30 for our 3k back down the hill. A fairly short drive to Dalbog farm where we parked beside another 2 cars and prepared for the walk up Wirren. I noticed there has been a lot of tree felling since I was here 8 weeks ago with large timber piles on each side of the track you start off on. We reached the farm, Allison noticing a cow that had very recently birthed a calf eating its placenta as we walked along. I managed to take the wrong turn not once but twice - the first time we'd only gone 100m but the second time we were then committed to going up via Craigengower rather than the direct route Id intended. When you get to a fork in the road, check your route - even if you have been here 8 weeks ago and think you know where you're going...
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
The wind increased in strength as we climbed higher. We found some shelter for lunch before continuing up Craigangower and getting the full force of it as we walked along the skyline. Summit reached, too windy to stay up high and go over East Wirren, just back down the way we should have come up. When we reached the car the occupants of the car parked beside us came over, having recognised the Yeti and saying "thought you were supposed to be in Skye this weekend!" I think they introduced themselves as "A&J" from Drumnadrochit, though I've probably got that wrong, but they were lovely to chat to and working through their Grahams. They'd been up Cat Law the previous day. Just to continue the cat theme do I mention that. And we kept passing/being passed by a blue car BL67 CAT on the road home as well as a van with graphics for "The Black Cat Team" going past us in Glasgow. So lots of catty instances this weekend.
The distinctive outline of Clachnaben in the distance
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Mt Battock
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Al, on Flickr
Gas gun bird scarer - apparently used to protect grouse chicks/nests from avian predators
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Al, on Flickr
Peacock butterfly caterpillar I think
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Al, on Flickr
Next week brings a bit f a change - Allison's off on a family holiday leaving me a week or more to ge some more Grahams done on my own. Hoping for good weather - or at least not thunderstorms.
