Cnoc an t-Sabhail

17 June 2014

Participants: Neil and Ben
Where: Cnoc an t-Sabhail, 380m/1,246', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 21, NH 694787

Now this is an obscure one! It is situated north of Alness and is reached from the Struie road, the B9176. Driving past, it looks like another of those tree clad monstrosities. But from further up the road, you can see that the forest only covers one side of the hill and that a lot of it is clear. There is also a useful track through the forest section starting at a point marked as a cycle track on the map.....
 

 

 

The first part of the track followed the route of an old drove road. There are a number of these old cattle trails in this area and I read somewhere that they may have been used to avoid paying tolls on the main roads.....
 

 

After less than a mile, a side track headed into the forest passing a pleasant loch called Loch Sheilah.....
 

 

Just before reaching the loch, there was a good view west to the Graham of Beinn Tharsuinn, which I might have climbed today had I had more energy.....

The trees didn't hem the path in too much although there had been some new planting between the track and the more mature forest.....
 

 

It was a steady climb up the track and not too long before I spotted a thinning of the trees ahead. There was a fence between the forest and the moor but a good space had been left between the trees and the fence so I didn't have to cross it. The going was quite good underfoot but looking back at one point when I paused for a rest I saw a big fox crossing the moor and disappearing into the trees. I hoped that it wasn't searching for spaniels and did wonder if I should put Ben on his lead when I got back down to the forest but fortunately it was a hot day and he wasn't running about as much as usual and was sticking quite close.

 

The views weren't too bad. This is looking north to Struie, which is probably the best of the sub-2k's in the area.....
 

 

this is looking west to Beinn Tharsuinn.....
 

 

and this one is the Dornoch Firth with some of the hills of east Sutherland and Caithness beyond.....
 

 

Not a bad view at all but I knew that the actual summit was in the forest. I had looked at it on Google Earth before I left home and knew which forest ride it was in. This one.....
 

 

But, in keeping with the obscure nature of the hill, the highest point wasn't marked and without a GPS to tell me, it could have been any one of a number of tufts of grass. Ben thinks that he's found the spot.....
 

 

It would have been possible to follow the forest ride down through the trees to join another track but I decided to keep on open ground as much as possible so returned the same way. Ben was able to cool off in a stream down by the loch; I had to wait until I'd driven to Alness before I got my cool drink.....