Hill: Torr Achilty
Date: Saturday 22nd May 2010
Company: Myself & Beinn
Time: 1Hr 15Mins

En-route to a holiday in the North-West today, I decided to ascend Torr Achilty – taking advantage of the fact that access via the dam is still possible until June 2010. Not long before arriving there I hit a hole in road, where a cat's eye unit was missing, resulting in BANG! Tyre blow out and damaged alloy. Thankfully we were all ok and I had a full-size spare wheel in the boot. The friendly man from the AA had us going again around 30 minutes after calling – SUPERB service.

Pothole damage:


I wasn't going to let the damaged wheel spoil the start of our holiday, or disrupt my walking, so continued on as planned for Torr Achilty. After parking near the dam, Becky and Carole set off with me to walk across the dam.

Becky enjoyed the view saying it was, “Beautiful”.

Becky and Carole:


Torr Achilty and Power Station:


Near the dam is some modern art / sculpture / whatever!:

Sculpture:


The heavy-duty fencing erected at both sides of the dam, and along part of the dam, I would reckon is an anti-terrorism measure. Could be wrong but it seems overkill just to deny walkers access.

Heavy-duty fencing:


Loch Aconachie from dam:


It is a shame that the Fish pass will no longer be accessible to the public.

Fish Pass machinery:


River Conon from dam:


Power station:


I have to say the ascent of this hill was not as expected. I expected this to be a nice short stroll up a path to the summit. What I found instead was a really steep, pathless ascent through deep heather, tall bracken, gorse with the odd rocky section in between.

Looking back to dam from Torr Achilty:


Loch Aconachie:


The views from the summit were pretty-good despite quite a bit of surrounding low cloud.

Contin from Torr Achilty:


Strathconon Corbetts:


Beinn was really feeling the heat today and so was I (24C according to car). I think we had a “How long is your tongue” competition at the summit. Beinn won!

Beinn at summit:


Saw loads of butterflies and several flowers during the walk but didn't have too much luck with photographing the butterflies. Couple of flower pics below:


Wood Anemone: