Sunday 4th June was an unusual day in Scotland - warm and dry! Myself &
a few friends had decided that Ben Wyvis was the hill to do that day.
Something nice and gentle to break the legs in, after all, this was to
be the first weeks walking any of us had done in Scotland for 18 months
or so and I at least wasn't sure what my legs were capable of!
Starting from the Ben Wyvis carpark a path runs up along the Allt a'
Bhealaich Mhoir up to a view point/information board above the tree
line. From here there is a good path up An Cabar to the summit ridge of
Ben Wyvis. This was a bit of a tiring slog given the hot weather but
once at the top the views were superb. You could see right the way
across the whole width of Scotland from the Cromarty Firth in the east
to An Teallach in the west. Notice boards in the car park suggest
returning from the summit by the ascent route, especially during the
stag hunting season. Everybody we met on the mountain that day were
doing just that, but we decided to continue on by Tom O'Choinnich and
return by following the Allt na Bana mhorair down to the forestry track,
and from there back to the road and car park. Bit of a mistake that -
the ground above the forest is extremely boggy, but it does dry out once
the tree line is reached. Once down the to the forestry track we found
a new access road had been built to service a mobile phone mast, and so
we used that to return to the main road.
Overall Ben Wyvis is not a particularly interesting hill, but is a nice
stroll when the weather is good and there are views to be seen. I'm
guessing that it would be a miserable place to be when the clag comes down!
A few pics at http://dave-mclaughlin.fotopic.net/c993522.html
For some reason they're in reverse order - work backwards :-)
--
Dave McLaughlin
[censored] Sapiens Non Urinat In Ventum