free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Ben Klibreck is very much an outlier Munro and had so far eluded me. It’s not actually that long a drive to get there from Aberdeenshire though. This time for a change, I decided to travel by motorbike. Not something I’ve ever done before when hillwalking for a variety of reasons. It’s much easier to stash your walking gear in the car, bike gear is bulky and needs to be secured on the bike while walking, and riding back after a long tiring walk is unwise given the need for 100% focus to name but a few. This was going to be a short walk however, and I have recently acquired a bike with decent panniers, so why not have an enjoyable ride taking in some good roads on route to the hill.
After a leisurely start, I headed to Inverness via the Lecht as usual (I never use A96) where I had breakfast. Then on to Lairg via the Struie. I bought a map in the post office there, having noticed the night before that I didn’t possess a paper map of Ben Klibreck. I would have been fine with the OS phone app, certainly for a short walk like this following a path in good visibility but being an old person, I still feel uneasy without an actual map and compass in the rucksack, even if I don’t use it. They didn’t have a 1:50k map so I bought the 1:25k, now probably the least interesting map in my collection given most of it apart from Ben Klibreck appears to cover flat featureless bog.
I arrived at the start point just after 11am. There is a nice new parking area at the gate into the windfarm, which doesn’t get in the way of any windfarm traffic, and I assume has been made available for walkers, no signage to indicate otherwise.
- Parked up at the entrance to Creag Riabhach Windfarm
After repackaging my panniers, I swapped clothing and equipment and set off by 11:20. It was breezy and remarkably warm.
- Lower slopes are green but less boggy than they look
From the road, it looked like I would be in for a bog fest, but in fact it was not too bad. There were certainly a few squelchy parts that had to be hopped over or circumnavigated, but in general the going was fine, and after maybe 800m it dried out considerably as the route steepened. The last few days of wind and sun will have helped of course. A rough path made by walkers and maybe ATV just heads straight up onto the top of Cnoc Sgriodain where there are a couple of fine-looking cairns.
- Cairn on Cnoc Sgriodain
The path continues briefly dropping quite steeply into the bealach before heading up the slopes of Carn an Fheidh, on the southern end of Ben Klibreck. Some more bogginess and peat hag in the bealach, but not sustained and again once the ground steepens it tends to dry out.
I had been intending to climb up onto the ridge, but as it was getting increasingly windy, I elected to just follow the path that traverses along the +/-700m contour on the west side. It is quite a nice path, mostly dry and not too eroded, so good progress can be made. It comes back onto the ridge at the 688m low point and then continues north over A’Chioch with cliffs to the west side before curving east to head up the summit cone of Meall nan Con. There is a short rocky band at the base of this pyramid but no scrambling required. This just leaves a short sharp climb up to the summit. The summit cairn looks like it has been hit by a bomb (maybe lightening or just the effect of the elements) with wreckage of a pair of trig points inside the stone shelter ring. By this time the wind was really blowing and I had difficulty staying on my feet while taking the obligatory photos. The wind was not cold, but I had to don the beanie and jumper just because of the ferocity of the gale.
- Summit wreckage - couldn't hold the phone level due to wind!
Meall nan Con is a great vantage point, the views extend a long way in all directions. I managed a 360° panorama with the phone camera despite the buffeting.
- 360 view, +/- North at each end,
- Ben Hope and Ben Loyal
Lots of hills all around, Ben Hope and Ben Loyal being most notable, but also, I think, the likes of Foinaven and Ben More Assynt could be seen to the West plus many more to the South West. There are also lots of wind farms which are now becoming part of the landscape much as the hydro schemes have done, so in my opinion at least, are not such an eyesore.
- Looking down on Creag Riabhach Windfarm
For the return, I just retraced my steps, as the wind was just a bit too fierce to make a stroll over the top of the ridge to Creag an Lochain an enticing prospect.
- View back to Creag an Lochain and Loch an Fhuarain
I was down at the bike just after 3 pm. I had only met one other walker during the day, a chap who had set off quite early and was well down when I was heading up.
It was still quite windy down at the road, but very warm. One additional problem with using the motor bike was that I am swapping walking boots for motor bike boots, so the poor feet get no respite on the return journey. I gave them a quick dip in the River Vagastie to cool down before leaving. The ride home was as enjoyable as the ride out, it is nice to be able to get a move on past the camper vans on the Old Military Road and I didn’t feel at all weary after the relatively short walk. All in all, another grand day out.
