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It's not that Little

PostPosted: Fri Dec 06, 2019 5:54 pm
by thepigguy

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Day Two of the slow road from Orkney to Skye.

Having had immense fun on my first Graham (Beinn Dhorain) and a lot less fun on the sub-2000ft Meall Dola, I edged a wee bit further west the next day, eventually deciding over a long breakfast to head up my first Corbett Little Wyvis which has a nice track to the top - after all the sodden shenanigans of the day before that would make a fine change.

I got to the car park at Silverbridge around 11am and spent five minutes wondering if I should press on and tackle Ben Wyvis instead, but basically I chickened out, not sure if my legs were ready even for a straightforward Munro.

I set off over the bridge past the falls and over the (very busy) road, walking up the driveway to where a sign on the gate set me on the track which should have taken me all the way to the top. WH describes the track as "bulldozed", but I think it's fair to say there are bulldozed tracks and bulldozed tracks - this one was just grand.

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Silverbridge Falls. A grand start.

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Just squeeze around the gatepost

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Disused stables near the start

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Or maybe not that disused.

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Zoomed over to the Fannichs

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Looking west


It's a lovely walk, but straightforward and pretty uneventful so I spent a good while daydreaming about all sorts so map-checking was the furthest thing from my mind and I realised after a bit that I was walking around the hill, not up it. :roll:

I took a belated squint at the map and realised I could press on to the end of the track and then take my chances heading steeply up the side of the hill. The track was pretty soggy by the end, but the slopes weren't too bad at all and picking out a reasonably dry route up proved easy enough.

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Wrong track

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Getting muddier, but a way up the hill is fairly easy to pick out

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Looking back down, south east


After about 30 minutes I regained the track and - sweating nicely - strolled up to the summit to chat with a couple from London who had been "stalked off" their planned walk in Strathcarron. Views from the top were good, with just enough cloud to add a little atmosphere.

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Little Wyvis summit looking west

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Little Wyvis summit looking towards "big brother" Ben Wyvis

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Looking east to the rigs in the Cromarty Firth


With the weather starting to look threatening to the west, I headed down after 20 minutes at the top, sticking to the track this time, getting back to the car just as the first spots of rain appeared.

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Heading down

Re: It's not that Little

PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2019 8:01 am
by PeteR
It's not a bad hill Little Wyvis, in my view. And your route is a good alternative to the more usual route from the car park for it's bigger brother. Glad you seemed to enjoy your day.

Re: It's not that Little

PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:40 pm
by AHillTooFar
I think little Wyvis might be one of these better viewed than climbed although if I am up that way again I might try it. Quite a good looking hill.

I can understand not wanting to tackle Ben Wyvis if the legs are tired. Whoever decided that was the best route was a bit of a sadist. That said when I was coming down from it, a mad couple were attempting to run up it.

Also a shame you have the Cromarty Firth one way and wind farms the other.

Re: It's not that Little

PostPosted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 1:30 pm
by thepigguy
PeteR wrote:It's not a bad hill Little Wyvis, in my view. And your route is a good alternative to the more usual route from the car park for it's bigger brother. Glad you seemed to enjoy your day.


My accidental detour made the whole thing a lot more fun than it might have been. In the fairly unlikely event of me going up again I'd follow the WH route. It does look more interesting.