For the final weekend of the trip, we ticked off a couple more Corbetts on the fringes of the Cairngorms. On Saturday morning it was almost two hours’ drive from our B&B in Dingwall to the foot of Ben Rinnes, so a relatively late start for the walk. Ruth was suffering from a sore glute and had been up the hill before, so opted to sit and read in the car while I made my ascent.
This must be one of the easiest Corbetts, with a fairly gentle gradient and a large and well-surfaced path all the way from car park to summit. The most memorable feature was the flowering heather on this and all the surrounding hills, which really cheered up what could have been rather a dreary view on this grey day. I reached the top in only about 50 minutes and had a bit of a look around the summit tor before finding the most sheltered spot I could for lunch. Surprisingly, having passed plenty of people going up and down during my ascent, I had the summit to myself for the entire 25 minutes or so that I lingered! A short march back down the same way took me back to the car in under two hours.
We spent the afternoon making a leisurely drive around the eastern side of the Cairngorms, pausing for a stroll around the village and riverside in Ballater, and in the layby on Cairn o’ Mount to cook an early dinner on the camp stove and re-pack our backpacking bags. With a bright evening forecast and a long journey home the next day, we had decided the best plan was to walk up Mount Battock in the evening, camp on the hill, and just have a short walk out in the morning. We set off from Millden Lodge in Glen Esk – a valley I’d never previously visited – a little after 6:30pm and were able to walk briskly up the big track all the way to the summit. This is another very easy Corbett, although a significantly longer walk than Ben Rinnes. We enjoyed more flowering heather, the very long evening shadows, and later the sunset lighting the broken clouds to the west.
We returned to the spot we’d identified as the best for camping, just over half way down, and just about had enough daylight to set up camp without torches. After a decent night’s sleep, a moderate breeze meant there weren’t any midges to endure as we packed up in the morning, and it was less than an hour’s walk out to the car.
This brought to an end a remarkably dry August trip to the Highlands, throughout which we could have got away, with hindsight, without wearing waterproofs while walking. The midges were intense at times, but this didn’t detract too much from nine good walks up a contrasting set of hills.
My full photo album is available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SWF1TBVyU4D7VaAX6
Maps of our routes are available via the following links:
Ben Rinnes: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1255835
Mount Battock: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1255836
A productive week’s bagging meant nine new Corbetts bagged (plus a couple of Grahams), taking me to 216 down, only 6 to go! I shall get cracking with planning autumn trips to Harris and the Fort William area to hopefully tick off five more this year and leave just Streap for my completion day next year!
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