Up the Traligill again
Much of February 2023 was wet, with at least 140 mm of rain falling in the first 24 days. However, clear cold nights and days were ushered in by a display of the Northern Lights on 24th and 25th (photo 1). Sunday 26th augured well, so we took ourselves to Inchnadamph for a leisurely walk up the River Traligill.
We were repeating visits made on 6th January and 2nd February 2018 (Two winter visits to the Traligill, posted 8th May 2018), but there is always something new to see.
Most of the vegetation was still in wintry shades of brown and dark green, but across the valley a grove of rowans were shining brightly in the sun in a former exclosure, from which deer-fencing had been removed after several decades (photo 2).
Birdlife was scarce, with just a few chaffinches singing lustily in wooded areas, one robin and a pair of buzzards soaring above a conifer plantation. The only mammal signs, apart from red deer dung, were fresh mole hills. They are a conspicuous feature of fertile grassland all over Assynt at this time of year, resulting from the re-excavation of burrow systems.
The views were stunning and we took our time, passing old sheilings marked by grassy areas and small walled structures (NC272208, photo 3). After a couple of hours, we reached a viewpoint, just below the caves, for lunch (photo 4).
In this time we had seen only a handful of people. One of them was in shorts and walking shoes (his boots, left outside his tent, had frozen hard overnight). By about 1130hrs, he had made the ascent of Conival, walked along the ridge to Ben More Assynt and back, through lying snow, and was making for home!
The geology of the hills
Perched on a mossy outcrop of limestone amongst the heather, just off the path, after lunch, we took a really good look around us.
To the west, we could see all the way down the Traligill valley to Loch Assynt, with the quartzite-topped summits of Quinag on the horizon (photo 5).
To the east, the western slopes of Conival reared up above the upper parts of the Traligill valley (photo 6). Just below the summit, at 987m, we noticed a band of dark vertical crags, which had never before seemed so obvious.
An annotated panoramic view on the BGS 1:50,000 scale map (Scotland Special Sheet Assynt) reveals that these lie just above the line of the Ben More Thrust and are composed of the lowest part of the Torridonian sandstone sequence, known as the Diabaig Formation. Not a rock that we would have associated with our highest hill, until were reminded of the complexity of the geology of this area, in the heart of the Moine Thrust zone.
Given their altitude, and the steepness of the scree slopes below them, these crags may never have been visited by naturalists other than geologists. We know of no botanical records from this part of the hill, and although very exposed, they could house some of the rare montane plants that occur elsewhere on Conival.
Across the valley to the north-east, the ground rises steeply to the heights of Creag Mhor Fuaran nan Each (big crag of the spring of the horse, photo 7). The upper ground is rather dour, being on quartzites. However, along the river, in Gleann Dubh, there are narrow bands of limestone and the phosphate-rich rocks of what used to be called the Fucoid Beds. This would account for the bright green vegetation on flushed ground alongside small burns falling down the valley sides (photo 8).
Caves
Having prolonged our lunch break, drinking in the views and enjoying the sunshine and total quietness, we walked the last few metres up to the caves.
Gwen took another look at the steep-sided cave which is the highest of the three (photo 9). Examining her photograph, we remain convinced that its walls bear not only holly fern Polystichum lonchitis and hard shield-fern P. aculeatum, but also the very rare hybrid between them, P. x Illyricum. Since confirmation requires the examination of spores, it will have to wait until specimens can be collected by botanists properly kitted-out for descent into this dangerous pothole.
Back to the valley and home
We then made our way over to a part of Gleann Dubh that we had not visited on previous occasions. Our attention was caught by a huge old rowan growing out of a small crag on the near side (photo 10), where it has avoided browsing by the high numbers of red deer found hereabouts. It is one of the largest examples of this species we have ever seen, and it, and the grove of rowans mentioned earlier, indicate how much more wooded this landscape could be.
We retraced our steps along the well-trodden path used by those ‘Munro-bagging’ the two summits, with a last look back at Conival still bathed in sunlight (photo 11). Further down the valley, we had a good view of the contrasting outlines of the old house at Glenbain and the conical turrets of the newer house beyond it, which mirror the summit of Spidean Coinich on Quinag (photo 12). Our five hours on the hill had not been particularly productive from a wildlife point of view, but a very welcome change after the dreich days of much of the rest of February.
Ian M. Evans and Gwen Richards