free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Every time we travel north on the A9 I look at The Sow of Atholl and think it would be nice to have a wander up there sometime when we're wanting to have a shortish day out
So I thought I'd do a bit of research on WH and find out more about it.
After reading some walk reports I realised there was another Corbett, Meall na Leitreach within easy striking distance of the Sow so I put the shortish day on the backburner and decided to extend the original plan and follow BlackPanther's route to include the two, so thanks for the inspiration BP it's a nice route even with no snow
The walk description says to park just above the level crossing in Dalnaspidal so we headed for that and found a lot of the space taken up by maintenance/construction vehicles so we turned round and found a larger parking area above the houses a little further along the little road, there's a wooden bench which is great when putting your boots on
We set off heading for the level crossing and started along the track as per the walk description.
The Sow of Atholl
We saw a lamb IN a cattle grid eating the grass under it, we thought it was stuck there, it was very wary of us as we got closer to the cattle grid, being a bit concerned we wondered if we should try to rescue it, not sure how but at least we thought about it. As it turned out it seemed that it was well versed in under cattle grid dining as it started to haul itself out from under it as we made moves to see what we could do
The track is easy going and the view to both Corbetts shows how good this walk is going to be, we chose to do the Sow first so turned onto the right hand track before the bridge over Allt Coire Luidhearnaidh.
Our next target looking good as we progressed along the track
We carried along this track until we came to a fork with a track heading off the main one travelling slightly uphill so we took this and carried on.
A little further on it looked like this track was traversing the hillside towards the 758m point below Sgairneach Mhor so we started to head directly up the Sow in the general direction of the summit, it was a good job the weather was ok and we were able to see the way ahead other wise it would have been map and compass time as we were off piste and heather bashing our way up
We arrived at the summit with no further navigation problems, the views are good up here, across to Sgairneach Mhor and Beinn Udlamain over the A9 to A' Bhuidheanach Bheag and the distant Cairngorms.
Lookin' south
We had a snack then set off down back to the track and then work our way over to do Corbett number two.
It was a straight forward yomp back down to the bridge, we went across the open ground towards the small dam and crossed it onto the track beyond.
We walked along the track a few metres and took the path heading uphill towards a gate this was the start of the walk up Meall na Leitreach.
Looking back to the Sow of Atholl
This path is easy to follow all the way, in wetter conditions I reckon there could be a bit of bog hopping required to make progress, today it was just a bit sticky.
Looking back to Dalnaspidal Lodge
We reached the cairn on the 748m spot height and could see the rest of the route to the summit ahead.
The views from the summit are good, it was a bit dull but this seemed to highlight the vastness of our surroundings.
After a long rest and something to eat we set off back down.
It's a good day out doing these two together, they're an enjoyable pair, a nice way to round off our first visit to Scotland 2021
