Friday 11th June 2010
The day before this walk I said a tearful goodbye to the north coast of Scotland and drove across the tragically barren wastelands of North Scotland to the east coast near the town of Tain where I visited the Glenmorangie Whisky Distillery. From there I headed south past the city of Inverness to the Culloden Moor battle site on the advice of a couple I had met at the distillery. Having acted as a tourist I then drove to the Aviemore Youth Hostel where I stayed the night. My long drive back home had already begun which I was stretching out over three days with the longest drive on the second day as I drove from Aviemore all the way into England. On this second day, soon after the Drumochter Pass, I turned off the main road and headed towards Loch Rannoch where I parked at the foot of the magnificent and rather isolated mountain of Schiehallion. I had never been up this distinctive mountain before because I could never seem to incorporate it into a schedule due to its remote location, and yet it’s one of the most popular mountains in Scotland. One reason for this is its ease of access from the main road to the Highlands, which made it favourable for me on this holiday. Without my car I would find this mountain difficult to access.
The day before this walk I said a tearful goodbye to the north coast of Scotland and drove across the tragically barren wastelands of North Scotland to the east coast near the town of Tain where I visited the Glenmorangie Whisky Distillery. From there I headed south past the city of Inverness to the Culloden Moor battle site on the advice of a couple I had met at the distillery. Having acted as a tourist I then drove to the Aviemore Youth Hostel where I stayed the night. My long drive back home had already begun which I was stretching out over three days with the longest drive on the second day as I drove from Aviemore all the way into England. On this second day, soon after the Drumochter Pass, I turned off the main road and headed towards Loch Rannoch where I parked at the foot of the magnificent and rather isolated mountain of Schiehallion. I had never been up this distinctive mountain before because I could never seem to incorporate it into a schedule due to its remote location, and yet it’s one of the most popular mountains in Scotland. One reason for this is its ease of access from the main road to the Highlands, which made it favourable for me on this holiday. Without my car I would find this mountain difficult to access.
Starting from the Braes of Foss car park I walked up the well-manufactured path to the start of the summit ridge where the path stops. From there I had to cross the huge stony top, which would have been murder trying to navigate across in mist, but fortunately I had good weather even if the top was rather windy. Eventually I managed to reach the summit of this awe-inspiring mountain where I had my lunch. The view from the top was extensive and I realised that this was actually the highest mountain I walked up on my holiday, despite the relatively short walk up it. I came back down the same path I’d ascended as there is no other way off the mountain. This makes it difficult to create a long walk involving this mountain, but makes it ideal for my purposes on this day and for the less experienced hillwalkers who visit this mountain in their droves.
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