Sgurr na Ruaidhe 993m, Carn nan Gobhar 992m, Sgurr a'Choire Ghlais 1083m (3 Munros):
Friday 6th May 2016
A cold, clear night held little prospect of a good catch - but it was still with little moon. The traps contained 68 moths (the highest so far on our Scotland trip). 32 of these were Brindled Beauties and only 12 species were obtained - however, there was one new to me - Brindled Ochre. This rather indistinctly-marked moth has an interesting life cycle, with its main flight season September to October, when mating occurs. The males then all die off and the female overwinters, emerging in spring to lay eggs - it does not feed in spring.
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With a forecast of perfect walking weather, sunshine and no wind, we considered what we could do about the Strathfarrer Munros. Avid readers will recall me mentioning the mega 4 Munro circuit - a map of which is shown below. We had already done Sgurr Fhuar-thuill (top left) when we were last in this area (2013?). I have mentioned the possibility that we would do one or two at the other end - but it makes no sense to do 2 and then come back over the first, because then we would have effectively done the first one twice when we could have gone on and done the third one - provided there was a way out from there. In fact looking at the map doing the three makes a far more natural circuit, as we would end up back at the car instead of 6km away as in the Walk Highlands 4-Munros route. So that is what we decided to do - taking the south ridge down from Sgurr a Choire Ghlais. We had a very pleasant, but fairly strenuous, day walking - the only real difficulty (as usual) was getting across the stream as it was flowing fairly fast with snow melt. No suitable stones were available. Eventually we found an old wooden bridge across a gorge with a very steep descent to it and a trees growing through it and no rails - but we made it without accident or injury. Wildlife highlights included 3 pairs of Ptarmigan, 5 Dotterel (which were unusually unconfiding when I attempted to photograph them), several Red Grouse, numerous Red Deer, a few Green Hairstreaks and lots of Common Heaths. A most enjoyable day out (and we didn't have to wear gloves or rainwear at all) . Distance: 14km, Ascent: 1150m.