Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Ben Rinnes
This Corbett is described as being in both Moray (local government council area) and Banffshire (historic county). Its elevation is 840m but the car park is at about 300m, so the full height isn't climbed. However, on this bright but extremely windy day it was a bit more than a walk in the park; and the best thing about it was the granite tors which outcrop on the summit and the flanks.
The views should have been great but the distances were too hazy; looking towards the Moray Firth.....
There was a direction finder on top of the pillar, and the flush bracket was present, no. S7210.
We found a lunch spot on comfy moss at the base of the summit tor - grandly named the Scurran of Lochterlandoch. A wheatear put in a brief appearance and I longed to walk on along the ridge to look for ptarmigan; but tiredness and the now quite awful wind put paid to that. I had to be content with a beautiful white feather caught in the crowberries and the heather (which might not even be a ptarmigan feather).
A couple of hours earlier, as we'd started to make our way up Ben Rinnes, I'd looked back at the marked path leading up Meikle Conval and thought "When we get back, we could pop up that one as well".
And what did I think as we made our way down now? Ha ha ha ha ha! My legs felt like rubber, my hips were hurting, and I felt battered into weariness by the wind; and insult was added to injury when a man who'd passed us on his way up as we left the summit, now not only passed us again on the descent, but actually unlocked a bike from the gate below and cycled off up the road to the left - which doesn't get anywhere for miles and miles, so how far did he have to go?! At least we had a car to fall into, and then a lovely leisurely drive back through the pleasant green countryside of Moray and Inverness-shire to the more austere surroundings of our home on the west coast.
// posted by Christine @ 12:18 PM 
