Novar & Fyrish

Wednesday night came and after having Cajun chicken pasta dish the missus had cooked up, I headed off out on the bike for a run up to the Novar Wind Farm.
Cutting up through the Alness Woods, up along the Averon River and then up into the forest behind Darroch Brae and Coulhill I went. Found some really nice fast flowing singletrack up there which was a great warm up, somewhere definitely worth going if you don't have much time.
Coming out at the top of Alness at the "Corkscrew" road I headed on up towards Boath, past the Fyrish car park and on out into the middle of nowhere.

About half an hour later I arrived at the entry to the wind farm:

Looking up at the sky and seeing the sun starting to fall behind the hills up towards the Meall Mor, I decided to quickly begin the ascent to the top of the farm. Climing up to the top of Meall an Tuirc was not going to be easy, as it measures 625m above sea level. I got about 3/4 of the way and could see the Turbines spinning away, however I decided to turn around and head back down the hill, given the fading light conditions and the distance I still had to travel to get home.
Cutting back across the small section of forestry track inbetween Meall an Tuirc and Cnoc Céislein I eventually got to the bottom of the Cnoc. Although I wasn't at sea level, the ascent to 525m to the top of the Cnoc was still quite a slow grind and it took some time. Eventually I got to the top where there was some fast down hill to the bottom of Fyrish. To which I had to begin the climb to the top all over again!

Hitting the climb to the top of Cnoc Fyrish was a hell of a struggle. The road up the back is littered with loose stones and gravel which makes for very difficult traction, especially if it's been raining, the mud up the sides is just like a bog and you're going nowhere fast! After 3 stops for breath, and traction, I eventually seen the sight of the monument. It was a cracking view as the sun was just setting and the monument was being bathed in late evening sunshine:

Dropping the saddle down and heading off home didn't take long at all! Fortunately, it was all downhill from here and given the fact it was getting late for hillwalkers on the trail, there was still sufficient light to have some fun on the way down!