Hill of Iron

Caley and I were going to go up Bohuntin Hill today. Earlier plans had been that M or L might come too but this didn't materialise. Given that it was just Caley and myself I decided on something a little more strenuous a little further up Glen Roy. Beinn Iaruinn means hill of iron. The last time I was up here was in February or March time when Bruce was may be two. It was bitterly cold and windy that day and the litter of lochans about the plateau summit had a layer of slushy ice which was getting blown by the wind in to heaps. Bruce was racing through them and splashing up this super chilled water as he went and the effect of the wind was to freeze instantly the water droplets on his coat. He was happy and not feeling the cold.

Heat was the problem today and those same lochans served as watering holes and spots to have a cooling wallow for Caley. Clearly my plan was to get a decent blip from this beautiful hill top and I set off from the car with a heavy rucksack, heavy with the weight of the tripod. Beinn Iaruin rises very steeply from the Glen Roy valley floor so a steady pace sees you getting decent height for a view quite early. After thirty five minutes the pattern of light on the east side of the glen was looking particularly good. I needed a drink too so stopped and quickly rigged up the tripod switched on the camera to adjust to my preferred aperture for the upcoming shot and to my absolute horror the screen said it didn't have a memory card installed.

Huge swear words echoed down the valley. With it now having no use on my onward tramp I stashed the tripod in long heather for later collection.

After this I did feel the benefit of the much lighter pack and this hill is as steep as any that can still retain a covering of heather. I stood up straight at one point and my outstretched hand could touch the heather in front of me. The gradient eased as the summit plateau came in to view and there was an easy one km of walking to the summit. The views all round were breathtaking. I took a handful of images with my very cheap mobile phone but they do the setting no justice.

My return route was dictated by the need to retrieve the tripod. We will come back, soon I hope, and with the benefit of today's experience I will sacrifice the tripod but definitely take a memory card.

The blip image is from Caley's morning goal keeping practise.