Glen Almond Corbetts

Head of Glen Almond with Creag Uchaig in the top left

Mountain Hare on Creagan na Beinne

Summit of Creagan na Beinne with Loch Tay amd Ben Lawers range beyond

Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Ascent:      1305 metres 
Distance:   21 kilometres, 
Time:         5 hours 25 minutes

Creag Uchdag,          879m    2hrs:14mins
Creagan na Beinne,   888m    4hrs:12mins

After two days of gale force winds and rain, I arranged to meet my daughter on the way back from a short honeymoon on Colonsay, her husband was filming 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' but in Aviemore.  Killin is halfway between the ferry which lands at Oban and Aviemore and the optimal meeting point.  It seemed a good opportunity to take in two Corbetts to the south of Loch Tay which are in the catchment of the upper reaches of Glen Almond.

Corbetts are all the scottish hills between 2500 feet and 3000 feet with a drop of at least 500 feet to the next nearest corbett or munro which makes them less easy to combine than with the munros. There are 221 of them which I have collected slowly over the years and I am still a few short of the first 100. Some are magnificent hills in their own right, such as Arkle and Foinaven in the far north, those in Ardgour and Moidart as well as most of the island corbetts. Others are good hills with knolly summits often flatter and more convex than the average munro and some are fairly tedious lumps. I have always assumed that I would eventually climb them all but, without setting targets, they seem to remain elusive. Why do one or two corbetts in a day when you can do four or five munros?

I drove to Ardtainaig which is beyong Ardeonaig on the south Loch Tay single track road and spent quite a while waiting for a flock of sheep to nervously skitter past accompanied by a farmer's wife on a quad bike. I found a parking spot at Ardtainaig by an incongruous tennis court and decided to climb Creag Uchdag first which involved a long uphill slog over wet ground and with no real views - all the tops were in cloud.  It was a trudge and only when I had walked over Tullich hill and seen the first of many black grouse did I begin to charge realising that with delays leaving home I would be hard pressed to do them both. 

The peat hags surrounding Meall nan Oighreag did not speed progress and as I ascended into the clouds that enveloped Crag Uchdag I had given up on the idea of doing Creagan na Beinne as well.  I sat on the summit slightly forlorn and sent a photo of the cloud obscured view to a friend who is an absolute anorak when it comes to knowing the name and shape of all hills.  I thought it beyond anyone's powers of deduction but maybe he had planted a GPS in my rucksack, because sure enough the right answer came back. I must use him on 'phone a friend' if I ever go on who wants to make a tit of themselves.  But then a text from Eva, the ferries were running late and I would have at least an extra half hour.  I had spent 20 minutes at the summit but descended at pace into the corrie that holds the source of the river Almond.

I was slightly apprehensive as I saw an eight track approaching but the farmer was friendly, he was out to shoot a stag and had I seen any.  It was a surprising question because I had not which is very unusual on any day in the scottish hills.  I continued down to Dunan and set about the steep slopes ahead to Creagan na Beinne, I knew it would be tight for time and there was no slowing as I ascended the 500 metres to the summit in little over half and hour.

I immediately set off down, taking the odd photo on the move but then I was surrounded by hares popping up all around me from tufts of grass.  As I began the descent a mad hare ran down the hill and skirted round me as though I was second base and ran back up the hill as if completing a hare dare, where were the eagles?  I was going to be slightly late but I got another text - so were they. It felt like I was in Alice in Wonderland and it must be tea time so I stopped for a drink and an orange before dropping into the emerald green pastures of Glen Chilleine.

The walk out was on a glorious autumnal day with the rowan berries competing with the blue of the sky and green of the grasslands for colour primacy.  I jogged the last few hundred metres, changed shoes and set off for Killin.  It had been one of those days which just got better all the time and chance to see my newly married daughter as well.  We sat by the Falls of Dochert with a beer to conclude an unusual day before her husband continued to Aviemore and we drove home.