I ascended a couple of short Marilyns today en-route to spending a weekend at Inchnadamph.

The first hill of the day was Cnoc Corr Guinie. This is a hill I have driven past on at least three occasions and thought, “No, I’ll do it another time.” I also previously failed to summit this hill approaching it from the East, owing to cattle and having Beinn with me.

Today, I parked just off the B9176 at the start of the track leading towards Cnoc Corr Guinie.

Hill: Cnoc Corr Guinie
Date: Friday 2nd November 2012
Company: Just myself
Distance: 7km, Ascent: 220m

Click here to see a map of the route undertaken

I was a bit surprised to find such an excellent track and even more surprised that I was able to follow it to within about 20m of the summit .

Start of track (95 Drove Stance/Wallace):


Track ascending through forest:


As I walked through the forest, I saw numerous coal tits and blue tits, both of which are quite common in my garden. Today, I also saw long-tailed tits.

Long-tailed tit:


Long-tailed tit:


As I progressed along the track, a small clearing in the forest provided good views across towards the Moray Firth.

View towards Moray and Aberdeenshire:


A short-distance from the end of the forest, I took a left-turn onto a track that led right to the summit.

Approaching the turn-off towards the summit:


The views from the featureless summit were fairly limited. It was however well worth walking an additional 100m or so to reach the large cairn which is a much better viewpoint.

View from featureless summit:


View from large cairn (circa 100m from summit):


From the summit, I returned to the car via the same route. I then drove to Glen Cassley for an ascent of Beinn Sgeireach.


Hill: Beinn Sgreireach
Date: Friday 2nd November 2012
Company: Just myself
Distance: 7km, Ascent: 390m

I parked opposite Badintagairt, where there is room for two cars. I then walked circa 30m along the road before taking the very wet path up the hill.

Click here to see a map of the route undertaken

Allt bad na t-Sagairt:


The wet path got wetter and wetter as I progressed up the hill. In the end I abandoned the track and just made my own way up the wet hillside.

Looking back to Badintagairt:


River Cassley:


Was good to see so much snow on the Inchnadamph hills.

Snow-covered Inchnadamph hills (zoom):


I made my way up towards a mast. This is one of several such masts in the area. I now recognise these masts as the type that are erected to measure windspeed prior to a windfarm going up. It looks like Beinn Sgeireach will become yet another hill uglified by wind turbines.

Beinn Sgeireach:


Beinn Sgeireach:


The weather had been quite good all day until I approached the summit. It only snowed for ten minutes or so .

Approaching the summit trig point of Beinn Sgeireach:


Limited view from the summit of Beinn Sgeireach:


I didn’t stay long at the summit before returning to the car via roughly the same route. Two nice wee hills.