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Myself and my friend Jennifer were doing the North Coast 500 road trip and we saw no reason not to do Ben Hope on the way. We had stayed in Thurso the night before and it was an hour and forty minute drive from here. The drive along the north coast was very different to our usual trip to the mountains from Glasgow! A single track road to the left off the main road went on for about half an hour, with a view of Ben Hope towering to the left. We parked at the side of the road along with about ten other cars, then set off the clear path up the mountain.
There were some lovely waterfalls and pools of water as we climbed, and soon some views opened up over the sprawling landscape.
It was nice to be climbing in a different part of the country as I had only done the more southernly Munros until now. After climbing up through a thin path there was then a huge rocky field.
This led the way for the rest of the climb to the top, and there was a nasty false peak for me
we pushed on pretty quickly as the landscape was the same the whole way. I found this part of the climb quite a struggle but I think I was just having a bad day.
Definitely struggling The peak then rewarded us with views out to the never ending north.
Beautiful stretches of water coming in from the seaHello North Sea!Love this shot of the trig point and me on the rightA bit of lunch on the top then it started to get cold so down we went. It was a lovely sunny September evening when we got down, and we were off for a pub dinner in Tongue and then a camp! Despite the struggle it was great to get this one ticked off when we could, and what other Munro can you see so much of the North Sea from?!