Carn na h-Easgainn, twice on an afternoon walk

[gld73]

Not a new hill for me, but with just an afternoon free to get out in the dry weather, and with all the recent days of bad weather making the ground very wet, a hill close to home and on good tracks was a nice option. Carn na h-Easgainn is just a short drive down the A9 from Inverness, so I headed there at lunchtime, parked in the parking area beside the bins and cattle grid at Lynebeg and did the easy route up the track to the summit. Only took 43 mins from car to the summit, so I decided to extend the walk and maybe do the circular route outlined on a Malky trip report for this hill. Followed the good track south east-ish from the summit and then took the left branch to head down north east towards Dalmagarry. Got nearly all the way to the bottom but then reached the burn which the track forded to then head down under the railway bridge. With the snow melt and a few days of very heavy rain, there was no obvious way to get across with dry feet. I could have gone across in bare feet, but I'd already had slight reservations about the route given the 2 sets of roadworks on that stretch of the A9 near Moy were meaning some drivers were taking the old A9 road, the minor road which I'd be walking along for 2 miles, which would usually be much quieter.

So to avoid the road, keep dry feet, and get a better amount of ascent and distance in my one walk this week, I decided to head all the way back up and around. Even if I ended up walking at dusk, navigation on the clear track wasn't going to be a problem, and I had a head torch with me if needed. As it turned out, I did a decent pace and got back up to the summit while still light, and continued down to the car in what turned out to be good light .....once I'd taken my sunglasses off.

So not the most difficult or exciting walk, but nicely longer than I'd expected when I'd set out, and a dry and clear enough day to get some views, so a nice afternoon all round.

Carn na h-Easgainn summit on the initial ascent, Inverness just about visible

....and the summit again a couple of hours later, this time looking west

View of Meall Mor, marilyn near Moy, looks a nice hill from this angle (I didn't enjoy all the hundreds of freshly dug forestry holes when I went up it though)

Clear estate track back down to Lynebeg, with one of several windfarms visible from Carn na h-Easgainn

Left car 1240, summit at 1323, descent to Dalmagarry then back up and back at the summit at 1516, returned to the car at 1557.