Our comeback walk Conival - walk from Inchnadamph: Daniel and Clare's photos (26th July 2007)

Some walks are special for the scenery, the air, the light, the scents or sounds. Or perhaps the history, or the flowers, birds, newts, deer... Or it might be an anniversary, or a place which already has strong associations.

Having thought so much about Torridon over recent times - writing reports on The WalkHighlands website, finishing and having my (Daniel's) choir/oboe composition performed recently, our attention is now focussing on Assynt as our holiday is approaching fast.

Clare first went to Assynt on a school field trip, many years before we met. She was blown away by it. We spent most of our honeymoon there, based in Lochinver. Compared with some of our Highland trips, it was quite quiet. Our glorious day out was on Suilven, but we didn't ascend either summit: having climbed the north gulley, seen that there was an immediate just-as-steep drop on the other side, we freaked out slightly and found a bit of flat ground just up from the saddle to admire the views. That was enough frisson for one day. It was a fabulous walk: great weather, from the clearing mist on Suilven reflected on Loch Druim Suardalain in Glen Canisp, to the pure sunset over Inverkirkaig bay, and much in between.

Perhaps the modest and off-beat walks, and the still moments of the trip, though, are what we remember most.

Eleven years later, in 2006, Clare was diagnosed with leukaemia. She walked into A&E on Maundy Thursday, and spent most of the next 5 months as an inpatient at the Leeds General Infirmary. A shock it was, but we had a lot of support, and still count ourselves very lucky. We try to take that outlook forward now that life is normal again.

Clare was determined in recovery. A few days after leaving hospital for the last time, we were off on the bus, then slowly but steadily up Otley Chevin. A couple of long weekends followed before Christmas: a walk along some of the central parts of Hadrian's Wall: we walked miles - Daniel doesn't know how she did it - he was exhausted! Then a few days on Arran. (One more day than we planned, as Ardrossan was too exposed, so the ferry went to Gourock, couldn't dock in the squalls there, so we went back to Brodick!)

The following Easter we bought folding bikes and took them to Braemar, but our Summer Holiday in Inverkirkaig was our first big trek away since it all happened, and Conival our first big walk.

Assynt, and Inchnadamph in particular, has other associations for us. Clare is the geological map librarian at Leeds University, and many of her colleagues have developed the understanding of how this iconic place came to be as it is. Clare did lots of work on a website on the geology of Assynt, which is used by many universities, and was one of the factors in the area being declared a Geopark. But you don't have to have any professional links with it: any interest in landscape, in geology and its history, will draw you to Inchnadamph...

Assynt is amazing, but it's also quite daunting, for us at least. It's huge, complex, sparse, rough, and, as Hamish Brown says, there are no \"easy miles\" here. It's easy for us to feel intimidated by the remoteness, the difficulty of the terrain, even the gradients on the roads and our sluggish cycling legs... Then there's Lyme disease and the like.

But whatever happens to us in this forthcoming, or other (hopefully) future visits to Assynt, Conival will always be a joyous achievement for us. This year we're staying about as close as one can to it, at Glenbain - a cottage many of you will know.

We did the walk from Inchnadamph, on the usual route. As we were staying in Inverkirkaig, we had to cycle into Lochinver, then pick up the bus. So we had between about 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to do the walk. 8 hours is a very short time for us to do a high walk, even one of just 8 or 9 miles. With the bus ride and the cycling, though, it was a suitably long day to do justice to what happened there, and indeed the perfect weather we had that day.

Here are some pictures from the day. We hope you like them...

The start point was the chalet right on the north side of Inverkirkaig bay:

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Inverkirkaig, where we started the day. (photos from our week there);:
Inverkirkaig bay, looking across to the north side. Unst chalet, where we stayed (dark wooden clad building), is visible in the centre.	Inverkirkaig bay (the south promontary)	Views of the beach from the chalet

A secluded yet bright and captivating place to stay. We saw red-throated divers here. The road to Lochinver was no less beautiful; although it's less than three miles, it feels very wild in places, and felt unremittingly steep to us, unaccustomed to cycling at all, let alone here...

Loch Culag was a particular highlight of this cycle ride, which we did several times during the week: none as luminous as this day:

Views on the road from Inverkirkaig to Lochinver:
Approaching Loch Culag from the south: promise of a fine day...	Suilven and Loch Culag, at the start of our day out on Conival	On the way back to Inverkirkaig - one of the higher sections through the gneiss wilderness, between Loch Culag and Strathan	On the way back to Inverkirkaig - Loch Culag
Quinag, from above Loch Culag		..and a wider view from the same point, with the quartzite hills of Inchnadamph on the right (southeast) of Quinag	Lochinver (in similar weather, the day we left)

Everyone on the minibus was friendly - the driver, various people going to school, and here and there. It goes on the main road from Lochinver, along Loch Assynt. There are tantalising glimpses of Conival from this road: here's one from three days later, on our visit to the then very new acquisition of the Culag Community Woodland Trust, Little Assynt. Plus some other photos we've taken through the window of a fast-moving bus!

Roadside views of Loch Assynt:
The east end of Loch Assynt: on the skyline is Breabag Tarsuinn (right) and Conival (with steep right-hand side left of centre)	The same Inchnadamph hills under a roll of hill-cloud - a common occurence - perhaps this shows why Traligill is also known as Gleann Dubh (the dark glen)	A little further west: Ardvreck castle: Breabag proper is on the skyline, with hill cloud above it
Looking south to Canisp	Some of the celebrated pine-dotted islands	Conival from the road at the foot of Loch Leitir Easaidh (at the east end of Little Assynt)

Incidentally, there's some very interesting and visible geology in the road cuttings along the Loch. That's for another report, hopefully soon. (It's hard to see from the bus, anyway!).

We took the usual route up Conival, starting from the turning to Inchnadamph Lodge and Field Centre: many of Clare's students stay at the hostel each summer, as a base for their training in geological mapping. The track is very good for a long way up the glen, and after a mile passes the white cottage of Glenbain, where we'll soon be heading: we nearly stayed there on our honeymoon back in 1995, but decided on Baddidarrach instead.

There's lots of geology plain to see on this walk: thrusts, quartzite, pipe rock and igneous sills. All very interesting! On a clear day, one can easily see why Assynt, and Inchnadamph in particular, is one of the most important and appealing geological sites in the world - and that's without going into any of the subtleties. We were using the BGS Rockwatch Assynt Guide - it has a basic fold-out geological map, and a separate booklet, both in a handy plastic wallet, so good for taking on a walk.

Traligill is full of complex profiles and impressive outcrops of limestone. And the river is a delight: the path gives you good views of it at various points. Higher up, the track became rather peaty, looking rather like chocolate cake, and having a bit of the same consistency!

It steepens and becomes rockier as you approach the bealach between Conival and Na Tuadhan. At this height we're away from limestone: most of the rock seems to be quartzite, though there is pipe rock around, too. The cliffs here are of quartzite (quartz arenites) with intrusions of dark brick-red porphyritic trachytes, according to "A geological excursion guide to the north-west Highlands of Scotland", by Kathyrn Goodenough and Maarten Krabbendam, published by the Edinburgh Geological Society, 2011. However technical this sounds, these dark intrusions are quite striking.

The stream is always close by, and there was plenty to draw the eye, easing the ascent...

From the road at Inchnadamph to the summit ridge:
Looking south from Inchnadamph: limestone cliffs on left, glacial moraines on right	Conival and the river Traligill - afternoon	A similar view in the morning, with cloud clearing from Conival	The Inchnadamph hostel and field centre - celebrated amongst geologists, many from their student visits there!
Looking up the Traligill valley (Valley of the Trolls!)	Loch Assynt, and Glenbain cottage (right)	Cnoc nan Uamh, with its caves, behind the River Traligill before it disappears underground. Breabag Tarsuinn is on the right (skyline)
Hidden below the track at Glenbain is a wonderland of caves, gorges, sinks and resurgences, colourful rockpools, beautifully waterworn limestone, and a carpets of flowers. It needs a separate walk to do it justice: we're hoping to write this up soon...
Climbing out of the limestone glen onto the more open slopes: Conival looking a bit nearer...	Mossy mountain stream: Allt a' Choinne' Mhill, which becomes the River Traligill lower down, even at which point it's not coming directly from the Bealach Traligill.		The hills round the bone caves (middle) and south of Loch Broom (far), from half-way up
Limestone, above Glenbain	..and clear water	Pipe rock, below the ridge	The horizontal lines on this rock, just below the ridge, could be glacial scratches (striae)?

Approching the bealach between Na Tuadhan and Conival:
Cliffs on the west of Beinn an Fhuarain (Fuaran nan Each)	Nearer the top of the valley: intrusions of trachytes	A big sky: orographic cloud matching the massifs of Canisp (right) and Coigach (centre-left)	Holey clouds to the southwest

Once on the ridge, suddenly the views to the east open out: a great panorama, with depth too: there's quite a slope on the other side. Turning right and up towards Conival, there is some steep, angular loose bouldery quartzite to negotiate, but fairly soon it gets easier. Just before the summit, there's a surprising bit of quite orange sandy soil: you can see it in the photo from the top which is looking to Loch Assynt.

On the ridge - the final part of the ascent of Conival:
Na Tuadhan, from a little way up the Conival ridge	Ben More Assynt, also from below Conival's summit: the south ridge of Ben More looks imposing from here	The northern side of Ben More Assynt.

On the ridge, you look down to some lochs with a great range and vibrancy of colours. This was perhaps the most remarkable thing we've seen like this:

The coloured lochs on the east flanks of Conival:
Various angles on the lochs: shades of green and blue	..and some purple into the mix...

We made it! Our's first big hill since Clare's leukaemia, and a Munro! The weather was great, chilly and fairly windy but sunny and clear. There were spectacular views from the top: Ben More Assynt, Foinaven and others. Wonderful! We didn't attempt Ben More Assynt, as we were keeping an eye on bus times, and didn't want to push our luck re. fitness etc. So instead we sat on the summit for the best part of an hour. Out of the wind, and looking down at the bare bones of the seminal Moine Thrust. There is, believe it or not, a song written in French, about the Moine Thrust. It's as well we'd left it at home, as we were about to have company...

A couple of ladies arrived there just after us. One zoomed off to Ben More Assynt while the other sat in the summit shelter with us. It turned out that her friend who had zoomed off had had heart bypass surgery last year and she was just getting back to fitness. She was 66 and fitter than us and her friend, all of whom were in our 40s! We said how grateful and delighted we were that Clare had regained fitness after treatment for leukaemia. The lady we were talking to turned out to be a Norwegian midwife. We had a very pleasant chat which included us explaining what we could of the local geology with the help of the BGS guide! The very green-blue lochan was a surprise to her: she said in Norway, those colours are usually found only in glacial lakes.

Views from the top of Conival. [Approximate directions of view in square brackets]:
Coigach (right), and Loch Broom (left) [looking south west]	The vast peatlands of the Moine Schists, and the peaks of NE Sutherland [east of north]	The Quartzite folds of Na Tuadhan, and the Peaks of Reay Forest [north]	Ben More Assynt [east]
The southern end of Ben More Assynt [southeast]	Breabag and Breabag Tarsuinn - the Moine Thrust is clearly traceable from here [south]	Canisp [west]	The Conival ridge (near), Loch Assynt and Quinag (right), outer Isles beyond [northwest]

Eventually we had to head back down over the white quartzite and the chocolate cake, and back to the bus. Glowing from the sun and wind. A magnificent day out.

We weren't quite done: a friendly wave from the bus driver as she stopped to pick us up. Then back to Lochinver. We had a rest in the sunshine in the village, caught up on a few groceries, then cycled back to Inverkirkaig. Back to the chalet, the weather was still smiling.

Finally, we fancied seeing what the evening light would do, so we dragged ourselves out of the chalet, soon very happy we did as we wandered along the strand. Then inland along the road, by the sylvan river, and a short but steep ascent to the plateau south of the Kirkaig and Loch Ardbhair. It must be all of 250 ft, but - well, we hadn't yet completely seized up - quite!

There was soft colour - a quietly beautiful end to a spectacular day.

Walk's end: Clare back at the road, with the limestone cliffs of Stronechrubie in the background, and Daniel also waiting for the bus, with Quinag behind.

Sunset over Loch Ardbhair

Postscript

We're now back from our stay in Glenbain, preceded by 4 magnificent days in Scourie. Glenbain and Assynt were great, of course... perhaps we worried too much... although we did find it pretty tough at times.

But we had a great time.

We're hoping to post some photos etc. soon...

For now, we hope you've seen something nice on this page - perhaps giving good memories if you've been on this wonderful hill of the dog: a big, gentle hound, on the day we were there, anyway.

(Text and photos by Daniel and Clare Gordon. July 2012).

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