An OAP's very long walk to..... Meall Dubh

Hill: Meall Dubh (Black Hill)

Type: Corbett

Height: 788m

This hill and its route were specifically chosen to make the most of an opportunity and also to kill some time so no regrets about its length or tediousness at times.

This Corbett is the highest point between Glen Garry and Glen Moriston and does contain a large wind farm, the tops of a couple of these can be seen from the road.

This was another hill on my ebike list but today I only had my normal MTB and I wasn't fit enough or motivated to do a long constant pull up a wind farm track.

Start, Dubh cannot be seen from here

You can follow the Walkhighlands route which goes over a lot of rough and boggy terrain. Or you can just walk up the track to the end of the turbines and go cross country from there. That was my choice. There are two windfarm entrances I opted for the easterly one.

At least the birds were singing

Other entrance meets up here

The initial section through the trees was actually quite pleasant with the sound of early morning birdsong all around.

Think the workies set this stone in place

Looking at the route the track goes a long way eastwards away from the hill before coming back on itself. On the way up this was not an issue as this was new territory full of new sights. Not quite the same on the descent.

The weather forecast was poor but I stayed dry all the way up to the beginning of the turbines around 500m.

About to enter the clouds

At about 600m I entered the clouds and stayed in the gloom for about 2 hours of the walk. It seemed a long way from the first to the last turbines particularly when the view is severely restricted.

Turbine number 1 looms out of the gloom

Indeed by the time I reached turbine number 1 it was drizzly, windy and cold. It was weird hearing these massive blades turning above my head but not actually seeing the turbine bodies until just feet away.

Golden Plover

At one point I could hear some birds calling very loudly. It was a pair of Golden Plovers and they were so close until I got my camera out.

Off onto the rough stuff which actually wasn't too bad, a lot of dry grass and moss.

I knew about the old fence structure for guidance and quickly found an isolated iron post which further on became more numerous. Spotting the odd individual ones was more difficult.

Falsie

Grey lumps would suddenly appear, was this it? Of course not. I came across the false cairn mentioned in a report. He said the real top was a few minutes walking, more like 15.

Dropped into a peat bog area, up the other side and then the top appeared in the murk.

Big cairn on right

I went left of the outcrop and found a track leading to the top cairn, at least triple the size of false one the track continued to the rock that Walkhighlands claims is the real summit but not mentioned in SMC Corbetts book. However the rain was horizontal so no snaps, along with the wind trying to blow me off my feet so an immediate about turn and retraced my route back to turbine 1.

Anyway another top with nae views.

Cold but not cold enough for this

Heading for the trees and long walk out

The descent was by the same route but felt twice as long. The cloud had lowered to around the 400m level which did not help. Neither did the stronger wind and the constant drizzle. If I had had this on the ascent I might have turned back. Lots of Wheatear around, the 1^st I have seen this year. Of course the walk was accompanied by calling Cuckoos, I have heard so many over the last two weeks.

So a long walk to bag another Corbett. At least it was an easy ascent gradient, no huffing and puffing. As said I knew it would be a bit of a trudge at times but minimal mud on the boots. No doubt the ebike would have knocked off at least a couple of hours but as said time was not a factor today.

Ascent: 749m

Distance: 24.2km

Time: 5.14

Wildlife: Red Grouse; Wheatear; Mallard; Cuckoo (heard); Meadow Pipit; Skylark; Carrion Crow; Red deer (hind); Golden Plover; Robin (heard); Siskin (heard); Willow Warbler; Chaffinch; Great Tit; Coal Tit (heard); Song Thrush;