After last week’s Morven knee-deep heather adventure, I thought I would try something a little closer to home and less arduous. Benaquhallie (GM/ES-065) is a cracking wee hill with fantastic views and today, it was t-shirt weather for the whole trip.
Parking is a little tight on the B9119, and I wouldn’t take Walk Highlands’ advice about parking in the small quarry. The local shooting estate is Findrack, and they lock the gates so you could be trapped. There’s a good path most of the way up to the trig point. Beware, the estate shoots clays during the summer, so it’s best to have a chat with the keeper if you see vehicles on the hill - they’re a good bunch and will keep everyone safe and happy.
On reaching the trig point, I spotted on 2m and immediately had 5 QSOs, the furthest being Peterhead, which is not bad for a 5W HT. I then moved over to the cairn, which is huge and has an interesting stone stack. I thought this would keep me out of the way, and I was right, as I only ever saw 2 other people - I love this part of Scotland that I am lucky to call home.
Because of the conditions, I thought I would try 20m first. I managed Spain, Finland, and two summit-to-summits with Switzerland - better than I thought it might be. A brief interlude to complete my first QSO on 70cms and then onto 40m, which provided a Welsh summit to summit and just 2 other UK contacts.
I was having such a great time that I returned to 20m, which gave me French, German, Italian, and Spanish QSOs, accompanied by a bit of chasing other SOTA spots. The weather was unbelievable, with hardly any wind and probably a good 20ºC on top - I could have stayed all day.
Just before packing up (I could feel my arms burning…), I returned to 2m, which provided another 3 QSOs, which is really good for GM/ES. One more summit to summit with Spain plus a French QSO, and it all started to go quiet, so it was time to make the trip back down the hill. What a cracking day!
