Ben Wyvis circuit
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:19 pm
Our final ride of our week in Scotland was a circuit around Ben Wyvis. As it happens this and Am Foachagach are the only two Munros north of the A835 I've yet to "bag", not today though.
I'd plotted the route starting from Contin and going clockwise but we'd ended up camping in Dornoch further north and so began at Evanton and decided to go anti-clockwise. As it turned out this was a good move. 70km and 2500m of ascent, though again RidewithGPS completely overestimated the ascent. Maps show a track heading south from Wyvis Lodge just stopping but satellite images showed it going all the way to the forest above Inchbae.
We were getting ready to set off when a group of women rode into the car park on mountain bikes. A bit of chat and one asks where we are headed. "Oh! You need to visit Black Rock Gorge!" and gave us instructions on how to get there. It was basically a case of go straight on then right rather than right and straight on.
As we approached the gorge it didn't look that impressive, the bridge was maybe 3 metres long. How wrong could you be! It's a slot about 2 metres wide and 20 metres or more deep.
There's two bridges over it but we didn't visit the upper one. Well worth a visit.
There followed a steady road grind up to the gate lodge at the end of Loch Glass. Then it was estate track along the loch side passing a curious pink building that is partly boarded up and heading into disrepair.
The lodge at the end is very impressive and not the usual Gothic pile.
There was only one real climb on the route and it came after the lodge up a hydro road. The dot in the distance is the turbine hut.
The dam at the top, doesn't look like there's the usual tide marks around the loch either.
Again, the top wasn't the top and the track undulated its way upwards along the loch side and over the moor until just before the forest edge.
I'd hoped to get a view of the Fannaichs across the other side of the glen but it was obvious that bad weather was coming in and even the wind farm on the other side of the valley was only just visible. A big descent saw us on the A835 and the drizzle rain began. Our route took us up the road towards Inchbae Lodge to meet the HT550 route. We'd reverse this back to Contin.
The rain wasn't heavy and we couldn't really complain as it was the first rain we'd had all week. Refreshments again at Contin then we headed back into the woods in search of a bivy site. (It's easy to do this route in a day but we just fancied another bivy) We ended up camping just before Achterneed and got into the tent about five minutes before the rain got really heavy.
The morning was fine and we'd only sixteen kilometres to go. A steep climb out of the village into the morning sun.
Morning mist over Strathpeffer
Is this Scotland's smallest church?
Then it all went a bit Pete Tong
It was probably just as well we did the route anti-clockwise as this bit would have been horrid going the other way. Finally we hit farm tracks and roads and headed back to Evanton.
Not a bad week for September in Scotland.
I'd plotted the route starting from Contin and going clockwise but we'd ended up camping in Dornoch further north and so began at Evanton and decided to go anti-clockwise. As it turned out this was a good move. 70km and 2500m of ascent, though again RidewithGPS completely overestimated the ascent. Maps show a track heading south from Wyvis Lodge just stopping but satellite images showed it going all the way to the forest above Inchbae.
We were getting ready to set off when a group of women rode into the car park on mountain bikes. A bit of chat and one asks where we are headed. "Oh! You need to visit Black Rock Gorge!" and gave us instructions on how to get there. It was basically a case of go straight on then right rather than right and straight on.
As we approached the gorge it didn't look that impressive, the bridge was maybe 3 metres long. How wrong could you be! It's a slot about 2 metres wide and 20 metres or more deep.
There's two bridges over it but we didn't visit the upper one. Well worth a visit.
There followed a steady road grind up to the gate lodge at the end of Loch Glass. Then it was estate track along the loch side passing a curious pink building that is partly boarded up and heading into disrepair.
The lodge at the end is very impressive and not the usual Gothic pile.
There was only one real climb on the route and it came after the lodge up a hydro road. The dot in the distance is the turbine hut.
The dam at the top, doesn't look like there's the usual tide marks around the loch either.
Again, the top wasn't the top and the track undulated its way upwards along the loch side and over the moor until just before the forest edge.
I'd hoped to get a view of the Fannaichs across the other side of the glen but it was obvious that bad weather was coming in and even the wind farm on the other side of the valley was only just visible. A big descent saw us on the A835 and the drizzle rain began. Our route took us up the road towards Inchbae Lodge to meet the HT550 route. We'd reverse this back to Contin.
The rain wasn't heavy and we couldn't really complain as it was the first rain we'd had all week. Refreshments again at Contin then we headed back into the woods in search of a bivy site. (It's easy to do this route in a day but we just fancied another bivy) We ended up camping just before Achterneed and got into the tent about five minutes before the rain got really heavy.
The morning was fine and we'd only sixteen kilometres to go. A steep climb out of the village into the morning sun.
Morning mist over Strathpeffer
Is this Scotland's smallest church?
Then it all went a bit Pete Tong
It was probably just as well we did the route anti-clockwise as this bit would have been horrid going the other way. Finally we hit farm tracks and roads and headed back to Evanton.
Not a bad week for September in Scotland.
