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- View from the Bone Caves
After three days of excellent weather, finally the weather was breaking down. Rain forecast late afternoon after a cloudy morning, so we decided to leave the hills alone for a day (and in fact, the rest of the holiday). But it was still supposed to be dry for several hours, so we headed a few miles south from Inchnadamph to visit the Bone Caves. These are named after the bones of various animals found in them - lynx, reindeer, polar bear, lemmings...
A quiet car park at this time of day, and the path sets off along the glen with a few small waterfalls.
Conival in a bit of morning sun, looking back:
The valley soon begins to narrow:
A little further up, almost all the water in the limestone glen flows out of a large spring - above this, the river bed was mostly dry today. The path heads around the back of the spring:
"I bet this water's perfect for drinking," I remarked, bending down and immediately seeing a large leech in the spring
View back from just after the spring:
Quite a few of these moths around:
Wildflowers:
Dry riverbed further up:
About half a kilometre after the main spring, the path forks with the right hand branch taking the direct route to the caves, now visible up on the hill to the right. We headed left first, following the valley upstream from the caves before the path doubles back and ascends from behind. This gives good views of the cave entrances on the valley side above:
More sun around now as we started to climb out of the glen. Health and safety have paid a visit:
To the east, the northern part of Breabag is visible - not a hill we'll be visiting this time:
The excellent path winds along below the cliffs:
Some of the caves are bigger than they look from the outside, and two are connected by quite a long passage. The walkhighlands description states: "small children can even pass through an opening between the two middle caves which is found near the entrance" - however, the passage contains quite a large drop between two levels, so perhaps more suitable for adults
After exploring each entrance, we continued on the path which drops back down to glen level. By this time it was quite busy, so it was nice to have got the walk almost to ourselves before the crowds appeared.
An interesting wander, not too taxing, and perfect for filling a morning with.
Assynt 2017<< Previous day: Leitir Easaidh at sunset>> Next day: Point of Stoer