River Oich and Torr Dhuin Hill Fort

A nice easy run today near Fort Augustus.  I did another of the waymarked Forestry Commission trails but must admit to having got a little 'temporarily misplaced' along the way.  I started by following the red waymarkers which should have taken me round a trail called 'Pine Trees Trail', however I soon got to a crossroads which had no waymarkers on it.  I decided to carry on straight ahead which was obviously the wrong decision because, after about half a mile, I picked up a waymarker but it was green not red.  There was no green way marked trail from the car park I had set off from, only red, yellow or white.  I decided to continue following the green trails which would hopefully bring me back to my current position, where I would then retrace my steps back to the red route and the car park.

I ran around the green route, which took me to another car park so I carried on running the loop.  I then came across some blue waymarkers!  I was tempted to follow these as they went into a nice woodland but decided I'd probably end up getting hopelessly lost if I did so I just carried on with the green route (after having a quick nosey down the blue trail first).

After a short while, I started picking up both green and yellow waymarkers and, knowing that the yellow ones would eventually take me back to the correct car park, I followed these.  This was a good route choice as it took me down some lovely narrow forest trails and out to the side of the River Oich.  It then meandered  along the edge of the river and by the side of a man-made waterfall.

After a few miles, I eventually arrived back at the car park but had only done 4.5 miles so decided to follow the white route, which was supposed to be around 1.2 miles.  This climbed a big steep hill up to a hill fort named Torr Dhuin, where there were excellent views.

On running back down, I again seem to have gone wrong somewhere and ended up running about half a mile in the wrong direction before realising my error and retracing my steps to the route.

When I finally arrived back at the car park, I had done nearly six and a half miles but should really have only done about five and a half.  Ah well, Duncan had only just arrived back a couple of minutes before me anyway after having taken Ruby on a walk up the white route.  I would have passed them on my way down had I not taken a wrong turning.

All in all, despite my navigational errors, it was a lovely run and, yet again, a sunny day, especially when we arrived at Fort William later on.  It was so hot I had to change into a pair of shorts as I was melting!

Last full day of the holiday tomorrow, hope it's another sunny one!

Positive comments - felt nice and fresh and got a pretty decent pace on, considering how steep the climb to the fort was

Total distance - 6.4 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/196246772