28/08/2024
Recently spent a week in the far north of Scotland to explore an area I haven't spent much time in. This first post covers the first task on the list: Climbing Ben Hope. She is the most northerly Munro in Scotland, and is certainly one of the most (if not, the most!) scenic I have been up. I have wanted to climb Hope for years, since reading Robert MacFarlane's Wild Places, where he has a captivating chapter on it. Camped near the car park the evening before for an early start, and I was lulled into a false sense of security regarding the midges, due to the wind. They were hellish in the morning. The boggy areas of the north and west are truly something else! Fantastic climb, and I was lucky with the visibility and weather. Was struck by the amount of native woodland that remains or has regenerated up north. Woods consisting of mainly Downy birch and with the occasional Rowan and Holly. Didn't see any Oak or natural Scot's Pine (but I didn't look very hard).
