The back of Ben Wyvis seen from Meall Mor, a hill behind Evanton. One of the easy traps to fall into is believing that Munros are the only hills worth going up and it is all to simple to get dragged into mindless bagging. Suddenly you can somehow justify a 3 hour drive there and back to some highest point of some heathery wasteland just because it scrapes into the infamous list that Sir Hugh complied all those years back. The cost of fuel and a distinct lack of time between nappy changes has made me explore areas much closer to Inverness.
About 30 minutes drive north of Inverness, just past the Black Isle and Evanton, there is a superb range of hills, some of which reach respectable heights of over 800m, which can be easily accessed either from Boath or Loch Glass. Even the proliferation of wind turbines hasn't detracted much from the great views north and west. The tracks built for the turbines, and older ones for the forestry or estate uses, allow rapid and easy access to the tops. Despite being so close to Inverness, the area is generally quiee and with a whole host of low level routes possible too (also with the bike), bad weather doesn't necessarily mean you can't leave the car.
Loch More
The other day I had a superb 2hour trip over Meall Mor from Boath and back via Loch More, linking up estate roads in a 10mile loop. As I sat by the summit cairns the views over to Ben Wyvis - much more spectacular then from the Garve road- and over to the far north west were inspriring. And I spent a wee while working out running routes for the future - a run up past Wyvis Lodge looking very alluring. The only thing I wouldn't recommend would be the direct descent from Meall Mor east to Loch More. The hillside got steeper and steeper as I scrambled down crags definitely not marked on the OS 1:50000 map. With hindsight a northwards traverse to the stalkers path, then down to the loch would be much better and safer!
