Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich...

so, school has finished and Claire and I headed north on saturday up to the North West of Scotland. It is our first real break away since the xmas trip (which also ended up in the NW of Scotland). Now, just as then, we picked a b & b we found on the internet...'forestway' www.forestway.co.uk north of Braemore Junction and at the heart of the hills....now; just as then; we seem to have made a very good choice.

The weather is pretty good as we arrive and lots of familiar, yet unfamiliar, hills are around. I have never walked on the Fannich Hills or the Inverlael hills, pictured below, (centered on Beinn Dearg), yet I know of them from the guidebooks. However spectacular they look in the books; is nothing to how they look in reality...

Sunday morning; after a lovely breakfast, we elected to do Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich, an outlier of the main Fannich ridge. Parking up and setting off; probably not paying as much attention to the guidebook as we should have and set off up the river following a lovely narrow path, which had earlier been taken by some FSP (fit scottish people). Well we assumed they were fit as they zonked off at high speed up a hill that we waddled up later!!

The scale of the highlands is always a bit of a shock at first - the scale of the NW is bigger still.
When we got back to the car  - a few hours later - we were both rather chagrined at being tired at having only done 1 hill...we had hoped to get onto the main Fannich ridge and do some more hills....the strong NW wind didn't help in that regard as we were climbing into it. Upon cursory glance of the guide book later; we discovered we had done around 11 miles!!! which is:
a) good to explain why were so knackered and
b) made two pints of An Tellach very excusable - we were staying at The Altguish Inn so no driving issues either!!

What about the walk.....well it was hard; as paths are also at a premium up here  - certainly compared to Cumbria. The weather was not as good as today - with a strong wind and some cloud; however the views were still pretty good indeed.....pix are here btw....https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/BeinnLiathMhorFannaich


A good start to the week however, as well as opening our eyes to some of the potential of the Fannich hils.