We were greeted by another drizzly morning, viewed above from our bedroom window, which led to a leisurely start.
Sue, Tom and Roger eventually went off to climb Gairich, (919 metres) some distance away. It rained.
David chose to climb Beinn Clachach (643 metres) on his own.
Julie's Marilyn bagging exploits continued on Beinn a'Chaoinich (410 metres), with me and Mike in tow. Julie has become accustomed to climbing these minor obscure hills on her own, so it's a change for her to have others tagging along.
A parking spot on the Glenelg road was our base for a 2km walk back up the road, with our hill in view, to a post box.
The verges, and the hill were adorned with colourful wild flowers today. A few of them are pictured later in this entry. Ragged Robin was dominant.
We descended to a farm and took the farm track around the eastern nose of our hill, soon pausing for elevenses. Mike enjoyed a brief snooze.
The rain had stopped just as we had set off (as yesterday) and we had clear views towards the nearby higher mountains, whose upper reaches were engulfed in cloud. As yesterday, our own encounters were restricted to a herd of deer that we displaced from the summit, and some Highland cattle with no road sense.
This modest summit was hard won, over ground strewn with tussocks as well as waist high (wet) bracken in places. Julie waited at the first 410 metre summit for Mike, while I visited the second 410 metre summit that I concluded was the higher point. This is apparently at odds with the official line.
Here's the view from the second summit, with the apparently lower first summit on the left.
We enjoyed lunch near the summit in a spot sheltered from the cool breeze before heading back down to the car. This was not as easy as it sounds. To say the tussocky, boggy ground with rock bands was 'rough going' is something of an understatement. Anyway, we slowly made our way down, with occasional splatters of light rain and a nice view towards Glenelg.
The walk was a shade over 11km, with just 440 metres of tussocky, boggy ascent. It took us nearly 5 hours. This one will go on Julie's 'no wish to repeat' list, though I must admit I found it good fun. Here's the route.
As mentioned above, the wild flowers today were prolific. Those pictured below include Bell Heather, Tormentil, Self-heal, Forget-me-nots, St John's Wort, Thistles, Eyebright and Ragged Robin. We saw these as well as those noted yesterday, and some large beds of Orchids.
Ragged Robin
