It’s a great time to be on the Scottish
hills. There’s plenty of daylight,
conditions underfoot are generally dry and everything looks so colourful! There’s also a host of wildlife out there to
enjoy and enjoy it we did on a 4-day trip to the SE Highlands based in Blair
Atholl.
Dreish & Mayar
Jennifer arrived a day before Jon and we
darted over to Glen Clova above Kirriemuir to take on these 2 south
eastern-most Munros which always provide a fine half-day’s hillwalking above the
Angus glens. We parked at the end of the
road up Glen Clova in the Forestry Commission car park (£2 parking charge
nowadays). The car park is dominated by the distinctive cone of The Scorrie, the northern ridge of Dreish. Entering Glen Doll, we headed
up the clearly-marked Kilbo path that leads easily up through the trees and
then out in the open across the flank of the delightfully-named Shank of Drumfollow.
This leads to a small col between the 2
Munros where we turned left for the easy 1½Km and 150m gentle climb to the cairned summit of Dreish (947m; thorn bush). From here we took in a wide sweep of familiar
peaks including Mt Keen (a conspicuous cone away to the NE), Beinn a’ Ghlo (of
which, more later!) to the SW and the nearby peaks of the White Mounth that we
had visited in wintery May!
Much closer to hand, lay our 2nd
Munro of the day, Mayar – a mere 3½Km away over the flat grassy plateau that separates the 2
hills. Just follow the fence posts! Approaching the summit cone of Mayar, a shout
from Jennifer heralded the first of several exotic sightings on this trip when
a golden eagle soared into view as it quartered the southern slopes of the
mountain. Great stuff!
Less than an hour after leaving Dreish, we had
our 2nd summit: Mayar (928m;
high plain). As nothing was likely
to top that eagle, all that remained to do was to descend into beautiful Corrie
Fee and follow the track through Glendoll Forest back to the car. This we did, following the Fee Burn as it
tumbles down into the majestic stone and grass amphitheatre of the corrie
which, unsurprisingly, is also a National Nature Reserve. We were back at the car in just under 4½ hrs – an
easy couple of Munros if ever there was such a thing…
Corrie Fee
Beinn Dearg
It’s a very long trudge out to this remote
Munro, however you choose to approach it.
That said, there’s only one realistic line of approach – from Old Blair
to the south. From the nearby car park
by Old Bridge of Tilt, 2 estate tracks lead north through parallel glens to
where they both intercept the running waters of the Allt Sheicheachan at the
base of the mountain.
Joined now by Jon, the 3 of us chose the
clockwise option and headed up through the Whim Plantation taking the northern
fork of Glen Banvie. The track is
excellent but the miles are long and it takes a good couple of hours to reach
the first (and only) significant feature of the route: the Allt Sheicheachan
bothy. The bothy was in immaculate
condition and looked a lot more appealing than it did on a previous night-stop
there in 1999. Today it provided a few
minutes’ respite from the steady rain before we continued alongside the burn
for 2Km to where the track turns sharply right and returns to Old Blair. At this point, we struck up the hillside on
the excellent stalker’s path that takes you to within 10m of the summit. Just before doing so, however, we were treated
to the sight of a female hen harrier low over the heather - a rare sight indeed
and very welcome on a day of hard graft and few scenic splendours!
The path now takes a slightly different line to
that shown on the OS 50K map across the broad shoulder of Meall Dubh nan
Dearcag. The route is fairly
straightforward though, even in misty weather, and the path slides just to the
right of a conspicuous stone cairn at the 930m ring contour marked on the map. Soon after, the final summit slopes lead to
the granite boulder field that covers the summit area of Beinn Dearg (1008m; red hill).
Grey skies continued to dominate the
atmosphere as we returned to the Allt Sheicheachan. Having regained the inbound track, we
continued along its onward extension heading SE to intercept the Allt Slanaidh which
we followed back to Glen Tilt. Along the
way we saw a peregrine falcon, a ring ouzel and a family of whinchats - not bad
for an afternoon stroll on the moors!
Soon after reaching the woods above Glen Tilt, the heavens opened and
the subsequent deluge soaked us to the skin as we trudged back to the car.
The route described is almost 30Km long, most
of it in remote country. A bike would be
a useful aid to travel and will considerably reduce the time taken. But you may miss some of the bird life! Your choice…
Beinn a’ Ghlo (hill of the
mist)
I have climbed this mighty mountain massif several
times now and have always enjoyed my days (summer or winter) on its broad
twisting ridges high above the numerous sweeping corries that fall away on all
sides. It felt great to be back.
We started, as always, from one of my
favourite places: the bird-rich green pastures beside Loch Moraig above Glen
Fender. Alas, there were no curlews or
oyster catchers to lend their song to the start of what was to be a most eventful
day!
Toiling Up the Carn Liath Path
We set off through the gate and up the
Shinagag track to the large wooden hut that appears on your left after about
2Km. This marks the start of a path that
leads over some soft bog before intercepting an old stone wall (we disturbed a
young roe deer here). This is followed
for a short while before the path begins to climb sharply up the quartzite
flanks of Carn Liath. We entered thin
wispy cloud just below the summit which we reached within 90 mins after setting
out. Carn Liath (975m; grey hill). The view
from this peak, both over the surrounding countryside and across the massif of
Beinn a’ Ghlo, is spectacular in good weather and makes the stiff climb well
worthwhile. We largely missed out today.
In the cloud, and then some rain, we strode
out along the airy ridge high above the deep, sweeping corries of this fine
mountain. The path traverses below the nose
of Beinn Mhaol before descending quickly to the 762m col that connects Carn
Liath with the next Munro in the range, the delightfully named Braigh Coire
Chruinn-bhalgain (1070m; hill of the
corrie of round blisters). By now,
the mist was beginning to clear and some sunshine beckoned although it was
another misty summit for us.
We descended to the central col (847m) of the range where lunch was taken
in warm sunshine as dragonflies flitted up and down the infant burn that flows
south from the saddle. A glimpse of
thickening clouds away to the SW gave no real hint of what was to follow, but
by the time we were surmounting the final summit ridge, things changed
rapidly. Disturbing rumbles of thunder
and the sudden appearance of menacingly black clouds started to preoccupy
proceedings and it was time for some serious contingency planning. It was clear that a violent storm cell was
now quite close to us and starting to envelop Carn Liath. Whilst I thought the core of the cell would pass
us by a little to the west, it was going to be uncomfortably close. West was also the direction of our planned descent!
The Gathering Storm!
The very real danger of being caught on a
mountain top in a thunder storm was not lost on any of us as we quickly nabbed
our last Munro of the day and promptly headed down. For the record (not that important at the
time!), it was Carn nan Gabhar (1121m;
hill of the goats). For future
reference, the summit cairn is 200m beyond the trig point – don’t sell
yourself short! Today, however, our
thoughts were focussed solely on the progress of the storm cell. Thankfully, despite all the ominous portents,
the cell centre did miss us and we got away with a thorough drenching, a brief
period of hail and some very threatening sound and lighting effects. It was not an experience any of us would wish
to repeat.
We regained the 847m col just as the rain
started to ease and soon after it stopped altogether and there was little to
show for our brief insight of hell apart from a very wet hillside! In contrast to what we experienced during
those thought-consuming 15 mins, our descent and long walk-out was hot, dry and
sunny and we strode back along the Shinagag track without a care in the world….
Carn a’ Chlamain
Following our brush with a very angry Mother
Nature, we had little appetite for another big mountain day. What did have some appeal was a gentle cycle
in the sunshine up beautiful Glen Tilt.
We would throw in one final Munro to round off the trip and this would
require little more than a couple of hours hillwalking.
The bike ride took exactly one hour to the
new bridge over the Allt Craoinidh, just beyond Marble Lodge. The birds just kept coming as firstly a
female Merlin, then a male ring ouzel and finally an osprey all popped up to
give us a wave! Jennifer also set eyes
upon her first red squirrel all of which enhanced our bright demeanour.
The Approach to Carn a' Chlamain
Leaving the bikes by the bridge, we climbed
north-easterly, steeply at first, but then more gently after intercepting an
estate track than leads to within 50m of the summit. The broad ridge of Faire Clach-ghlais is
followed to about the 750m contour where a path leads left across the dwarf
heather and cuts off the corner by taking a more direct line for the
skyline. This path climbs to 900m and
re-intercepts the track a short way E of the summit cairn that sits on the
sharp quartzite cone of Carn a’ Chlamain (963m;
hill of the kite). Another peregrine falcon flypast capped a fine day!
The return to the bikes took less than an
hour and the ride back down the glen just 35 mins. We were back in Blair Atholl just 5hrs after
setting out - nice. The final sunny,
storm-free day did much to restore our craving for open hillsides and ensured
that our parting memories of the week were not unduly tainted by the close
proximity of that storm cell.
Checkout
my future plans at: http://www.hillways.co.uk/summer/scotland.htm
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