It's an illness

First up a confession. I have always been a ticker. It started innocently enough with climbing routes 'just to remember what routes I'd done'. A move to Scotland was when it went pear-shaped. I went up my first Munro (Slioch) by mistake and it was several weeks before I bought the 'old testament' (SMC Munro guide). A couple of months later, the 'new testament' (SMC Corbetts guide). Recently my wife printed out the Marylins list (all hills with a 150m drop), for a few days it lay, unticked, quietly in the front room. Inevitably it s now festooned with ticks dates and my maps, now devoid of un-bagged Munros and Corbetts, covered in spiders web of new routes. It seems as though many of the over 1500 Marylins attract few people so they can be very wild runs. Being of relative rather than absolute height the smaller hills can be great subtitute in bad weather.





Strath Rory Marylins - Conc an t-Sabhail (380m)


I started off in the rain from the Gravel Pit car-park off the B9176 by the bridge over what I presume is the River Rory in the direction of Struie. About 800m up the road (past a new forestry commission car park, doh!) I turned down right and headed along a good track uphill for 4km until the track flatted off. I expected a thrash through the confiers, but instead a wide break in the trees was at the exact bearing I wanted and soon lead to the fence, which I used as a handrail before I headed back into the trees to the 'summit'.

Top bagged I dropped back due north along a ridge that became processively more runnable til I reached a track which lead back west to Luachar Mhor. The finish along Gleann an Oba back to the was all on very wet but hard tracks.



Distance: 14.5 Time: 1h 45 (with a pack)

Beinn Tharsuinn (692m)


From the same car-park another good run is to head west along a wind farm track to a broken concrete bridge after 3.5km. A long slog over heather and blaeberry leads after 2.5km to the summit trig point, which despite being on a flat top seems to hide until the very last minute. It is worth spending a few minutes mountain spotting. On the overcast day I last ran it the shafts of sunlight illuminating the corries of Ben Wyvis really were spectacular.
The drop down to Torr Leathann, which has wide views over the Cromarty Firth and the Black Isle, leads through some very deep re-entrants but the slope from the cairn to the quarry (unmarked on the 1:50000) is superb running on short grass an heather. Well worth the effort of the climb. Follow the track over the bridge and back to the start.


Distance: 13km Time: 2h (at an easy pace)