Beinn a'Chaorainn and Beinn Bhreac
Braemar and Ballater
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1. From the back of the Linn of Dee car park a footpath signed for 'Glen Lui' heads into the woods. Follow this, passing a wooden lookout area and then a boardwalk built to ease the route across a boggy area. The path emerges onto a track a short distance beyond. Turn left along the track, which runs alongside a fenced section of forest at first before passing some beautiful pinewoods. After a couple of kilometres it crosses Black Bridge over the Lui to meet the main track to Derry Lodge. Turn left and follow this track up the glen.
2. The track continues up the glen, undulating slightly and passing some forestry on the right. Eventually the shelter belt of pines surrounding Derry Lodge come into view. Derry Lodge was a grand Victorian shooting lodge, used by Queen Victoria. This impressive building, which, like the rest of the estate, now belongs to the National Trust for Scotland, is boarded up and unused and has been for many years. Don't cross either of the bridges beyond the lodge but instead stay on the excellent path on the east side of Glen Derry; until recently this was a landrover track but the ground has been reinstated by the National Trust.
3. As the path turns north up the glen, wait for a convenient place to leave it and climb uphill diagonally through the trees to the heathery moorland above; continue in the same direction, aiming for the bealach between Meall Lunndain and Beinn Bhreac. From here a faint path continues the now stonier ascent up to the Munro summit of Beinn Bhreac, the eastern cairn of its two tops, at 931 metres. There is a good view back down to the pinewoods of Glen Derry.
Photo ©Stuart Meek, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
4. The vast tablelands of the Moine Bhealaidh now stretch ahead for several kilometres, with Beinn a'Chaorainn visible in the distance. There are vast areas of peaty ground which are best avoided by keeping a little to the east side of the plateau, decorated with cottongrass. The distance between the peaks is just over four kilometres, but on the ground it feels much further; only on the final section do the slightly steeper and firmer slopes of Beinn a'Chaorainn signal the end of this featureless land.
Photo ©Nigel Brown, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
5. Climb these final slopes to reach the large cairn at the summit of Beinn a'Chaorainn at 1083 metres. The extra height makes the view much more extensive than that from Beinn Bhreac, with Ben Macdui, highest of the Cairngorms, in view to the left of the numerous granite tours of Beinn Mheadhoin. The best descent route is down the southwest shoulder and then the steeply slopes leading to the top of the Lairig an Laoigh. Once you reach the Lairig, turn left down this path as it slopes down into upper Glen Derry, with some great views across the upper glen into Coire Etchachan.
Photo ©Stuart Meek, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
6. Once the floor of the glen is reached the path is joined by the broad path coming down from Coire Etchachan and the Hutchison Memorial Hut. Continue down the path to soon reach the considerable side-stream of the Glas Allt Mor. This can usually be crossed using stepping stones but can be quite impossible if the stream is in full spate. Beyond this the empty continues for several kilometres before reaching the beginning of the Derry pinewoods. You can either stay on the east bank or take another path that crosses a bridge and descends the west side; either way, the paths lead back to Derry Lodge. From here, return to the Linn of Dee using your outward route.
Photo ©Graham Ellis, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
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