Parked in the car park on the north side of the A941 Rhynie to Dufftown Road just west of Rhynie and walked north along the marked path through a gate in the deer fence before heading east along the fence edge. The vehicle track became overgrown then just a mark in the grass but it led to another gate which took me out of this enclosure.
I briefly joined another vehicle track then followed an all terrain vehicle track to the east of the col between Tap o’ Noth and Hill of Noth. It was then a walk of just under a kilometre through heather to the summit of the Tump, Hill of Noth, which was marked by a few stones.
The descent south-west to the edge of the forest was in the hope that the ATV track continued north through the forest but it didn’t. With no evidence of a gap in the trees I continued west until I came to a break in the forest and after crossing some rough ground reached the forest track where I headed north-east.
At a ‘T’ junction I continued north-east to a gate in a deer fence but instead of passing through it I walked along the edge of the deer fence. A corner post was soon reached and from there I climbed through long heather and boulders onto the summit of the Tump, Cat Craigs, where the highest point wasn’t obvious.
I returned to the vehicle track and used it to walk round the north and west sides of Tap o’ Noth to join the path leading to and from the car park.
- Time taken – 3.5 hours.
- Distance – 11.5 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 425 metres.