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It's not often (in my experience) MWIS has got it as wrong as it did on Wednesday.
It said 90% cloud free Munro summits for the North West - but it didn't look anything remotely like that where we were.
Two of us were post flu so we wanted to do something not too demanding, not too far from home but that would give us good views. After reading reports by Malky and Black Panther we felt drawn to the Corbetts Sgurr a'Mhuilinn and Meallan nan Uan in Strathconon.
When I looked across the firth at 7.00 am things didn't look promising with leaden grey skies and mist. I optimistically hoped it was a sea haar that would shift once we got inland but when we parked on the patch of grass opposite the last forestry cottage in Strathconon it wasn't looking any better with not even a chink of blue in the west. Unusually for me I didn't want to get out of the car and would rather we had just kept on driving.
The cloud was low over our target hills but we decided we'd make a start and see if things improved. For me the 90% had to mean something and surely it was going to clear? The initial climb up the slope wasn't as wet as it might have been and we were soon beyond the fence round the plantation.
View back to the car
Kath and Moira looking cheerier than the weather
Meandering River Meig
We trudged onwards and upwards looking hopefully south towards the fuzzy bank of cloud where we believed Creag Ruadh to be hiding. When the wind picked up I had a fleeting moment of thinking it was going to clear. But it wasn't long before we were into thick, cold drizzly clag.
Creag Ruadh
Last photo before we disappeared into the clag
Once on the ridge to Creag Ruadh we had a choice - carry on, get cold and wet and see nothing or pull the plug and come back another day when we'd be able to walk over to the northern tops and see the views. Moira's face told us she for one wasn't enjoying it - but she said she didn't want to be a party pooper. She wasn't. The party had already been pooped by the dreich weather. So after an hour and a quarter climbing the pathless slopes we headed back to the car and ate most of our lunch at a ridiculously early hour out of sheer depression.
Suitably fortified we drove to Strathpeffer, parked in the Blackmuir Wood Forestry car park and set off up Knockfarrel, known to locals as the Cat's Back. As we drove up to the car park we noticed a man beside his car at the edge of the woods with a spade in his hand. He was digging up snowdrops!
If I hadn't been a passenger in a moving car I think I'd have said something. It's not very British to say anything when we see folk doing what they shouldn't but it seemed so wrong to take the snowdrops and deprive everyone else of the pleasure of seeing them!
Not far beyond the car park we passed a collection of peaceful looking wooden sculptures.
At the marker post we turned left off the main path
Cnoc Mor ahead
View down to east end of Strathpeffer
We could have driven up!
Vehicle turning area at saddle between Knockfarrel and the Cnoc Mor ridge
The top of Knockfarrel is fringed by some odd looking rocks that are the remains of the iron-age vitrified fort built here (like the one at the top of Craig Phadrig in Inverness). Looking east from the top we should have had good views of Dingwall and the Cromarty Firth. But we couldn't see much.
View towards Cromarty Firth
View west from top (Moira's pic)
Heading back
Don't know who the RATS are but glad they won the day!
View west to Strathpeffer
Looking back at the Cat's Back
Looking down on the houses overlooking Loch Ussie reminded me of the wonderful old lady who worked as postmistress there until her mid eighties and continued living alone in her cottage until she was 98 and almost totally blind. The last time I visited her in her own home she insisted on giving me a cup of tea in a bone china teacup and a scone which I think she had baked herself.
http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/Features/Party-time-as-Jessie-turns-100-7186.htmJessie died in December 2011 aged 102. They don't make them like that any more.
Loch Ussie
We could hear sounds of forestry work up ahead and then we saw evidence of it
There were signs saying "work in progress" so we didn't continue to the top of Cnoc Mor but turned right through an obvious gap in the fence and down a path that led back to the outward path.
To avoid felling work we went this way
Back at the car we discussed where to head for coffee. First we tried the Victorian station tearoom in Strathpeffer but it was closed so then we headed into Dingwall to the station tearoom which does very good cappucino and we had a large slice of carrot cake, lemon cake and malteser cake thus undoing all the calorific benefit of the walking we did.
