‘Dull’ hill with a dramatic side
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THERE are no dull hills, only dull people. It’s a saying that sticks in my mind when anyone calls a hill “dull” or “uninspiring”.
Fionn Bheinn, above Achnasheen, attracts that derogatory description in publications and websites dedicated to walking in Scotland and “bagging” the Munros.
It’s an unfair label because there’s always something interesting to be gained from climbing a hill, however bland it may seem on the surface.
Take Ben Nevis for example, which hides away on its north face some of the finest cliff scenery in Britain, never mind Scotland. Yet from some angles it appears as just a giant whaleback.
There’s nothing craggy or grand about Fionn Bheinn’s southerly aspect, either, but get up top and there are two deep corries on the north side to gaze into, and a fine panorama over to the Torridon peaks and the Fannichs.
While Achnasheen may not boast a large population – fewer than 30 souls – it is in a lovely spot, with its railway station on the Kyle line from Inverness, a post office, shop and the Studio Gallery and café.
A hotel once stood here but it burned down in 1994 and the site was cleared. It’s still marked on my ancient Glen Carron map, though.
There’s a signposted path up Fionn Bheinn at the west end of the village. It passes through a gate and on up beside the prominent Allt Achadh na Sine, issuing from a deep gorge at the top of the slope.
The ascent path, messy for much of the way, is followed until close to the gorge. Veering right here, the nose of Creagan na Laogh provides a way forward to the grassy slopes of the Munro.
Initially there’s a faint path but that soon disappears. We plodded on up, looking back every now and then towards the Corbetts above Strath Conon, though a haze obliterated any detail.
After an upward toil over tussocky grass, the well-defined summit path is reached and it’s a straightforward climb up the last 100 metres or so to the trig point. The drop into Toll Mor is impressive as the ridge arcs elegantly around it. Patches of snow and the remains of a cornice lingered.
At the top, the distant haze took away some of the grandeur of Slioch and the Fannichs, but it was still a pretty stunning view.
Rested and refreshed we retraced our steps along the ridge, but now continued east to drop down beside the lip of Toll Beag, Toll Mor’s little brother. It’s just as dramatic, though, with a sweep of rocky slabs on the north side.
Losing height we reached a wall, a prominent marker that aids navigation for the next section of the walk. There’s more than one way back from here but all involve crossing some wet ground with watercourses feeding down into burns that end up in the River Bran.
We meandered south, downhill, towards a deer fence blocking the way into a forestry plantation on the other side. Turning west, we rounded the end of the deer fence and the plantation and passed through a gate to continue over rough but easy ground to the A832.
It was just a short walk on the roadside from there back to Achnasheen.
If things are open, it’s worth popping in for a coffee and cake at the end of your walk in a place like this.
Small communities depend heavily on spending from tourists and hillwalkers, and it’s a way of contributing in a small way to their livelihood.
There’s some geological interest here in the form of the Achnasheen terraces which lie to the west of the village.
These flat-topped terraces of sand and gravel look man-made but were in fact formed in the last ice age, more than 10,000 years ago as the glaciers melted.
A few miles east at Achanalt, a path leads to the graveyard at Cnoc na Bhain, where Captain Bertram Dickson, a pioneer of military aviation before the First World War, lies buried.
Dickson persuaded then Home Secretary Winston Churchill that Britain should have some kind of air force, which led in 1912 to the formation of the Royal Flying Corps and subsequently the RAF.
His claim to fame in early aviation is being involved in the world’s first mid-air collision at an air meet in Milan in 1910 when the plane he was flying was rammed from above by another.
He survived the crash but the injuries he sustained led to his early death in 1913 at the age of just 40.
