Short answer: It depends. The obvious additional question is what sort of terrain (how flat, how vegetated) lies underneath... but then it still depends.

What's worth noting is that this was the day after Storm Darragh had passed. I looked for a short walk low enough not to be under the fresh snow, and decided to go for the Ardnish Sub of Cruach Doir'an Raoigh.






I crossed the railway tracks and the bridge held together by rope, and continued on the path. The plan was to stay on it until the highest bit, before the path started descending again to cross Allt Camas an Raoigh, and then tackle the slopes of Cruach Doir'an Raoigh from there. But the path was so boggy that after the second time I had to bash through the heather in order not to submerge, I decided sticking to the path wasn't worth it, and headed directly uphill from where I was.


That being said, the rocks, which would've been fun to climb over in the dry, were wet and slippery, so finding a way around them, stepping only on surfaces I could trust, meant the going was slow. But I was gaining height.




Well... until the ridge started getting too steep for how slippery it currently was - so I turned right to climb alongside the burn, then doubled back to pass over the minor top anyway.




Because of the crags you can see in the picture above, the summit is highly resistant to walkers approaching from the SE, so I had to circle around, climb it from the W, then get down the same way.




Further on, I continued down the ridge - and tried to bag the tops along the way - with the distinct shape of Cruach an Fhearainn Duibh serving as a spot to aim for. Some of the flatter areas were littered with bogs, and I kept avoiding the numerous crags, but it was an endearing ridge, and probably even much more pleasant to walk outside of the aftermath of a storm.



Eventually, I came across a grassy track of sorts that led me to the Peanmeanach path - and since I was right under Cruach an Fhearainn Duibh, and had been looking towards it for almost an hour, I nipped up it for a final view towards the islands.


The gully leading to the summit even had a path of sorts - so maybe it wasn't as unfrequented a hill as I thought?




But I had to head back to the car, since it was December, and daylight wasn't a commodity there was a surplus of. On the way down from Cruach an Fhearainn Duibh, I tried to veer left to join the path a bit further, but came across crags, and had to return. No easy shortcuts in Ardnish!

I was a bit wary of the path when I got to it - and pretty soon, I managed to lose it twice, when I went for the marginally less boggy alternatives, and lost sight of the main one.


That's what the title question is about: If there's a path, I want to stick to it, and make use of the good sections - but allow myself to be led into potentially boggier areas. Without a path, choosing the best line is up to me the entire time.

For a kilometre, the path stayed at ~150 m, and sticking to it was easy, especially with a slope on both sides. The descent that followed was trickier, with the whole path flowing down the slope - although that was most likely largely thanks to Darragh. One more bash through the heather, then the boggy grass, and I made it back to the layby a little before sunset.

So the answer should probably be this: Recent heavy rain makes bogs a lot worse, whether there's a path or not!