[Trip Index] [Munro Index] [Home] 25th May 2002   Ben Wyvis Map This was the Saturday when we were due to leave Dingwall and go to Aviemore for the next week, but as that was only a short distance I thought I should be able to fit Ben Wyvis in, it being a solitary peak and do-able fairly quickly. It had to be a bit of a rush though because Trisha wanted to go off to a quilt exhibition in Beauly so we needed to time it right. She dropped me off at the parking spot by Garbat on the A835 at 9.30 and disappeared up the road, tyres smoking… Looking gloomy at the start I yomped off as fast as I could go - the first bit was a gently rising path of just over a mile which takes you through a plantation, but it was all very open and easy walking. Leaving the trees behind there's a short distance to go over levelish ground by a stream (the Allt a' Bhealaich Mhoir) then the well-made path goes off to the left across boggy lower slopes. Ben Wyvis, being close to Inverness, gets lots of visitors and consequently suffers a bit from path erosion - this had been fairly successfully countered by packing lots of stone onto the path. The going got quite steep now but no problems. Reaching the top of the outlying part of the mountain (called An Cabar) I entered cloud and the views disappeared. Still it was easy to find the way and and a very gentle stroll of about 1.2 miles over a grassy, rounded, broad ridge (20 mins) brought me to the summit trig point, which is surrounded by a circular windbreak (11.45). I still couldn't see much because of the cloud but there was a steep drop on the right, probably a corrie but couldn't see far down. A husband & wife couple about my age turned up then - they were from Manchester too, Altrincham. At the top of Ben Wyvis Conscious of the time ticking away I retraced the same route back down, making good time - at An Cabar I called Trisha and asked her to pick me up 1.30. Made good time and got back to start 1.30 - Trisha screeched to a halt 5 mins later.