If Inchnadamph was easy to find then this was a complete opposite, a nightmare to find. We parked on the north side of the A837 in an area called Preas a Chrannaidh, it is an area in which there chamber cairns everywhere.
If you head north from the middle of the clearing you go uphill crossing a soggy field to reach a gate. At this point you think you're luck is in as there is a clearing or fire break in the trees. Follow this for about 500 or 600 meters but at some point you have to head east as the site starts to go further away. This is were the real problems start. Forest agriculture has created a maze of water, tree root holes, very few drier parts so I've no real directions to give, as we fell, tripped, ended up waist deep in bog, went round in circles, except to say, try to keep heading east. Eventually you will see a clearing, we had to crawl the final few metres, in which the site is housed.
I love cairns surrounded in trees, they have a unique atmosphere, the lichen adding to sense of real age, and despite all that had befallen us loved this site as well. The large cairn is 12m wide and over 1m high. It appears reasonably intact but probably isn't a chamber cairn despite being surrounded by them. To east and south are steep slopes, if you walked north you would walk straight into a chamber cairn.
After a good look round it was time to head west and somehow find the clearing via all of the obstacles. A repeat of the inward journey happened before we reached the fire break to make our back to northern edge of Preas a Chrannaidh.
What seemed a straightforward walk proved to be the exact opposite so saying wear appropriate boots might be a complete waste of time. You will, however, love Alltan Nam Breac.
Log in |
Register
0 discussions
Show map (inline Google Map)
Add an image 
Posted by drewbhoy
Top of page