Tom Mor, New Mast, Continuing Recuperation

As it’s two weeks since my operation and recuperation is going well (see here) I decided to try a little hill walk with a light pack. So far I’ve just done very short strolls in the fields and woods close to home. This time I ventured a bit further and went up Tom Mor, the hill on the other side of our little side glen. Up and down only takes two to three hours so I reckoned it shouldn’t put too much strain on my healing wound and I’m pleased to say it doesn’t appear to have done so.

This is also my first ascent of Tom Mor since the new communications mast appeared last month, replacing the one that disappeared in August. (See here and here and here). This new smaller mast is now providing us with decent and hopefully reliable broadband (20-30mbs) for the first time, which is wonderful! No going off to make a coffee whilst waiting for the old slow connections to crank into life to post some small file.

The day was chilly, cloudy, and dark. However it looked the best of the week. Yesterday was very wet and the forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week is for much windier and stormier weather. As it was the wind on Tom Mor was brisk and cold. Lower down it was calm and I’d soon removed hat, gloves and fleece. On the summit they quickly went back on.

Looking across the dark forests and pale fields of Strathspey I could see fresh snow on the distant Cairngorms, a return to winter high up after the milder weather of the last few days which had stripped the hills of much of the snow.

This is my fourth post in four months about the masts on Tom Mor. I promise it’s the last one!

A Walk Up Tom Mor To See The Site Of The Mast That's No Longer There (and heather, trees, clouds, some wildlife & lots of rain)

The summit of Tom Mor

My local hill, Tom Mor, has lost its mast, as I reported in this post earlier in the month. The hill now has a new profile that isn’t dominated by a tall metal structure.

To see what, if anything, was still there I went up Tom Mor on a day of showers, towering clouds, flashes of sunshine and, eventually, steady rain.

Tom Mor heather

Approaching the hill the purple of the heather stood out. It is at its peak now and under the dark clouds it really glowed.

The spreading wood

I also noted how much the pines are spreading out from Ballinlagg Wood on the south-west slopes of Tom Mor. Only decaying remnants of the fence that once surrounded it now remain. The slopes beside and below the wood are used for sheep grazing but in recent years there clearly haven’t been enough of them to stop the forest regenerating.

Rain sweeps across the Cromdale Hills

The estate track to Tom Mor (it doesn’t go quite to the summit) runs round the north side of the hill and here there are views down long Glen More. Squalls of rain swept across the Cromdale Hills on the far side of Strathspey.

Glen More

I left the track, which eventually descends into Glen More, for a short little-used side branch that leads up to the mast site. The hut that was beside the mast was still there. Next to it was the concrete base on which the mast stood. Inside the hut all the electrical paraphernalia and the many cupboards had been removed.

Where the mast was

There was no sign of disturbance on the ground around the hut and the platform. No vehicles had been here. No feet had trampled the ground. The mast had been removed without it toppling over. It must have been by helicopter. I was impressed that there was no trace of those who had done this. I wonder if they will return and remove the hut and platform.

Young pines on the summit of Tom Mor

Leaving the mast site I walked through the heather to the slight rise that marks Tom Mor’s summit. There’s a small cairn here and not far away a much bigger one from where there’s an excellent view of Strathspey and the Cairngorms. Today clouds hid the mountains. Far below I could see the pale line of the River Spey. Small pines sprouted from the heather. One day this will be a wooded hill and its profile will change again.

So far the rain had been light and intermittent but on the summit it became heavier, swept along by a north-west wind. I sheltered behind the big cairn to don my waterproofs and have a bite to eat then set off down through the heather to the wood. The rain stayed with me all the way home.

The conditions were not good for observing wildlife but I did see a red kite soaring over Tom Mor, a kestrel hovering over the fields, three roe deer that raced away into trees long before I was close enough to even think of a photograph, and finally a brown hare on the edge of the wood, where I didn’t get my camera out as the rain was torrential.