Morvern

Craigievar Castle

Craigievar Toadstools for G&G

Into the cloud 

Morvern summit in rain and low cloud

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Ascent:       670 metres 
Distance:    8 kilometres
Time:          2hours 45 minutes

Morvern     871m      1 hr 50 mins

With 15 members of the extended family still holidaying in Deeside, it was decided to visit Craigievar Castle in the morning whilst the weather held.  Any prospect of a walk was postponed into the afternoon by which time a front had moved in and the clouds were down to about 500 metres and rain was imminent.

Morvern was the nearest Corbett so Alan and I decided to take an afternoon stroll starting from Balhennie at the foot of its eastern slopes.  Despite spotting what looked like a well carved path to the south of the hill, Alan decided that we should cut through a plantation and then ascend the steep heather and rock strewn eastern slopes.  It was a rough ascent and the only diversion from the slog was the occasional beating of Grouse with their familiar squawks and whirring flight.  The blaeberries provided some sustenance for the ultimate challenge of Scottish hills, not the wind or the wet rock but the calf deep heather.

We eventually emerged on a shelf below the final slopes and found the path that we should have ascended.  It was into the cloud and the rain began to test our waterproofs. The walk to the summit was easy going and the summit itself was typical of so many days out on the Scottish hills.  A pile of rocks with a grey wet backcloth.  I was reminded that during a second round of munros over half of all the summits had been in similar circumstances. The cold clammy wet atmosphere provided a baseline against which any summit with a view or even better a touch of blue were regarded as privileged outings. It was with this in mind that I rescued the camera and Alan took a photograph of the raindrop on the lens.

The descent was a lot quicker as we charged down the path and reached the old farm steadings of Balhennie.  Rabbits were manically racing about and the pink granite of the old buildings were in stark contrast to the rich green pastures. We arrived back at the road end and as we removed our wet waterproofs, Aileen arrived to give us a lift back to our respective holiday lets. It was not a classic walk but it sure was typical of so many days in the Scottish hills and it felt good that this had been restricted to less than 3 hours. Craigievar Castle was the undoubted highlight of today.

Mount Keen

Mount Keen from upper reaches of Glen Tanar

Glen Tanar

Lochnagar from Mount Keen

Mt Keen summit

Bike shed below Mt Keen

Wednesday 17 August 2011
810 metres of ascent, 36 km cycling, 10 km walking, 5 hours 20 minutes

Mount Keen    939m      2hrs 15 mins

Mount Keen is the most easterly munro and is usually accessed by Glen Mark from the south east or Glen Tanar from the north east.  The latter is a longer route and is greatly aided by a bike and that was the plan today. It was a glorious morning and we were in Aboyne before 9:00am trying to hire an extra bike so that Gregor could accompany me on the ride up Glen Tanar as we had done in October 1997.  On that occasion as we descended the track in the twilight at a speed well in excess of the braking capacity of our Mountain Bikes we narrowly missed wiping out an old work colleague of mine, Dame Sue Bruce. I had not known who it was at the time but she asked me a few years later whether I had ever descended Glen Tanar on a bike and been abused by a couple of walkers, and if so that I was even more reckless than she had thought.  I suspect I could get sponsorship for repeating the manoeuvre nowadays from quite a few folk in Edinburgh.

Subsequently I have made two more ascents of Mount Keen from Glen Mark, once on an icy winter day and once in mid summer, so it was time to revisit Glen Tanar.  Unfortunately no bike could be hired for Gregor so we briefly considered taking turns at riding and jogging along the track but Gregor decided to go to Glenshee instead. He was returning to Glasgow later in the day and he climbed the three munros to the west of the Glenshee ski car park.  He managed this in 1 hr 31 minutes, a lot quicker than the ascent of Mount Keen.

He dropped me at Glen Tanar House which has restricted access so I cycled up the hill and circumnavigated the House to get back to the Glen Tanar track. Once on the track, Glen Tanar revealed its full glory, the river was quite full and gargled through the beautiful native forest with scots pine and silver birch in prominence.  I passed three or four walkers coming down the glen after what had been a night in the hills.  The gradient was steady all the way and the track was wet from overnight rain which meant I was well dappled with mud spots.

I reached the end of the forest and continued along  the track, over the first bridge, past the estate house and eventually abandoned my bike when coming face to face with a digger that was ditching and had chewed up the track ahead.  I was left with a couple of kilometres to walk before reaching the new bridge where the Mounth road joins the track.  High above, an eagle was circling above Hare Cairn as I began the climb towards Mount Keen along a deeply scarred path that nevertheless made for an easy climb.  The last couple of hundred of metres of ascent was up the steeper final slopes of Mount Keen.  The distant views of Lochnagar were very clear and I added a small cairn to the the trig point of Mount Keen. I enjoyed the isolation, the views to the Cairngorms and the many glens that radiate from here, it was still late morning and it felt good to have completed the walk in such good weather.  Surprisingly I saw no one else on the hill despite it being a fine summer's day. There seem to be less hill walkers around this year.

The journey down the path was quick and when I reached the bike, I drank and ate an orange before starting out on a 27 km cycle back to the holiday cottage above Kincardine O'Neil.   The descent was all I remembered, fast and downhill almost all the way and only the occasional dab on the brakes was needed before reaching Glen Tanar house and this time taking the track round to Belrorie and then descending to Bridge o' Ess.  Cycling through Aboyne, I passed a Fish and Chip shop and stopped for a bag of chips before the final 11 km. cycle back to the cottage.  I was back for 2:30pm and felt ready for an afternoon nap as the bright early morning weather was replaced by showers.

Ben Avon and Beinn A'Bhuird

Ben Avon summit tor

Gregor and Alex on Ben Avon summit

Beinn A' Bhuird plateau looking from summit of Ben Avon

Ben Avon over Dubh Lochan

Quoich Water with Beinn A' Bhuird in distance

Monday, 15 August 2011
Distance: 36 km
Ascent:1345m   
Time: 9 hrs 13 mins

m  Leabaid an Daimh Bhuidhe   1147m     3hrs 59mins
t    Cnap a' Chleirich                   1174m     4hrs 49mins
m  Beinn a' Bhuird north top      1196m     5hrs 16mins
t    South Top                              1179m  

These hills are part of the immense Cairngorm plateau.  They are fairly inaccessible hills and require a long walk from any direction to reach them.  Gregor and I were staying in Kincardine O'Neil and as it was a reasonable forecast we arranged to pick up John and Alex from Ballater and the four of us ventured out for some hard exercise after the family wedding weekend.

We parked by Kelloch and started the long march past Invercauld house and up Gleann an t-Slugain on a late summer morning.  As we reached the gap overlooking the Quoich Water, the views up to Beinn A' Bhuird opened up and we began to enjoy the walk up the glen on the excellent well-engineered path that meanders up to the Sneck, the bealach between Ben Avon and Beinn A'Bhuird.  John was concerned about a Duke of Edinburgh party of girls who were struggling up the glen, they were equipped with far too much gear and finding the boggy ground below the path far too taxing. He went to speak to them aware that he had rescued a Duke of Edinburgh party on a previous occasion in the hills.

We kept up a good pace until reaching the Sneck and from there made the last 170 metres of ascent to the summit of Ben Avon or Leabaid an Daimh Bhuidhe to give it its correct title. Rain clouds were gathering and the blustery conditions forced us to hunker down at the bottom of the tor and eat some lunch.  We had to put on all our waterproofs as we left for the return to the Sneck but we had glorious views of the Garbh Coire with rainbows arcing over Glen Avon to the north.  We then ascended the steep scree slopes as the rain passed over and reached the top of Cnap a' Chleirich.  And then just the tedious slog over flat and initially waterlogged ground to reach the very unimposing summit of Ben Bhuird, an untidy cairn in the middle of a plateau.

The walk over to the South Top was more impressive as we skirted Coire nan Clach and then the Dubh Lochan.  We then descended steeply in a south-easterly direction eventually picking up a path that led us round Carn Fiaclach and to a crossing over the swollen Quoich Water.  I waded across in my hill running shoes but John removed his footwear for an adventure paddle. By the time we were going again, Alex and Gregor had disappeared.  We followed the path expecting to reach the Gleann an t-Slugain path but we missed a junction and ended up a kilometre along the path to the Sneck again. We had to retrace our steps but then enjoyed the long but easy walk out in lovely evening light to Invercauld House. The Duke of Edinburgh party had made a camp about a mile from where we had passed them in the morning.

The happy outcome from our rare route error was a lift from Invercauld because, on arriving back at Kelloch, Gregor had the wit to drive the car a couple of kilometres up the track to pick us up, this could be a useful ploy in the future.

Paddy and Grace's Wedding

Grace and Paddy

That's my boy!

Cake cutting

Teepees for Fine Dining - Inverness Indians in the foreground

Family Album time

Mia, Ellie and Ellie

Grace, our niece, was married in Aboyne close to the family home of her grandparents. Deeside provided a perfect setting for a large family wedding with twenty-five or so of us staying on for the week to explore an area that I did not know well apart from the Munros in the Eastern Cairngorms.  The bride and groom are both based in London as were most of the guests who seem infatuated by Scottish weddings.  The weather was good and the combination of Kincardine Castle for the reception and a group of teepees for the wedding meal proved perfect.

The next day we had a family gathering of twenty for lunch at a cottage we had rented for the week with Aileen's mum, Ellie. Her great-granddaughter, Ellie, came along too and the sun graced us as we relaxed over a long lazy lunch outside with dozens of Shetland ponies in the adjacent fields to keep the little people happy.

My Little Ponies and the Little People

Beinn Mhanach

Beinn Mhanach at the head of the Allt Kinglas

Friday 5 August 2011, 
1160 metres of ascent, 20 kilometres, 5 hrs 55 mins

t    Beinn a' Chuirn           923m     2hrs 26mins
m  Beinn Mhanach           953m     2hrs 58mins
c   Beinn nam Fuaran       806m     4hrs 41mins

Beinn Mhanach is one of those isolated hills which is a long way from the roads but sits at the focus of 10 munros all within 10km of its summit.  I have usually climbed it along with the Beinn Dorain four munros which makes for quite a long day but I gave Beinn Mhanach a miss when I did these four hills last September.  I also had a nearby Corbett, Beinn nam Fuaran, to climb and felt that combining the two would be a good walk in itself. I started at 10 am, parking on the A82, walking down the road to Auch, crossing the West Highland Way that was busy with a dozen or so walkers and then underneath the massive viaduct over the Allt Kinglas.  

There was a major piece of engineering taking place constructing a new hydro electric plant. Walking along the long track in I was overtaken by a hunting party in a four wheel drive. They were very friendly but explained they were going to find a stag and if I heard rifle fire in the near future it was merely target practice.  About  5 minutes later a loud explosion was followed by the zipping sound of a high velocity bullet and I upped my pace in case I was the target.  Towards the end of the track there is an old shieling and some sheep pens and beyond the steep wall of Beinn a' Chuirn, a top linked to Beinn Mhanach.

Cloud spills over from Beinn Achaladair

I decided to continue on the track as far as I could and reached 600 metres before it meandered off towards Beinn Achaladair. It was time to assault the steep grassy slopes and climb south westwards towards Beinn a' Chuirn.  The cloud was pouring into the Glen and I pushed on trying to reach the summit before all visibility was removed. A large brown fox appeared suddenly, and less expected than in a children's reading book, and contoured above me in a dashing trot.  My ipod was playing and I was amused to listen to Sheryl Crow singing 'If it makes you Happy, then why the hell are you so sad'. I had listened to it on another hill walk in 2005 and connected the lyrics with the fact that she was a partner to Lance Armstrong at the time he was winning the Tour de France for the seventh time. We know now that cheating does make you sad. And then the clouds engulfed us and I followed the slope to the small summit cairn which I embellished in my usual way.

Summit of Benn Mhanach

It was time to don my waterproofs, the wind and drizzle were taking the edge off what had been a pleasant day.  The descent to the col between the top and the summit had been a source of amusement when I first did these hills.  There were two gate posts and a five barred gate at the low point, the adjacent fences had all collapsed,  illustrating the territorial nature of upland hill farming in the past.  The gate was lying on the ground and when I tried to lift it back for a photo shot, it collapsed from rot. By the time I reached Beinn Mhanach the cloud had moved on and it was a bright early afternoon. I sat and enjoyed the views in all directions before heading south towards the nearest Corbett, Beinn nam Fuaran.  

Beinn nam Fuaran from Beinn Mhanach

Although the descent was steep, it was easy going over the grass and lichens.  I reached the col at the top of a track and crossed to the other side through some boggy ground. I had identified a route up Beinn nam Fuaran during there descent and I always enjoy the freedom of approaching a hill which has no path or way to the summit. It was via a sharp ridge to the left which was adjacent to a ravine. I then emerged on a higher ridge that took me to the gentler convex summit the Corbett.  It was an airy summit with excellent views down Loch Lyon and over to Creag Mhor as well as Beinn an Dothaidh and Beinn Mhanach.  

Beinn an Dothaidh from Beinn nam Fuaran

Loch Lyon

Beinn a' Chuirn and Beinn Mhanach - Beinn a' Chreachan visible through the cleavage

There was a steep descent back to the track along the Allt Kinglas. I made good time, having set myself a target of doing it within 5 ipod tracks, I narrowly failed. My estimate for the walk was 6 hours so I was charging along when the hunter's 4x4 pulled up beside me.  They had not managed to find or shoot a stag but they had watched my exploits all day through their binoculars which was slightly scary but they were slightly in awe of the ground I had covered.  They offered me a lift for the last 2 kilometres and I accepted many to find out more about them. I discovered that they were from a renewable energy consortia and were responsible for the hydro scheme as well as various wind farms in Scotland, Wales and England.  We had a good discussion in the vehicle about renewables, I was deeply involved in discussions about the Viking wind turbine scheme in Shetland at the time. They allayed my natural hostility to 4x4's in the hills was dampened by their enthusiasm for renewable energy and an invitation to park on their premises during any further visits.