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Glad I replied to Ian who posted on WH looking for anyone interested in doing a corbett while he was in the Inverness area over Xmas/New Year - I got home to Inverness on Saturday, will be working from Monday, so probably wouldn't have gone out on Sunday if we hadn't made plans to head to Carn na Saobhaidhe. But glad I did, and nice to get 1 last hill done before the end of 2018.
Weather forecast was pretty accurate - dull overcast day, but most of the rain had been overnight so just the odd bit of drizzle during the walk, nothing heavy or prolonged. Carn na Saobhaidhe is close to Inverness but always sounded pretty uninspiring given the route takes windfarm tracks all the way up, and the summit is on a fairly featureless plateau... so it turned out neither of us had got round to doing it before. But today was the ideal for it - a short drive so close enough to do in daylight despite the short hours of daylight just now, cloud too low to go up anything more exciting, and a good hill to have company for so that the long route along good tracks through grouse moors didn't get too boring as there was someone interesting to talk to.
The Walk Highlands route description was invaluable given the tracks aren't all marked on the OS map. I dithered over what footwear to go for, but decided to risk walking shoes rather than boots, and that turned out to be fine. Burn crossings were done by heading a little up or downstream of the actual track fording points where to find stones to cross on, so I made it there and back with dry feet. Took 3hrs to get to the summit - not that the summit was particularly obvious, the cairn didn't look the high point when we are at it, but then did when we went over to the mast and looked back at it.
Return route was back the same way, stopping in the hut on the way to sit at the nice big table to have our sandwiches and coffee. Being on a bike for the return would have been great, but not sure I would have fancied cycling all the way up, despite the good tracks.
So good to get Carn na Saobhaidhe done at last, and enjoyed having the company for it
(Corbett #30 )