Tom Bailgeann. Loch Duntelchaig. Inverness Loch District. Part Two.

                                               ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
A few photos from Friday's drive up towards Inverness. Thankfully Alex was driving so I could capture these. Perthshire is known for its rolling ridges and mixed forests of pine and deciduous trees- well seen here.

Passing the climbers crag of Polney near Dunkeld. Three cliffs known as Craig a Barns reside here offering a range of graded routes in the forest and we have both rock climbed here during our classic rock days. Sometimes together... sometimes with others in the club.

A house in rural Perthshire. While it was bright and sunny lower down the higher hills held onto mist and drizzle for most of the day.

Ben Vrackie above the town of Pitlochry was just low enough at 841 metres high (2759 feet) to be clear of the mist when we passed. Nice autumn colours around the prominent hotel.

I think this is either Kingussie or Newtonmore. Didn't have a map handy at the time.

The more austere Ruthven Barracks near Aviemore. One of a number of forts built by the government across the Scottish Highlands to crush the Jacobite cause in the early 1700s and finally impose law and order over the ancient clan system. Destroyed to their present ruined state by the defeated remaining Jacobite forces themselves after they escaped the decisive massacre at Culloden in 1746 after 30 odd years of sporadic unrest. This marked the start of the end of the old highland way of life and the re-branding much later of the 'romantic highlander' image we know today - largely an invention of Sir Walter Scot through his popular novels, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's imagination who restructured highland life to their own liking- a lot of it based on Germanic folk history as much as true Scottish reality to create the Disney like version of Scotland we see today. The Scottish Highlands were probably, arguably, the first real 'theme park'... cleared of original unruly tenants and restocked with rich landowners sitting on vast empty estates- a situation that continues to this day. For example-around half of Scotland remains owned by around 500 people, many from abroad. Not stirring it up because it doesn't bother me in any way as a city dweller, just repeating some info many might not know but be moderately interested in as food for thought. Even most Scots take the bright Highland short kilts and huge range of different tartans, the Victorian traditions and all the other tourist tat so popular around the world as genuine history when much of it was manufactured by royal patronage and Edinburgh or English tailors in the not too distant past. i.e.the Victorian era. The original highlanders apparently dressed in much same cloth designs, in  dull muted colours, and could only tell rival clans apart sometimes by their war cries, facial recognition up close, body language of intent to charge, or some other givaway- even in broad daylight.

Interesting link and map here showing just how much of Scotland the Scottish people actually own. It's not in my imagination or a crackpot conspiracy theory- the richest in society do get richer every year through the tilted table effect and the ordinary taxpayer's outlay while the poorest are deliberately made poorer year on year- and its happened for centuries. You could argue it was an early land grab and with the old aristocrats fading away many of the big estates are now owned by overseas developers with no links to Scotland at all- and we pay them money for it every year it seems. Worth a look. On the plus side in 40 years of hill-walking I've never been denied access to any hills I fancied going up, on private land- I've also used the extensive network of open bothies spread across the highlands during that time, free of charge yet over in Ireland and down in England, on several farms, presumably owned by the farmer, I have been turned back and all access to the hills cut off from that direction.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/10/scotland-land-rights

Anyway, I digress again, bad, bad me! Slap my own wrists for being an agitator-must be in the blood. This is Tom Bailgeann the second hill we ascended that same day (the one with the mast on top.) A convenient land-rover track runs up it to the summit.

A wise decision to pick a smaller hill under 1000 feet as all the larger mountains around were covered in cloud. A sunny break here and a glimpse of something.

And another... and that was it.

Lower down we did have good views out east over Loch Duntelchaig, seen here.

A zoom of the climbing cliffs above the loch where I went rock climbing all those years ago. Didn't realise just how many routes are situated here. Link and photo gallery. Over 100 recorded climbs now.
https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=388

Rock art. Nature's palette.

Still Loch Duntelchaig.

Nearby Loch Ruthven.

And our home for the trip.

The exciting boardwalk into the hut... a wooden walkway placed over a swamp, which has been known to flood from time to time and completely submerge- the walkway that is- not the hut.