Walking in Strathconon

This morning, James and I gave Kevin a lift to Inverness station. We were sorry to say goodbye to him, we have had a lot of fun with him over the last few days. We were in good time and had a quick coffee in the Costa at the station before saying our farewells to Kevin and then heading for Strathconon. James had a Corbett that he wanted to bag, called Bac an Eich, which was a six hour circular trip from our parking spot near Inverchoran farm. I decided to walk along a bit of the River Meig and then walk the length of Loch Beannacharain. There was an attractive big house at the end of the loch called Scardroy and opposite it there was a steep hillock with a little cylindrical monument on top. I climbed up to take a closer look, and found it easier to take my shoes and socks off to walk up through the long grass! Apparently the monument is in memory of a 2nd World War Major-General called John Frederick Boyce Combe. There are a couple of crests on it but the plaque mentioned online is missing, so I’m not sure what was his link to the area. I walked back to the car, stopping beside the river on the way for lunch. The field was full of delicate pale blue harebells, tiny clusters of white field madder, purple field scabious and little yellow tormentil. By the time I arrived back at the car I had walked more than 12 km which pleased me. James made really good speed on his hill walk and arrived back at the car only twenty minutes after I did. We headed home via Deli-ca-Sea where we got fish suppers. The cats had been outside all day, with access to food and water in the porch, and were excited to see us.