High five on Farigaig and Foyers fun run
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I arrived to find them standing huddled under the heavy branches of a mature evergreen, sheltered to some extent from the relentless downpour that we’d have to face sooner or later.
The Sunday morning social run can be anything you make it. This is how our group is – the night before I’d asked how far the planned run was, and got the answer in how many thousands of feet of ascent, rather than distance.
Sure enough, from the Inverfarigaig car park it was a familiar climb that we pitted ourselves against right from the off, battling gravity, an eroded path and the water billowing down it!
No room for a warm-up in these parts. At the top of the steep section, we turned sharp left to continue on a wider track that just kept on going up.
The track bends round to the right and keeps on going up, while the rain kept on coming down. We were running – albeit slowly at the back in my case – with the hoods up, keeping the worst of the weather off as best we could.
At a left-hand bend, a boggy path marked by a post heads off to the right. Both routes eventually take you to the same place but we opted to keep on the track, which was a better option for maintaining some momentum on the run, at least.
It came as a bit of a relief when we re-grouped at the top and Graeme announced that that was hill number one done. He’d introduced the route as the Five Hills of Farigaig – but it’s sometimes difficult to know what is a hill and what is just “a bit of an incline”!
We descended to Lochan Torr an Tuill, a nice spot in a clear felled bit of forest, and continued on the track that drops all the way to the road in Gleann Liath.
We didn’t touch the tarmac, though, instead following a rights of way sign back up towards Foyers and Boleskine. I hoped this was hill number two.
It turned out it was – eventually. The path climbs up to a junction marked by a blue South Loch Ness Trail post, where we headed left through an open area before entering the dark forest beyond. Here, the route climbs steeply again, zigzagging between trees and rocks before meandering round to a section with a chain bolted into the rock face.
Beyond here the path improves, dropping a little before reaching the high point on Toman Tarsuinn, our second official hill. There are nice views across the loch from the rocks at the top, though slightly obscured by the high trees these days.
However, Stuart and I found ourselves at the back at this point, so we carried on down the steep path to meet the others at a little burn crossing. Shortly after this, the path meets a wider vehicle track where we headed right to follow it round a bend and all the way down to Foyers.
The track here passes some of the tunnels and pipes that feed the hydro station on the shores of Loch Ness. It’s a place I love to visit, as my grandpa was the man in charge of the tunnelling operation when the plant was expanded in the early 1970s. I have photos inside the huge chambers and a folder of his engineering drawings – all done by hand – of the various operations, which give a fascinating insight into the plans as they were developed.
Emerging onto the main road, we followed the pavement up the steep hill (this one didn’t count, sadly) to pass the shop and café, which we would visit later. We continued past the play park and houses to turn right onto a small street that leads over a bridge to the Upper Fall of Foyers.
The water was pummelling down here like I’ve never seen before, a consequence of snow melt combined with heavy rain. Beyond the bridge we followed a grassy track alongside an open field then, on entering the forest, forked right to start our next climb.
The forest track led upwards on a route new to me, so I followed the others who took a left turn higher up to reach a communications mast at the top. Graeme explained that there used to be a good view of Loch Ness from here but again the trees have matured and blocked it.
We had to return to the previous junction, where we turned left to follow a lovely route down into Lower Foyers, a long descent that passes Foyers Mains and a disintegrating old stable that must once have been an impressive building.
I soon recognised where we were as we passed houses opposite the cemetery and continued down to the Bailey bridge over the River Foyers via a nice little short-cut path.
From Lower Foyers, there is more than one way – but all of them are up! Hill number four would lead us up through the woods to the Lower Falls.
Over the bridge, we followed the road a short way then cut right towards a hotel, where a path into the woods and Upper Foyers is signed. It was a long slog up here but the soft pine needles give a lovely running – and walking – surface, and we took a breather to take in the spectacular view of the falls in all their glory today.
Back up at the road opposite the café, it still wasn’t time for a brew. We turned left and followed the road all the way past the turn-off for Lower Foyers and up to a house at the top of a rise before taking a path off to the left, signed for Inverfarigaig via the shore path.
However, we still had one hill to go, so we wouldn’t be following this all the way back. This great little path meanders through the birch trees to eventually meet an access road to the power station, where you head right to pass a substation. The shore path drops left immediately after it, but we headed right on a discreet path up through the trees opposite here to reach the road above, almost directly opposite the track to Easter Boleskine.#
We followed the track that zigzags and climbs higher still above Loch Ness. Shortly before the house, a small cairn marks a path that bypasses the property and goes via a nice pond to re-enter the woods, a left turn providing the final stretch of uphill on the final hill of the five.
Now it was a gentle run, flat and downhill, through the Farigaig Forest and back to the steep rocky descent to the car park. After an invigorating start to a soggy Sunday, we really had earned that coffee back at Foyers now.
Route details
Five hills of Farigaig
Distance 10 miles / 16km
Terrain Forest tracks and paths, minor roads, pavements, boggy and hilly throughout
Start/finish Inverfarigaig forest car park
Map OS Landranger 26; OS Explorer 416
Tackling almost 2000ft of ascent on a soggy Sunday morning run on south Loch Ness-side
