FYRISH MONUMENT . . .

It’s been a while. Sorry about that.

Now we’ve got my half-hearted apology out of the way, let’s talk about the Fyrish monument.

Now I actually made this walk pretty much a year ago now – maybe I’ve only just recovered from it enough to discuss it? We were staying in Muir of Ord at the time (which in a weird coincidence we’re actually heading towards tomorrow for a few days) and the hill the monument is situated on isn’t too far a drive from there, so we decided to give it a go.

As you will recall, I am a lazy girl. This walk was probably not for me. It took close to an hour to climb up the hill, and it was steep in enough parts to get me very out of puff on several occasions.

I ended up with blisters on my feet and chafed thighs but that was probably my own fault for being inadequately prepared.

We passed a lot of people coming back down as we climbed up so I was surprised to find we actually got the top to ourselves for five minutes. It was a normal non-school holiday (in Scotland anyway) at lunchtime so maybe that’s why. Or perhaps our timing was just impeccable for a change as when we were walking back down we passed a lot of people coming up.

It was actually very cool at the top, the monument looks great and the views over the Cromarty Firth were ace. Plus I got to pat a newfoundland dog called Molly on the way up so I was still riding off the high of that! (Fact: dogs make everything better.)

I was surprised to find that the walk back down took nearly as long as the walk up. But maybe that was partly because my feet were trash by that point.

There’s a decent sized car park but I would still recommend trying to do it at a quieter time like during the week if possible… I imagine it would be pretty crowded at the weekend or during holidays.

Would I recommend doing the walk, even if you’re lazy? Yep. Just be warned it’s not always easy. The path is decent though, and the pay-off is the view at the top!