Ben Rinnes a short but worthwhile outing

Hill: Ben Rinnes
Category: Corbett
Height: 840m

Side view of Ben Rinnes from the road

Once again by far the hardest part of this walk was getting to the start. My sat nav took me to the wrong side of the hill, ie not Dufftown, which led to a journey through a myriad of small roads and nobody around to ask. A short detour to the village of Milltown of Edinvillie, pretty but empty of people and the wrong direction. I could see the hill but where to park. I stopped at the distillery and was kindly given the right info and finally got to the small car park, a couple of cars already there.

The start

In truth there is not a lot to write about this walk. There is a well constructed path that takes you all the way to the summit. 
The initial section zig zags up and around Round Hill and soon there is the first view of the white trig amidst the prominent rock formation. 

1st view of summit

I caught up with a couple of German tourists stopping for a wee chat.
There are gun butts and parking areas for estate vehicles so not sure if this route can be disrupted at shooting time as it looks like the beaters would flush the birds over the path.

Zig zag track

The track continues to zig zag at an easy gradient all the way up. I was expecting it to take longer but I arrived at the trig after 1hour 10min.
At the summit 4 foreign guys were huddled behind the trig, not really dressed for the occasion. As soon as I arrived they scampered, obviously didn’t like the look of me.

Trig looking to Cairngorms

Still I got the views to myself and superb they are today in this perfect air clarity. As a stand alone hill there is an excellent 360 deg panorama. The 2nd highest summit in Banffshire. There is a plaque on the trig but mainly it is the many distilleries that it is highlighting not the hills.

Good rock formation

No doubt that is Ben Nevis and the Glencoe hills. Turn a bit and looking over the Moray coast to Sutherland one particularly prominent hill far away. Another turn and looking east to Braemar, is that Mount Keen far away? Shuffle a bit more and now the Cairngorm range and Ben Avon’s distinctive top. A cracker of a view.

On descent Meikle Conval ahead

Visitors coming so no time to linger. On the way down another German couple, where are the Scots?
I meet up with some near the bottom, small kids already complaining could be a long day. Good views of Meikle and Little Conval, 2 sub 2000's for a future date, large tracks must be popular.

Car park full

Looking down on the car park it is now full the tourists are out in force.
A great little walk.

Time: 2.23
Ascent: 1713ft (590m)
Distance: 4.8ml (7.8km)