Some pictures now on Flickr.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
I’ve visited Northern most point, Dunnet Head, Western
most, Ardnamurchan Point, Eastern most, Cromer, Southern most, The
Lizard. 4 ticks in boxes, done!
There’s lots of land east of Cromer, not least parts of Norwich! You must be thinking of Lowestoft Ness, surely.
There’s some land near Corrachadh Mòr which is slightly west of Ardnamurchan Point.
In reply to M1MAJ:
Perhaps I should have qualified that as Northern, Western etc. you can drive to. For Dunnet Head, I’ve been (judging by the 1:25000 map) within 130m of the actual tip. For Ardnamurchan, Corrachadh Mor is about 50m more West. It’s a tramp across rubbish ground from the car park at the lighthouse and the road is traffic light controlled over a km or two as it’s too narrow for passing places as it winds around the rocks. Given the WX on both occasions was “hostile to walkers” I believe the expression “close enough for farming” applies.
You are correct with my continuous confusion of Cromer and Lowestoft. IIRC it was 1994 when I was sat on the sea front in Cromer having an ice cream on my employer’s tab that I realised I was almost as far East as you can go in the UK. I’d finished a job expected to take all day in 30mins and was wondering how best to fill the time without returning too early. A short drive (at their expense) and the Eastern most point was reached. Followed by a tour of US airforce bases such as Lakenheath (full of cruise missiles at the time) before facing the delight of the newly opened A14 back to the motorway. So long ago when the A14 was newly upgraded and devoid of traffic and was a delight. Not like nowadays.
How close is close enough? I’m quite happy to have been in the AZ for all 4 points. Much like climbing The Cobbler. Have you climbed it if you haven’t threaded the needle? I put my foot in the sea at Lizard Point. There again it was a balmy day with blue skies and hardly any breeze. Not 58N then!
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
A short drive (at their expense) and the Eastern
most point was reached. Followed by a tour of US airforce bases …
A modest detour and you could have visited the lowest point in the UK too.
In reply to M1MAJ:
Ah, now you’re opening a whole new bag of worms with that! 
It’s taken about 20 years to have done the 4 points of the compass. I thought I done this in 2003 but it was the recent discussion that started me having doubts. It’s taken nearly 5 years to go from 100 uniques to 250. The trek to now reach 500 seems long in deed.
And we won’t even think about trying to bag at least one summit on every UK island… that could get “proper expensive”!
Andy
MM0FMF
Day #4
Another very foggy and wet morning and another full cooked breakfast! Packed up and paid and I was off down in the fog. I had identified a few possible WS/CS summits that are near A9 just South of Inverness if the local WX was too bad for more NS summits. I didn’t want to bag all the summits here, there’d be no reason to come here again!
It’s about 75 miles to Inverness and it was foggy, or wet, or wet & foggy almost all the way. The WX turned when I crossed the Cromarty Firth and the Black Isle. Soon I was turning off the B951 and heading into the hinterland between Loch Ness and the A9. There are four 1pt summits about 12miles off the A9 that are about 30-45mins walk each. Tom Bailgeann CS-113, Stac na Cathaig SS-117,Stac Gorm CS-118 and Creag nan Clag CS-119. All involve trackless walking apart from CS-113 so that one won. There’s a big comms mast on CS-113 so phone coverage should be good. The WX was now 30% blue sky and the scenery down the glen is lovely. The summits may be only 1pters but all of these summits look to be well worth the effort, especially if you are passing near.
I parked clear of the gate for Tom Bailgeann and set off up the rough track. It soon turns from rock/hardcore to gloopy peat mud. Given the scale of the mast at the summit you’d think there would be a proper track as it was very difficult making through the wet mud on the flat sections. I doubt a 4wd Land Rover would do it. Well not without using the winch. Just past the tower is a fence which I used to support the pole.
I activated on 40SSB, 40CW and 20CW. 12m was dead. ODX was Phil VE1WT, 40m was all shortish skip and 20m was the typical European propagation you get on flat bands. Maybe no real DX but every QSO was welcome.
You can see lots of water from here, Loch Duntelchaig, Loch Ruthven, Loch Ness and the North Sea. In fact the Kessock Bridge at Inverness could be seen standing out of the Haar on the the coast. Creag nan Clag crags look amazing. I did think of bagging it whilst here. But… I’ve had this horrible cold and was still suffering. Getting up 200m of Tom Bailgeann was a struggle with a cough so I thought, with 3 other summits to do here, that’s 3 reasons to come back when passing by sometime. I packed up and headed back to the car in about 15mins total. A quick change into something more comfortable, a Coco Chanel taffeta LBD with a pair of diamante slingbacks for the 3+ hour drive home! No a clean T-shirt always makes the drive better.
With the proposal to cover all of the Perth-Inverness section of the A9 with average speed cameras I tried driving back home using the cruise control set to the real speed limit not the voluntary “any faster would be silly” speed limit I normally use. Very relaxing and the MPG meter said 51.9MPG (5.4L/100km) which isn’t bad for a 2967cc engine. A pit stop just North of Dalwhinnie for a coffee and sandwich and use of the Wifi was made. The Ralia cafe does a nice coffee and home made sandwiches and the wifi is free. I had to reboot the SOTA cluster as Phil G4OBK reported it wasn’t happy when I was on the summit. Job done and I was back home to find Mrs. FMF and my eldest back from a trip to her mother.
Was it worth it? Any trip to NS-land is worth it. Everything is different up there. I managed only one 12m multiplier but 3 uniques and 5 points. The points don’t matter but uniques do. I saw some fabulous sights, hit 250 uniques, got an unactivated summit activated. I spent £120 for 3 nights B&B at a fantastic B&B (Inver B&B and Caravan Park), I can’t recommend this place enough, very, very good (excellent breakfast, clean huge room, large bath/shower, fast wifi). I managed another £65 on nice food/beer/whisky at the Bay Owl 400yds away from the B&B. Diesel came to £107 for the 802miles covered. Should anyone come up this way, cheap fuel can be found in Inverness, but not the A9 side, but the West side. The next cheap fuel stop is ASDA on the South of Tain. In fact that was only £1.327/l for diesel. Up from here expect to pay £1.46/l for diesel.
Thank you to everyone who chased me. It’s fabulous to be confronted by a good pileup when you have invested a fair amount of cash, time and sweat to get to the summit.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi Andy Great to work you on all 3 summits.My delay in replying was after I worked you on the last summit we got going again down the canal.All was fine until the engine stopped dead and the starter moter refused to budge it.Thinking the engine had seized up I spent a very unhappy night in Gargrave worrying about having to take the engine out.Long story short was the gearbox was out of oil and it was engaging reverse and forward at the same time and this was stalling the engine.My good friend Mike G4YQA brought me a pint of oil and this solved the problem
In reply to MM0FMF:
It sounds like an enjoyable trip, Andy. Frustrating for me, I didn’t get you on any summit! The first summit I waited an hour, got dragged off to do a chore, and when I got back you had finished om phone and was busy on CW. One of the other summits I only found out from your report that you did 40 SSB, I don’t think anyone spotted you until you moved to CW. C’est la vie!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Brian He was spotted for ssb but when he moved to cw I edited the spt 73 Geoff
In reply to G6MZX:
Ah! I think that was a mistake, Geoff, with no mention of SSB visible I hung on for a long time in case he was going to move to SSB!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Brian Sorry about that.It was the easiest way of re spotting but point taken I had not seen it from that point of view.73 Geoff