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Lat/Long: 56.88326, -4.25312
OS Grid ref: NN 62808 79137
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I’d originally planned to do today’s walk last month but due to
the storms and heavy rain I had to return home early to prevent
getting stranded. Today there had been lots of overnight rain so
I had to wait until around 10:30am for most of it to blow over.
The start of the walk was straightforward as I repeated the
start of yesterday's walk across the A9 and along a very wet
track to the east of Drumochter Lodge. |
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Shooting butt. |
Looking down the climb. |
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The track heading up towards Bhuidheanach was fairly obvious at
first as it serviced a line of shooting butts spread out along
the ascending ridge. The weather was cold and mostly clear for
my steady climb. Before the high point the ground flattened for
a while and I was able to see down left into the deep and steep
sided valley. The ground soon turned steeper again and my
original plan was to follow the edge of the steep valley to the
east the high point wasn't far ahead so I decided to continue to
the summit. It was a large area of plateau and the highest point
at 901m was marked by a low cairn of 2 stones! Hardly a cairn
and a shame for such a high point. I couldn’t even find a name
on the map. I started to descend to the NE and regain my
original planned route. Up ahead I could see a ravine with a
river at the bottom. Higher up were waterfalls and wondered how
it would be getting across. Fortunately there was a narrow point
where I could jump across. |
Summit cairn of two stones. |
Looking down the steep valley. |
Quartz cairn. |
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Further along I came to an old ford and crossed higher up to
join and old track which would eventually take me off the
mountain. It headed north for a while where there was a quartz
cairn. The weather deteriorated and snow was blowing across but
it wasn't a problem. At a high point I came to an area that the
map shows as an old quarry, though I couldn't see what was
quarried as no excavations were too deep. The stony track
descends NW towards the A9 but being loose stone over much of
its length I tried to keep to the grass at the side. At the
bottom I’d originally planned to follow the cycle track along
the A9 and back to the car but it would have been rather noisy.
As there was a parallel track to the east of the A9 I decided to
take that. |
A lifty in the rain. |
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An all terrain vehicle had just parked up and I asked the driver
if he knew anything about the quarry. He said it had been to get
quartz but wasn’t profitable enough. The snow turned to rain on
the way down and I set off in the rain along the track. On the
way the vehicle was going the same way so he gave me a lift back
to Drumochter Lodge. I accepted only so I could see what it was
like as I’d never been in one. It was impressive but very noisy.
The last part of my return was along the wet track I’d started
on. Back at the car the rain continued. |
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