Meall na h-Aisre - wet, boggy route, or dry, easy route?

[gld73]

I wasn't intending to do a walk report, as my intention was just to do the route as described on Walk Highlands. Other people do much nicer photos in their reports than I do, so most of my public reports are ones just mentioning a different route or giving some practical photos with captions like "leave the track at this drainage ditch", "climb the fence at this point to avoid barbed wire" or "this is the lay-by to set off from". Needless to say I never have, and never will, win report of the month

So I didn't take many photos on the way up Meall na h-Aisre, concentrating instead on not completely submerging my boots and not wandering off from the planned route. The route to this hill has its fair share of soggy ground, especially after plenty wet days. See all other walk reports for better details and scenic photos!

Setting off to Meall na h'Aisre, this is the point in Stage 1 of the Walk Highlands walk description which says "It reaches a new track used in the construction of the Beauly-Denny pylon line. Go straight across this, following a grassy track through a gate ". I went ahead here for the ascent, but you'd go left if you wanted to take the new dry route that I took as my descent...

Arriving at the summit though, the cloud had come down and trudging back through hags and bog with no views and a higher chance of veering off the wrong way didn't seem so appealing. (I always have a map and compass with me, I just prefer to navigate by seeing where I'm aiming for!!). On the way up, I'd seen the new vehicle track further to the west of my planned descent route, so decided to head down from Meall na h-Aisre's summit in that direction to see if I could hit it.

Meall na h-Aisre's summit and the windfarm to the north. Not a single turbine turning on this fairly windless day.

The nearby munro, Geal Charn, is hiding in that cloud

Looking back the way I'd come, it wasn't really appealing heading back into cloud and bog

Initially I followed the old fence line west from the summit trig point, but after a short distance I spotted what looked like a tarmac turning circle or something, so I veered off left to head to that. Turned out it was gravel rather than tarmac, and seemed to be the end of the vehicle track - I'd expected the track to run all the way over to the wind farm on the north side of the hill, but it doesn't (at least, not yet, I don't know if it'll be extended later, though it doesn't seem to be under construction any more).

The old fence line heading down west from the summit which I followed briefly

This is the 'turning circle' I'd spotted, the end of the track. It doesn't reach as far north as the old fence line, stopping about 100m short. If you were to come up this way, you'd reach this track dead end and and then head to the right up the slope to be at the summit in about 10 mins! Some hags and bog for a short distance, but the worst can be avoided.

With bridges like this for the track, it feels like it should go somewhere rather than finish at a dead end up a hill?!

I followed the track down, and it turned out to be an easy way back to Garva Bridge. A couple of good bridges cross burns, so it surprised me that the road just finishes at a dead end up on Meall na h-Aisre's shoulder, but maybe it was just used for burying the electrical cables from the windfarm to the new Melgarve substation being built near Garva Bridge..?

Anyway, the vehicle track eventually gets down to the pylon line where construction work is currently taking place for the Melgarve substation, so this bit was a bit industrial. At least the construction traffic doesn't use the public single track road from Laggan to Garva Bridge, a dedicated track is used along the pylon line for them. I turned left at the junction here, along this road/track for the construction vehicle and then rejoined the outward route, turning right back to Garva Bridge and the parking area.

Looking west along the main access road for construction traffic, to the Melgarve substation being constructed - the track up to Meall na h-Aisre is on the right of this photo

Socially distanced stags with the Garva Bridge parking area visible beyond them

So Meall na h-Aisre is now pretty much cyclable for those who are fit enough to cycle up good gravel tracks, almost to within sight of the summit, and able to be done with dry feet for those of us who are walkers. The original boggy route further east is more interesting though!

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

(Route map is just approximate - the track is very obvious on the ground, so this sketch just gives a general idea of the route taken)

[BlackPanther]

Things have changed since we were there! The track looks like a jumbo jet runway

Might be a good one to repeat in winter, assuming we can drive up to Garva Bridge in snow!

[Backpacker]

I did this hill shortly after we came out of lockdown and did your route in reverse as I prefer to descend the big if I can, pleasant enough walk and some decent views once higher up