From the School Woods car park at Farr, we passed a children’s play park and crossed a wooden bridge to access a small path along the side of the River Farnack which joins the River Nairn farther downstream near Inverarnie. Coming to a junction, we turned left up the hill through grassland and a wooded area until we reached a wider path which we could have followed farther into the woods where it would eventually climb even higher up the hill. But we turned left again to follow a circuit parallel to our starting path. We enjoyed the purple of the heather, scabious and harebells, and the yellow hawkweed but became aware we weren’t seeing much sign of wildlife or birdsong. We followed the road downhill between some houses and noted there were some options to explore some more marked paths through the woods and along the river in the other direction. Maybe another day!
Returning to the car park, we had lunch at the excellent picnic tables and then went to explore the network of paths which radiate from the car park. The first thing we found was a huge log cabin which appears to be available for hire for groups etc. One side of the cabin has ingenious walls which can be raised to connect it to a large roofed veranda area which would double its size. There were information boards along the paths and at one point a viewpoint at the edge of the woods with a very long board naming all the hilltops along the wide view.
As we returned to the car park we encountered a group of Inverness runners just finishing a road run there. They would have been moving a little quicker than we were!
