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A short report with just the one photo as I carried nothing up the hill on this walk!
We had spent the morning watching white horses race up Loch Long from our self catering accommodation. These were followed regularly by the blasts of squalls which whipped up the water. The cloud was down as were our moods. Frustrated by travelling the long miles north in good weather the previous day we were itching to get out and release the energy that had pent up with the prospect of enjoying the winter conditions. Beinn Conchra rose across the Loch, its head in and out of the clouds.
By early afternoon the weather was improving but the remaining daylight hours were rapidly diminishing. Mark and I decided to make a quick dash for this hill. From where we were staying we could see the be-trigged point 415. However, the summit at 453m is hidden from view. Here is the view from our accommodation a couple of days later.
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- Beinn Conchra across Loch Long from Dornie
We hopped in the car and drove around over the bridge at Dornie and turned right to go through Conchra. We could not find an obvious place to park the car so found a slightly larger passing place and pulled up there. In fact, there may be a spot by a green barn at NG 892 279 a bit further up the road.
We were able to step over a post and wire fence to access the hill side. The gradient is steep and you pass under a couple of lines of telephone wires. Considering the amount of rain the ground was remarkably dry with just the odd patches of squelch. In summer this route may not be quite as easy given the evidence of dead bracken fronds which entangled themselves around my feet with annoying regularity.
There are some easily avoidable incipient crags towards the top of the slope and once through them it did not take long to reach the trig point. Here there was a great view down on to Loch Long and Loch Duich. The surrounding higher mountains were, however, still covered by cloud.
The main summit then lay half a kilometre to the north. The way across was obvious if a bit hummocky. Here the views were expansive. On a fine day they will be great. Today ours were limited to Beinn Bhann and Sgurr a Chaoraichain in Applecross and Sgurr na Coinnich on Skye which were clear and the cloud capped bulks of hills to the north, east and south east.
On the way back we skirted around the eastern slopes of point 415 and dodged around a few craglets. Further down we followed a fence line that took us down to the green barn. Here there was a gate on to the road and we had a short stroll down back to the car. It was an hour and forty round trip including a five minute stop on the summit – enough to justify my glass of wine (or more) that evening.
