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I’d had a trip to the Highlands in mind for some time, with the possible added bonus of swinging by Dr Duncan’s new home in Dundee again and having a day’s walking together. For once his available free days coincided with a decent forecast, which against all expectation remained pretty reasonable as the key date approached.
Duncan is on the covid front line, so we were going to have to travel in separate cars, and I would overnight in my tent in his garden. Our evening takeaway meal was eaten outside in the garden, with the requisite social distancing being religiously operated.
We’d considered 4 possible routes, one of the key requirements being that they were within reasonable striking distance of Dundee. We talked them over beforehand, and it pretty soon became apparent that one of the routes I’d suggested might be a possibility and which I’d planned a few years ago before I got my heart problems, was really no longer doable for me, especially with the limited daylight at this time of year. We ended up choosing what should have been the shortest option, both in walking time and travel time – Farragon Hill and Meall Tairneachan from Loch Tummel. But in fact it took way longer than it should have done as a result of my underestimating how much time a yomp across the heather would add to the Naismith time, and we didn’t get to visit Tairneachan – though we did view it from fairly close up!!
This was the route we ended up taking.
As a result of a strong allergy to out-and-backs by the same route, my not-so-cunning plan was to use the vehicular track to Farragon that starts at the 152m spot height on the south shore of Loch Tummel, either on the way in, or on the way back; unfortunately I made completely the wrong call in deciding we should start with the yomp - on the rationale that since the walk on the track would be much faster than the yomp, and if we ended up being short of time towards the end of the day, we’d be able to get back to the cars quickly.
We didn't hit the sac too late, since we planned to get off early enough to arrive just after dawn. I slept like a baby until the inimitable sound of "Morning Flower" woke me just after 06.00. To the pitter patter of rain on the tent -
not as forecast!
I checked the forecast for Schiehallion again... ... and the forecast was still good; and was still good when we left Dundee around 07.00; but the weather wasn’t paying any attention to the forecasters. It was raining as we started off, and it was still raining as we approached Pitlochry an hour and a quarter later, with cloud down to around 300m on all the hills. We’d both of us pretty well given up on having a walk with views when within about 5 minutes the rain stopped, and the skies cleared completely! Done deliberately, just to wind us up, I reckon!
We pulled off the A9 at Balmore (that’s a few hundred metres south of the Clunie Bridge), and within a couple of minutes were transported into a stunning arboreal world. In the lower part of the valley the evil pandemic of monoculture conifer desert hasn’t reached: the variety of trees is just wonderful, offsetting the river and then the loch perfectly. Why can't we plant woodlands everywhere to give this effect????
20201014_083634.
This was the view looking west from where we parked (there’s room for 2 or 3 cars there) up Loch Tummel. Simply magical.
We enjoyed a fairly leisurely breakfast, and then set off up the track. After about 1 km the track takes a 90 degree turn to the right, and this is where I looked up towards Craig an t-Sluic, thought, "The going doesn't look too bad, so let's do the yomp at the start and return via the track." Pity!
20201014_094301. This is the view looking roughly north east just after we'd left the track. I guess it must be Beinn a'Ghlo in the background to the left, and Ben Vrackie to the right??? The contrast between the conifer desert on the upper slopes and the natural trees lower down is all too plain to see
.
There then followed a pretty tiring slog across the heather. Not the worst I've experienced by any means, but tough enough for us both to make pretty slow progress, and get us quite tired.
20201014_100505. Pano looking generally north from Craig an t-Sluic.
20201014_105308 (3). And looking north east again - moody views.
20201014_111517.This is pretty typical of the terrain. Schiehallion in the background, its summit just enveloped in clag.
20201014_121017. Just as we passed Creag an Lochain, Farragon came into view - well, at least we could see where we were going now! Quite boggy at this point.
20201014_125405. As we slowly ascended, Lochan a'Chait appeared to the north east.
20201014_125422. Same view in pano. The views don't come out so well on my pics, but actually the views were superb all day.
20201014_133542. At last we got to the summit. Again that cracking view looking north east, with Lochan a'Chait now in full view. There's a short - 30m or so - of steep ground immediately before the summit, which, if you have any issues with exposure, might necessitate a bit of searching to locate the least steep slope.
20201014_133617. Dr Duncan on the summit.
We had a bite of lunch, but in line with the forecast, it's pretty windy and so chilly.
We could clearly see Meall Tairneachan from here, but given our snail's pace progress so far, we now debated whether we should go on to MT, or turn back and return to the cars. In the end we concluded that it would probably be pretty dark by the time we got back to the track if we do go on to MT, and so took the path of discretion...
20201014_135409.
It looks like the easiest way down from the summit is on the west side, which would have been the direction we'd have taken had we visited Meall Tairneachan, as can be seen from the labelled pic below.
20201014_135409 labelled.
20201014_135440. Same view, zoomed back a bit to give a pano.
20201014_145357. The track back to Loch Tummel is very clearly visible from the summit, and on the way down. The going is on the rough side, but with a fairly shallow downhill slope, quite easy.
This pic was taken looking looking back WSW towards Farragon just before we joined the track.
20201014_160312. Once on the track, progress was very rapid - about an hour to get back to the car. On the way we passed what turned out to be a small barite mining operation. The mineral has a density not far short of double that of most common rocks, and as such makes a great drilling mud because its density means that it holds the drill cuttings in suspension very effectively. A chappie we spoke to on the way back told us it sells for £180 per tonne!!! You learn something new every day!
Back at the car we changed, and then headed off on our separate ways: Dr Duncan to Dundee and his battle with covid, and I to Beinn a'Ghlo, which I'd decided to visit the following day.
