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Some of you probably remember that 6 weeks ago we had to hang up our walking shoes due to Kevin's back injury. It turned out pretty nasty, for the first two weeks he struggled to get up from the sofa! I was worried sick about him and didn't even consider forcing him onto the hills before he was fully recovered. It took time and patience, we missed some lovely autumn weather, but finally last weekend Kevin decided he was recovered enough to try something "easy and tiny". No Ben Nevis or Skye scrambling, but a hill with good paths and not too much steep ascent. I didn't mind repeating something, just for the sake of testing my husband's hillwalking abilities
Originally, we planned a long low-level walk, but Kevin was desperate for something to climb, just to see how his back would react to ascending-descending movement. Actually, the "downhill movement" caused him the most pain so if he was still OK after climbing and descending a hill, that would be the best recovery test.
Ben Rinnes ticked all boxes for an easy route. We had done it before, and in winter conditions, but we never bothered to explore the tors on the western side of the hill, so this time we gave ourselves more time to enjoy the hidden secrets of this popular Corbett.
The route up Rinnes doesn't require much describing - just follow the path from the car park, it's a yellow-brick-road, and as soon as you reach the first tors, you are on the summit
We arrived at the car park at 9 am, still early for most Sunday snoozers
, but at least there was still plenty of place to park:
The car park on the col from the path up Rinnes:
Our target from Round Hill:
We walked at a brisk pace and so far Kevin was OK, the day was quiet (a few midges about) and the views reminded me, it was autumn already...
Glen Rinnes:
The trio: Roy's Hill, Meikle Conwal and Little Conwall. Under any other circumstances we would plan a larger circuit, adding the two subs as well, but I didn't want to overload my husband on his first day on the hills after such a long break. We will return to do the Convals in winter conditions, preferably full-on snow. It will be fun, I'm sure!
There was some high cloud about but well above the summits. Kevin stopped at some point and said, gazing in the distance:
"So good to be back!"
Yes, it felt good to be back on the hills indeed.
It took us just over 1.5 hours to reach the summit, where we spent some time exploring the first set of tors. They were all covered in snow during our previous visit, so only now we could see them in full glory
The main summit tor:
Posing on one of the smaller rocks just below the summit:
View south-west towards Glenlivet:
Explorations begin...
We knew we had all the time in the world, the day was shaping up nicely and this wasn't exactly Mount Everest. I'm a sucker for odd rock shapes so soon cameras were out and snapping...
With the Convals in the distance:
More tors:
Looking west to the hills of Cromdale:
He's back!!! Kevin the Mountain Tiger!!!
Beware Munros and Corbetts, beware rocky ridges and steep slopes, he ain't finished with you just yet!
More people arrived when we jumped and hopped over the summit tors and it started to feel crowded...
So we decided to leave the top and head for more tor adventures!
First, we aimed for Scurran of Morinsh, a group of rocks situated about 1km west from the summit of Rinnes, walking on an obvious path (looks like we weren't the first curious explorers). Closer to the tors, the ground is a bit boggy, but no real problems and soon I was running towards the rocks:
Meooooow! I know I was acting a bit crazy, but having missed the hills for so many weeks I couldn't stop myself! It's true you can take the panther off the mountains but you can't take the mountains out of the panther!
Explorations:
These rocks are easy enough to climb, they have flat summits and offer great views to the west and the south.
Posing with Cairngorms behind:
Well, not every view is perfect, there is always a windfarm or two to spoil the day...
Weather was improving with the cloud thinning above our heads, blue sky showed up... There's nowhere else I'd rather be!
Photo session time! You might have noticed Kevin has no rucksack - I gave him the pleasure of walking without any baggage, but it's temporary. Next time, darling, you will carry your own stuff!
Rocky the Rock
From Scurran of Morinsh we aimed north for the second, bigger set of tors, called Scurran of Well. There is a narrow path which crosses the plateau and avoids most of the peat hags (they are dry and overgrown with heather anyway) so without obstacles, we soon arrived by... a set of giant hives?
Impressive:
Not every one of these weird shapes is climbable, but the largest one is less steep on the eastern side so we scrambled to the top:
Good vantage point, this one. It's named on 1-25kmap: "Lady's Chair":
The hives from Lady's Chair:
The northern panorama with Kevin in the frame:
I spotted more tors, another playground for adults!
Just a happy cat!
Scurran of Well is also easy to climb (from the northern side, on flat-ish rocks), so we couldn't miss the opportunity:
A few more snapshot of rocks of different shapes and sizes:
From Scurran of Well we returned to the summit, which required additional 150m of ascent, but we didn't mind, it still felt easy for our standards!
Scurran of Well from near the summit of Rinnes:
I know that one could bag Ben Rinnes in two-three hours just by running up and down the main path, but these tors are really worth the detour and as the hill is so easy, we still managed to finish the walk in just under 4 hours. I was tempted by the Convals but Kevin said he didn't want to risk it.
On the way back home we nipped in to a lovely ruin near Nethy Bridge, Castle Roy, to see if it's open for explorations, but it's still scaffolded all over and closed for the public access. The ruin is undergoing general conservation and just as well, it's one of the oldest castles in Scotland and it would be a shame if it fell apart. Hopefully, the castle will be open again once the work is finished
Fingers crossed and weather permitted, next weekend will see us meowing on another hill, I have already picked a few good candidates for a visit. Expect more meowing!
