Struie Hill and Struie

[kraze]

We started this walk around 1 p.m. and took it pretty slowly, as well as enjoying some lunch with the buildings near the mast acting as a windbreak, which is why it took so long - obviously it could be completed much faster for people in a hurry. Spotting the opportunity to bag my second sub-2000er (oh yes, that's the sort of skills we're talking about here), we came back via the Struie summit rather than retracing our steps all the way as in the walk description.

The farm track from where we parked near buildings and a sign for Struie Hill led past a field of sheep with lambs to a gate.

From here the track continued through a field containing cows and calves. We had to past quite close to some of the calves and they followed us inquisitively afterwards, but the cows just kept and eye on us and didn't make any moves towards us. It was quite a long way past the first of the houses marked as Leachonich to the next gate, so we were glad not to have to leap over fences to escape cows!

Being followed!

Once past the second Leachonich the track appeared to have had new stones put down fairly recently, so wasn't muddy.

Saltire stone

It climbed steadily and became gradually rougher and boggy in places heading towards the turning to the right along the ridge to the mast.

The views down the firth towards Bonar Bridge were stunning on the way up here, as were the views towards the mouth of the firth from the top.

Up to the mast

Towards Bonar Bridge

Saltire field

View from mast

View over bog

View to south

View of start of walk (in centre)

View along ridge

It was boggy in places up there but these could easily be avoided. After eating lunch we headed back down to the point where the path had turned right along the ridge and continued straight ahead here along a faint path that headed immediately into a mudpit.

The path wasn't always obvious and sometimes split in different directions, sometimes to avoid muddy sections apparently caused by quad bikes. It was easy enough to follow the general direction of the ridge though, and we always ended up back on a/the path. We initially stuck more to the right hand side of the ridge, enjoying the views and sightings of wildlife including frogs, a lizard, lots of small moths (or perhaps small beige butterflies?) and various birds.

View back to mast

About halfway along the ridge we were able to see a cairn, so we were happy that we were on the right path.

We went past two lochans and finally arrived at the summit.

The path we'd been following continued ahead towards the B9176, but we wanted to join the path heading generally eastwards towards Pollagharrie. There was no obvious path from the summit to join this, but perhaps if we had carried on the two paths would have intersected.

Instead, ignoring my plan to head south from the summit to meet the path, we retraced our steps slightly to a less steep section below the summit and headed south east from there, thinking we would meet the path that way. No doubt the path is there somewhere and we just managed to stay north of it the whole time, which is how I've marked our route on the map, but we didn't see any trace of it! We made our own 'path', mostly through low heather and the occasionally boggy section, with one steep section not far from the summit.

'Path' we took down from summit

If the path on the map exists that's probably the way to go, but we found our way fairly easy going and eventually we spotted a huge rock near a gate leading onto the track at Pollagharrie. We then headed straight for that and there were vague signs of the path we should have been on at the end, although looking back we still couldn't see it. Relieved to be walking on a proper track again, from there it was an easy walk back along the farm track past Garbad and Garbad Wood to the starting point.

View of ridge

The final stretch

[Yorjick]

I did (more or less) your route in reverse yesterday. Interesting looking at your photos. I will post a walk report later today!

[cantabrigian]

Lovely to see these photos. My late mother and stepfather lived a couple of miles away at Edderton. so climbing Struie was a regular event for me and my siblings when visiting them, often with our young children - and more recently some of their children.