Northern Delights

The Chief Delight of Scotland's Far North must be Foinaven, one of the best mountains in Britain. (However the distance from York to Ben Hope is rather further than Paris, thus affirming Mike Spence's dictum that doing the Munros is a great feat of motoring). Having managed a complete traverse of Foinaven 4 years ago, Paul and I were keen to explore its next-door neighbour....... the great grey bulk of Arkle

Paul had an interesting 'back door" route where lonely Loch na Tuadh was a delight.

But the ensuing 400 metres of very steep boulder field and scree must be amongst the country's worst hillsides !

Our great delight lay in getting to the top !

Arkle rewarded us with excellent coastal views and a narrow summit ridge.

We camped at the attractive site at Durness, on the north coast.
From here, the most northerly Corbett of Beinn Spionnaidh and its partner Cranstackie delighted us with an easier and much greener day

By now, most of the team were itching for the delight of adding more Munros to their lists, so off we went up Ben Hope.
Caroline had the delight of doubling her Munro score at the summit, (but was more ecstatic about seeing Orkney on the horizon)
Whereas Steve was delighted to finally find something to use as headgear before his brain fried up...... and in such a fetching colour too !

And on the way down we encountered a water nymph, before driving south for a night at Kintail Lodge in Glen Shiel.
Kintail Lodge is almost at the foot of The Saddle, so we were ideally placed for a morning on the Forcan Ridge, which was a delight to everyone.

With the weather now on the turn, and thunderstorms a-comin', thoughts turned to the cafe at Ballinluig and home. Till next time.
ANDREW