View from the MacPhee Trail Look-off

Taken 2007 July 3 from the look-off
on the MacPhee Trail in the Cape Mabou Trail System

About ten minutes from the junction of the MacPhee and Beinn Alasdair Bhain (Fair Alistair’s Mountain) Trails, the MacPhee Trail, opened last year, offers this marvellous vista of Beinn Bhiorach (just right of centre) and of the coast below it. The mountain rising at the right in the middle ground is the same (unnamed) mountain seen at the left of the previous photo.

The damage to the evergreens seen in the previous photo is also visible here; indeed, signs of its ravages are ubiquitous on the Inverness Coast this year.

From the Beinn Alasdair Bhain (Fair Alistair’s Mountain) Trail, the MacPhee Trail climbs briefly (and moderately) to reach this vista and then climbs a bit more to reach its junction with the Beaton Trail, following the MacPhee pioneer cart track along the mountain’s edge; beyond its junction with the Beaton Trail, it follows another cart track down the side of the mountain to reach the Cul Na Beinne Trail (MacKinnons Brook Lane). The day I took this photo was my second time on this route; I was reminded on the way down that coming up from MacKinnons Brook Lane would be a real work-out, as this trail goes steadily down and has many switchbacks on the lower end to counteract the steepness of the slope. It was a gorgeous walk on a tree-filtered sunny day that brought home to me the great beauty of this new trail. What a privilege it is to have access to such a marvellous and extensive trail system!

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