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This photo was taken from the southern slopes of Ben Hope during January 2005. The day was overcast and grey with low cloud but as I gained height the cloud lifted across the area and began to break slightly revealing these shafts of sunlight picking out the 759m (2484 ft) hill of Carn an Tionail with the Strathmore river below. This little known hill lies in the Reay Forest between Ben Hee on the left of the photo and Foinaven off the right hand side to the north. The area contains a number of corbetts and subsidiary peaks and is bounded by the Lairg - Rhiconich road to the north of Loch Shin, and the Hope - Alltnaharra road to the east. The best access points to the area are probably from Gobernuisgach in the east (a few miles south of the main start for Ben Hope) and either West Merkland, Kinloch or Achfary from the west. My day continued with a pleasant ski to the summit of Ben Hope and some great views of Foinaven, Arkle and, further to the south, Quinag and Ben More Assynt. Ben Klibreck rose from the bog to the south east above Alltnaharra. The ski down gave a good run of around 400 metres vertical descent on decent powdery snow with a firmer base. Ben Hope is a great view point for the surrounding mountains and north coast all the way east to Orkney and Morvern.

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