Hitting the heights in Caithness
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VISITING a new part of the Highlands always gives me a tingle of excitement. I start with a bit of research, looking at maps and guidebooks and planning what to do.
Langwell Strath, in Caithness, had been on my “to do” list for a while, and I finally got round to it a few weeks back.
Cycling from Berriedale up the estate road towards Langwell House, a gate is reached with a rather intimidating notice attached warning “BEWARE OF THE BULL” in red capital letters. Below it is another notice which reads: “For your own safety please contact the estate stalker before crossing the hills. Deer culling using rifles is in progress from August-February.”
The keeper arrived in an estate vehicle just as I got to the gate and unlocked it, allowing me through.
It was Sunday, with no stalking taking place to impede access, and after telling the keeper where I was going I pedalled on along the good track towards the remote ruin of Wag.
The sun shone on a glorious glen which deserves better attention than it gets from walkers and cyclists. It’s a real gem and I was happy to be biking along beside the Langwell Water admiring the scenery and listening to the stags roaring at the beginning of the rut.
Around 11 kilometres of cycling brought me to Wag with its walls still partly intact but no roof.
From here Morven, the highest hill in Caithness at 706 metres, looks like it’s within touching distance, and I headed towards it. A bealach, 2.5km north of Wag, was my objective, but I took a line a little too far west and found myself in the middle of a Caithness bog, making very slow progress.
I abandoned thoughts of going up the hill, but as I returned to the ruin found a better way of reaching the bealach. Reconnoitring is never wasted and I planned to return soon.
A few weeks later I was back, this time with John for company, determined this time that Morven would be climbed.
Most walkers tackle Morven and neighbouring Scaraben and Maiden Pap from Braemore, to the north.
But for anyone wanting a scenic bike ride as well as a hill walk, the Berriedale approach is a fine alternative.
Not wanting to take any chances I phoned the Langwell keeper the night before to be told politely there was no shooting on the Saturday we wanted access.
Off along the track we reached Wag in good time, stopping briefly on the way to inspect the now unoccupied house of Aultibea. It’s much more modern, though, than the hut circles and souterrains marked on the map in this area – evidence of ancient settlements.
Abandoning the bikes we left Wag for the bealach under Morven, following rudimentary paths on the lower slopes of Smean. The going still wasn’t easy but was considerably better than the bog I’d tried to traverse last time.
I suggested we make for a shoulder higher up the hill and we stopped there for a break among some large boulders, gazing out across the wide open spaces of Caithness.
The only blight on this amazing view is a series of wind farms. They pollute a much larger area than the immediate space they occupy, and this county has suffered badly from their proliferation. Many more applications for turbines are still in the pipeline, set to wreak even more havoc on this part of Scotland.
We pressed on up the hill, following a path up its steeply-angled sides to some stable boulder scree, which ends in a small buttress. The summit is just a short step further on and now the view is even more extensive.
The snow-capped Sutherland peaks were prominent and we could see a vague outline of Orkney through distant cloud.
A path runs sharply down the west side of Morven following a narrow ridge at first until the broader base of the hill is reached.
A cold night had left the rocks very slippery. They weren’t quite covered in verglas but the film on some of them was close enough to it to need some extra care.
Even so we lost height rapidly to arrive at the broad bealach between Morven and Small Mount, putting up some ptarmigan on the way down – clad in their white winter plumage.
We decided to return to Wag along the route of the burn running south-east from Small Mount.
The terrain is rough and boggy in places and we were glad to be back at Wag and the bikes for the ride out.
Deer were everywhere, including some big stags that had escaped the bullet for the time being at least. There was the occasional bellow but they were quieter with the rut now pretty much over.
There’s more downhill than up on the way out so it wasn’t long before we were back at Berriedale, knowing we’d been as high as you can get in Caithness.
