Carn nan Tri-tighearnan
28 October 2007
The forecast was for showers, wintry on the higher tops, so the plan
was to have a short day south-east of Inverness as the west coast was
to be hit by frequent showers especially later in the day.
Heavy overnight rain had eased and by the time I left Inverness the
sun was out. The start of the walk was Dales at the end of public
roads from Cawdor passed Drynachan Lodge. The section of road beyond
the Lodge was in poor condition. There were ample parking facilities
on a grass area just before the ford over the Allt Breac.
I crossed the ford and followed the Estate road that climbed above the
River Findhorn on its west side. There were lots of game birds
around and the Estate had planted several areas of the hillside with
cereal crops for the birds to shelter and feed on and had constructed
bird enclosures within the crops.
Higher up I followed a vehicle track that descended and re-crossed the
Allt Breac. However the track was obviously no longer in use as it was
overgrown and boggy with deep water filled gouges. I followed the
track to its conclusion and then climbed up over heather, some of
which over the years had been burnt.
The triangulation pillar on the summit of Carn an Uillt Bhric was
reached with views across the Moray Firth to the Caithness Hills. Carn
an Uillt Breac was 16 metres lower than my target hill which was still
1.5 kilometres further west. Initially the walking was relatively easy
over some moss but then I came across an area of peat hags which took
a bit of work to get round or across. Several mountain hares ran off
when they spotted me.
After what seemed ages I eventually reached the summit trig point of
Carn nan Tri-tighearnan where, despite the sun, it was cold in the
strong wind. From the summit I had some good views of the Cairngorms
and Ben Wyvis, the tops of which were cloud covered. I could see at
least three different wind farms from this summit.
I descended south-east across more peat hags, some of which were
rather deep and involved lots of ups and downs. In places I walked
along the base of the peat hags which were around 12 feet high. Some
areas of peat showed compacted tree roots which were obviously
hundreds of years old.
I reached the top of a tributary of the Allt Breac where I found an
All Terrain Vehicle track which I followed downhill across some boggy
ground to a more substantial track. It thereafter joined the vehicle
track above the River Findhorn which I used to rejoin my upward route
and walk back to the start.
Time taken - 3 hours.
Distance - 9 kilometres.
Height climbed - 470 metres.
Photographs taken on walk can be seen at:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/gallery07/carn_nan_tri-tighearnan_oct07/index.htm
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com