A brighter Skye

After a day painting on Saturday we headed to Skye for a mountain bike ride on Sunday. The drive to Skye has to include pastries from the Co-op at Kyle, and when we arrived a coffee brewed up in the van. After the coffee and a little faff we set off from Broadford heading SW.

Broadford

The red cuillin

through the quarry section

The route starts along an old former railway line that was used briefly to transport marble from the quarry near Suardal to Broadford to be shipped far afield. The marble works were in operation in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Oh my...

The track is great due to its pitching being a former railway line and not without interest when you pass through the quarry area with some short technical sections. As you reach the high point and beyond the track becomes narrower and fine singletrack with plenty of interest.

Impossible to take a bad photo on Skye

The 1st cleared village

Abi, can we take these home?

Along the shore

The views open out to the sea loch (Eishort) and beyond the Cuillin, Rum and Eigg. The drop down to the old cleared village of Boreraig provided very good riding before you are amongst the croft/village ruins which are very evocative.

Not all ridable 

In good weather like we experienced it seemed a dreamy place to be and formally live, but clearly life here would have also been extremely challenging and I tried to keep this in my mind as I felt a calling to the place.

Abi shifting..

Blaven and beyond

Following the coast Westwards the path is fascinating, some rideable, some not, hard to imagine that this is a main way in/out. There are waterfalls and great coast line to pass by but due to some bike carrying it's quite nice when you meet the next group of old buildings that are still used for farming at Suisnish.

From here there is a great track back to the road with fantastic views of Blaven and the Red Cuillin before you get back to the old graveyard in Strath Suardal and eventually old railway line which whisks you back to Broadford. A really classy ride, one that I would happily do many more times.

At my limit in the Fisherfields

I'm writing this whilst horizontal, stiff and knackered after a wild day yesterday that somehow seems a little surreal today. With the sunny weather I had wanted to go to Carnmore and climb on this big remote crag in NW Scotland but I couldn't get anyone into the idea at this time of the year.

mid way through the bike in

It was then decided that I would head to Skye to complete the Blaven traverse with Jack, but quite late on he pulled out saying he was too tired after a long run - youngsters! So I went back to my 'plan A' deciding I would bike into Carnmore but instead of climb walk up the 2 nearest munro's on this side of the wilderness.

rest stop

I didn't feel great in the morning and I think this contributed to the day feeling so tough, but I set off for Poolewe at 8am, not really early enough. Just coming into Poolewe the van decided to inspect the road verge and I ended up smashing a wheel! A pain of a start to the day but I quickly swapped wheels and headed off on the bike.

There's a track to a remote steading at Carnmore and I've always wanted to visit the bothy here, which has a reputation for being awful! It has a sound watertight roof, but lots of holes in the walls and bare earth floor with no real furniture.

destination comes into view including the causeway

I'm not sure how far it is to Carnmore, but in the climbing guide it says a 3 hour bike, or 4 hour walk. It certainly looks a trek, I should have measured it really! The ride is great, initially estate tracks, then through a forest before breaking out into the rolling barren hills. The track is in a good condition and fun to cycle and the views are astounding.

rough winds on the causeway 

After about 3 hours I made it to the causeway they have put in to split Fionn Loch and Dubh Loch and give access to Carnmore without a massive detour. It was very wild windy weather by this point, blowing waves up onto me, the causeway and bike.

the crag looks pretty good

I felt wrecked even at this point so knew that I wasn't 100% and did consider turning back, but I reasoned that I won't get the chance to come here again for a long while so decided to push on at my slow pace. I left my bike near the steading and was surprised to see a field of horses, but I guess they use these for the stalking due to the vastness and nature of the landscape here.

another rest spot on the walk in

I very slowly started walking up the well graded track following the course of Allt Bruthach an Easain. A great bikeable track (its a classic ride on this from Dunndonnell to Poolewe) but it was hard going in my fragile state. The winds had dropped, or weren't as bad higher up and on reaching Lochan Feith Mhic-illean I turned off heading South Easterly.

view from the first hill

looking back at the way down off the 1st hill.
The 3 walkers before they turned back

Getting off the main through route it immediately felt wilder and alpine in nature with the sun beating down and the rocky landscape. The most obvious route for the 2 hills would be continue on the rocky path to the col and then go up/down one side, returning to the col before going up and down the other hill, but I worried that I wouldn't have the impetus to do this (mind games due to feeling under the weather!).

looking back to the shieling. My bikes somewhere down there

So instead I headed up the West flanks of Ruadh Stac Mor then followed the short lived broad rocky ridge to the summit. Amazing 360 degree views of mountain and sea unfolded but I didn't linger conscious of time and big distances still to travel. The loose steep decent to the col was fine and quick in the end. I met 3 walkers just beyond this who seemed very nervous about ascending this erosion scar path through the rock bands.. in the end looking back I think they abandoned it even though it was very easy, just a little loose.

the Fisherfield beach scene

I left Poll Eadar dha Stac (col) and headed up A' Mhaighdean. I nearly turned and abandoned it as still felt like I had no energy and was out of water.. but somehow talked myself into continuing! It was beautiful on top with fine views down to the causeway, Carnmore and beyond out to sea in the far North.

down, down, down back to the bike and causeway

Down I went fixated on reaching a path stream junction I had rested at on the way up. I allowed myself a 15 minute break here, eat some food, lay down for a short while and slightly nodded off, before being awoken by screams! Time to go!

too tired to look at the barn 400m away

Round the corner I could see a group of hikers paddling/swimming at the far end of the loch, guess the cool water made them howl! By now (finally) I was picking up a little, I'd maybe gone from feeling 50% to about 70%! Good news and I quickly got my bike again at about 5.30pm.

loan biker chasing me down from the causeway 

After unsuccessfully trying to give my apples to the stubborn horses I recrossed the causeway heading back. I saw a mountain biker at this point who looked fresh and was far to friendly (I was still goosed generally). He was just out for a ride to the causeway and back, which would make a great ride on it's own.

and quickly catching me!

He overtook me, I snapped a couple of pictures of him and headed on. The ride out didn't take quite take as long and I think I got back to the van at dusk - 8pm totally exhausted, but the chips and can of coke from Gairloch revived me enough to get me home! Quite an adventure.

footnote - As I write this today I was meant to go over to Glencoe today to climb... but that didn't quite happen. I got up late, went to the cafe for a large cooked breakfast before returning home and going back to bed!

Unfinished business in the Cairngorms

I'm still lacking a little motivation after the Norway trip, partly due to the poor weather in Scotland, and who knows what else! But with a reasonable forecast I was determined to get out. I decided to head back to the Southern Cairngorms for 2 reasons, firstly to get up Ben Avon (Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe), and secondly to try and fine the local secret hidden Howff (or bothy).

old ruined croft

I planned to get up early, but snoozed alarms.. so I arrived at Braemar at about 10am, not particularly early, but Sunday is the day of rest and besides the winds and weather generally were meant to improve through the day.

looking up at the sneck/col between the 2 mountains 

The bike in seemed shorter than the last visit with Shaw and Judith, but in search of the Howff I took a slight detour away from the quicker upper track to head through a beautiful valley. The valley was great, with lots of stunted tree's, flowers, plants, bird life and a ruined old croft. It's amazing how a sheltered corridor such as this can promote and support so much more wild life than the more open mountain side. Shame I didn't get the camera out earlier here.

looking back towards Squareface (behind the rock face you can see)

The day was nice and warm with light winds at this level but I did notice the clouds moving very quickly over the tops! There were quite a few bikes left by the track at certain points and I left mine at the stream junction the same as last time.

Up at the sneck between the 2 hills it was still sunny but you could tell the wind was near... There were plenty of walkers about and I caught a couple up just as I got onto the plateau. This provided some photo interest!

on the summit!

Boy was it windy, walking was only just possible and the actual top is up on a rock Tor, which we all had to actually crawl up given the high winds.

another fool heading into the high winds

the track out - dreamy..

I didn't hang around and shot back, again it was warm at the sneck, and hot back at the bike. The bike out was brilliant. I think this mountain ride is my favourite trail that I can think of. I guess it's a combination of the scenery, the actual flowing (easy) trail and the gradient, which is gentle, so going up is easy, but coming down is as fast as you dare.

the secret howff/shelter

On the way out I spent an hour looking for the Howff..... and it took a while to find and wasn't where I thought it was... but I followed some clues I had and then bingo I found it! It's clearly well known as the path to it is well trodden, but it is well hidden and you have to be a few meters from it to see it.

It's actually more complete and in better condition than I expected and I will definitely try and come and stay here sometime.

88 years old - never to old to ride!

On the final ride out, quite near the van I (slowly) passed a couple of walkers and the 88 year old woman told me off for not having a bell. Well after a short chat, and after hearing that she hadn't ridden a bike for 30+ years I thought she should have a spin on mine, and she did, very much enjoying it! A nice end to the day.