Sent to Coventry..
AW Whitley N1498 on Carn a Choire Mhoir
(Distance covered =
7.0 mile/Ascent =+408m)
I didn't think I was going to get any hillwalking done in Scotland in 2020 so it was a great relief when I found myself out on the hills just south of Inverness. It was sunny, there were no midge thanks to a light breeze and I'd just enjoyed a massive full Scottish breakfast at the Snackshack in Dalwhinnie; a great start to my holidays.
I'd met up with Stuart and his daughter Chloe at the Snackshack then we'd drove a few miles further up the A9 to Slochd Summit where we parked the cars a little way down a side road from where we were started our first walk of CC20.We immediatley had to negotiate the most difficult section of the walk, as we had to cross to the other side of the very busy A9.
Once over the A9 another obsctacle presented itself; a Deer fence.
Once over the A9 we had to quite a deep ditch which had a Deer fence on the top of it's opposite bank. Once over these initial three obstacles it was pretty easy going as most of the remaining distance was along landrover tracks, and as Stuart had been to this crashsite before there was no need to worry about navigation either.
On a Landy track above the A9, Stuart is
pointing out the location of the Whitley wreckage.
Walking up an unnamed hill between Carn Nam
Bain-tighearna and Carn na Choire Mhoir.
I'd had plans to visit the last resting place of Whitley N1948 on several previous occasions while Heather had been at Highland Dancing Championships in Inverness but for one reason or another I'd never gotten around to it. It was also in our plans on CC19b but again circumstance dictated I would not make it up to the top of Carn a Choire Mhoir.
View north from the ascent of Carn a Choire Mhoir.
Above and below:-Crossing the Allte na Feithe Sheilich.
There used to be some large chunks of Whitley at this crashsite but inevitably the Museums, the 'let's build one of these or one of those' projects and most likely various others have all been busy removing stuff for their own indiviual agendas; maybes some of these bits are removed with good intentions but I personally believe it would of all been better left where it was!
Approaching the summit of Carn a Choiore Mhoir.
Luckily there doesn't appear to be any
'magpies' who have a thing for memorials!;
or maybe it's because it's just a bit too heavy to steal!
View over the memorial looking down to where the Whitley crashed.
There was some pieces of the Whitley laying next to the memorial but most of
what remained was a little further down the hillside.
Main scar indicating where Whitley N1498
ended it's final flight.
Where a complete wing once lay before a
restoration group dug it up and had it away!
The rear fuselage from N1498 which can be
found squeezed into a room at The Midland Aircraft Museum in Coventry. It would look a
lot more impressive if it were still on the hillside, I certainly would
have been able to get a better photo of it!. At least its 'preserved' and on display to the public; for now!!
A decent little walk to blow out the cobwebs and get CC20 underway and although a little dissapointing at how little was left it was still good to eventually make it to this crashsite.
