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Climbing Ben Rinnes previous November we had a good look at Corryhabbie, and from the summit of the other Corbett it looked easy enough to be saved for winter walking. But having a day break in house-renovating, we decided to run off to the hills and unfortunately, heavy cloud lay all over the Western Highlands. Therefore east was the only logical place to go. I usually follow the logical solution but honestly - Scottish weather can be so unpredictable that even Mr Spock with his logic would have to surrender
On that Tuesday though I felt more like James T. Kirk, boldly going where I haven't gone before...
Unlike the universe from the cockpit of USS Enterprise, Corryhabbie Hill does look boring from down below. A typical cairngorm-like, flat-topped feature that deserves to be called a hill rather than a mountain. Especially when the day is dull, one may simply glance at this Corbett and think - why bother?
Finding parking space was an issue though I heard that it's possible to leave cars at Ellivreid Farm. Luckily, as it was the middle of the week and we were the only walkers tackling this particular mountain, there was enough space to park at the corner of a small junctions, next to green rubbish bins.
The route starts at the gate opposite the farm and and follows the boggy field track straight towards a small gap in the forest. We crossed another gate and continued across a second field. leaving behind the third and final gate, we turned SW along the grassy shoulder of Hill of Achmore. From higher ground, first good views of the day appeared - a nice profile of Ben Rinnes and its smaller neighbour, Meikle Conval.
To the south, the heathery slopes of Corryhabbie:
Baaa... Baa... Mint sauce... and Meikle Conval in the background
Views to the west were less inspiring:
Win turbines at Paul's Hill:
Panorama with Ben Rinnes right in the center:
As we gained height, we picked a narrow path (seen the picture on the right-hand side). It helped us avoid the wettest areas and took us up relatively pleasant slopes to Muckle Lappach, the westernmost top of Coryhabbie.
Views down to Glen Rinnes. Weather was still OK at this point, although grey cloud was coming over from the west:
One more glimpse at Ben Rinnes:
Views down west from Muckle Lappach:
Walking to the main summit was now a formality. The top shelter is quite large and the trig point has a metal "hat" covering it:
We considered prolonging our adventure a bit by adding Cook's Cairn to our route (it's a Graham)...
... but the heavy cloud approaching us quickly from the western side persuaded us to drop our high ambitions. We'll come to visit Cook's Cairn another time (maybe in winter conditions).
It's hard to believe when looking at the pics taken on the summit, that a heavy shower will start in only 10 minutes...
Me & Ben Rinnes:
Filming while I still could:
Corryhabbie may not be a grand adventure, but it offers good views to surrounding hills, like Tap o'Noth:
After a short break at the summit we headed downhill along the wide and unmissable Morton's Way:
The last undisturbed view to north-east, before the rain finally arrived:
Maybe ten minutes after we resumed walking the expected shower caught up with us. It turned out to be pretty nasty and it stayed with us all the way down to the glen, so no more pictures as Kevin was too scared to use his beloved, precious camera in such conditions
The route down was straightforward at first, then we had to leave Morton's Way, cross a couple of grassy meadows and eventually find a way across Corryhabbie Burn. Fortunately it wasn't in spate and it is narrow enough so one can find a place to simply jump over it. In about 3.5 hours we were back in our car, a bit wet but still happy to have spent some nice time out and about
We didn't meet Kirk and Spock, but the walk itself was time well spent.
