Beinn a' Ghlo

The view across the massif from Carn Liath

Easter this year offered the chance of a solo day in the southern Grampians. There's a few mountains to choose from here, but my favourite - and the finest hill in these parts - is the big twisting ridge of Beinn a' Ghlo above Blair Atholl. This imposing massif throws up 3 Munros and embraces 19 corries and legend has it that a gun fired in any one of the corries cannot be heard in any other! A high start (340m) from the road-end by Loch Moraig ensures you get a rapid and impressive return for your efforts with this mountain and the first summit of Carn Liath (975m) should be achievable within 90 mins from setting out. I was lucky with the weather on Easter Saturday and was rewarded with an impressive view of the whole mountain from the first summit of the day. Great views abound in all directions as you would expect from Beinn a' Ghlo's position at the southern end of the Grampians.

Looking Back at Carn Liath

From Carn Liath an excellent path guides you along the swerving spine of the massif, descending gently to a narrow col (760m) before climbing steadily to the second summit, Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, a smashing name for a Munro (1070m). Northwards from here the Cairngorms really don't look that far away and the entire vista between north and south-east is filled with rolling mountains. A modest descent to a final col (847m) leads to the steady climb up to the mountain's crowning summit, Carn nan Gabhar (1129m). The summit ridge is adorned with 3 possible summit markers: a large cairn, an Ordnance Survey trig point and a further cairn, all at about 200m intervals. The actual summit is the 3rd of these, the easternmost cairn beyond the trig point - don't be short-changed in misty conditions!

From Carn na Gabhar, the usual return is made back along the summit ridge you've just traversed to its SW end over the subsidary top of Airgiod Bheinn (1061m). A shaly path descends steeply to the surrounding heather tableland and a return to the car is made along a good path which joins the track back to Loch Moraig. Allow a full day for this fine mountain day and expect to complete it in 6-8 hrs.

The Hercules Memorial Cairn

On this day though, I left the growing number of fellow hillwalkers I'd seen along the way and descended the deserted eastern slopes of the mountain down into Glen Loch to pay my respects at a memorial cairn marking the site where a RAF Hercules aircraft crashed on 27th May 1993 taking the lives of 9 servicemen, some of them colleagues of mine - and one of them a close friend. Despite the incipient sadness, this is a wonderfully remote highland spot, a long way from any public road and seldom visited by hillwalkers. A visit to the cairn will increase the day by a good 2 hrs. The long walk out below the southern ramparts of all the day's summits and a potentially difficult crossing of the Allt Coire Lagain won't be to everyone's liking - but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. RIP bonnie lads.

Check out my future plans for similar walks on: http://www.hillways.co.uk/summer/summer.htm