Meall a' Bhuachaillie

Meall a' Bhuachaille

The path to Ryvoan

An Lochan Uaine

Ryvoan bothy

Interior of Ryvoan bothy

View of Cairngorm plateau from summit

The path down to Loch Morlich

Friday, 24 April 2015
Ascent:          510 metres
Distance:       9 kilometres     
Time:             2 hours 12 minutes

c    Meall a' Bhuachaille    810m      1hr 20mins

The climb up Ben Wyvis in the morning had gone a lot quicker than expected so there was time to visit this Corbett which overlooks Loch Morlich and is overshadowed by the massive Cairngorm plateau to the south. The drive from Ben Wyvis had been quick, the A9 quiet before I turned off at Aviemore and took the road to Loch Morlich. I started the walk from the informal parking verge beyond Glenmore lodge. The dull weather north of Inverness had transformed into a bright afternoon with a perfect gentle cooling wind - T-shirt time again.

I had decided to make an anti-clockwise circuit of the hill beginning along the beautiful path to Ryvoan and then ascending up the steep path climbing westwards from Ryvoan. There were lots of young families enjoying the walk and several groups of mountain bikers whooping it up as they raced each other on the descent. After 2 kilometres I reached An Lochan Uaine, a turquoise lochan set like a jewel amidst the caledonian forest and the glittering screes of Creag nan Gall. There were several more families on the stony beach below all bellowing and laughing at their luck at being in this quite magical landscape. It is just another kilometre to the Ryvoan bothy, which I had never visited on previous walks to Ryvoan as I have always been on a mission to climb Bynack Mor and the path turns off before the bothy. Ryvoan bothy is allegedly haunted and a poem was written and left in the bothy by A M Lawrence in the 1950's

...I shall find once more alone
The dark water of the Green Loch, (An Lochan Uaine?)
And the pass beyond Ryvoan.
For tonight I leave from Euston
And leave the world behind;
Who has the hills as a lover,
Will find them wondrous kind.

The path from here is well constructed and climbs steeply including a couple of sections of rock steps that have been built recently. I reached the summit as three adults and a one-year-old child were leaving, the mother was carrying the sleeping child and one of the others a buggy. I assumed they were Polish and, despite the carrying difficulties, they were happy and making good progress when I passed them on the descent. I spent a bit of the time at the summit admiring and identifying the Cairngorm peaks and the splendour of  Loch Morlich with its sandy beach. I had first visited here on a family holiday as a teenager when the climbers in the next tent had offered to take me up Cairngorm. It was my first sortie into the Scottish mountains.

The descent was by a good path, steep in parts but taking a fairly direct line to the jumbled settlement at Loch Morlich. The forestry commission was in the process of timber operations harvesting the crop of non-native trees and the promise is to restore the original native caledonian forest. From the Reindeer Centre, where one of the women was sunbathing in the garden in April, it is a mile back to the Glenmore Lodge on a good path. I was on my way home by 4:30pm very pleased with my haul for the day. I had walked briskly on both outings as my fitness returns.