We've enjoyed such lovely weather this past week, going out running nearly every day! One of our favourite walks with Ivor is the Fannich Estate just a few miles down the road from us. It's a secure estate with a good road, Caledonian pines and lots of deer and hares for Ivor to chase! On this walk in the past (usually a four mile circuit round the road and forest track) we've admired the craggy peaks off to the North of the main estate road (Meallan Buidhe at 437m and Carne na Beiste at 518m) and had regularly talked about venturing up the sibling hills one day. Well, with the sun shining we headed off to give it a go.
As soon as we passed the cattle grid and deer-gated section to the estate, Ivor is off on his adventures scouring for something to chase. We make our way onto the smaller hill and Ivor is off like a shot, no where to be seen for a good five minutes and we think he's somehow made his way back through the fence. Just as Blair starts heading back down the hill to find him, the wee blighter decided to comes running back up! The hill itself is grassy and heathery and thankfully dry underfoot following a couple of weeks of lovely weather; I would expect that it would be quite boggy otherwise. Climbing up we looked back for the view of Loch Luichart in hazy sunshine.
We carry on up to the top of our first hill, Meallan a' Mhuthaidh Beag, and the views are just lovely. We regularly marvel at the wonderful place we live in - on days like this there is no place better! We undulate over the hill towards the second peak and then we get Loch Fannich in full splendour.
Carrying on our walk, Ivor spots a hare and literally hares off after it yelping and squealing as he goes. He is no match for the hare though and he comes back five minutes later exhausted. At the top of the second peak Ivor bounds off again, this time we are assuming it is deer again and he doesn't make his way back to us until we are nearly at the bottom of the hill.
The way down was a bit lumpy and steep in parts with some boggy sections but overall not bad and my feet weren't too wet for the 3 mile run back to the gate and to the car.
Overall we ran/walked 7 miles with height climbed 1,750ft. Not big hills but that wasn't what we were after - the views over the Fannich hills were and we weren't disappointed. We reckon with Ivor bounding off a total of four times he must have covered double the distance we did and he spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping in the sun at home.
