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Lochnagar & The White Mounth, Stags, Eagles & Plane Wreckage

Lochnagar & The White Mounth, Stags, Eagles & Plane Wreckage


Postby Coutts94 » Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:03 pm

Route description: White Mounth Munros, Glen Muick

Munros included on this walk: Broad Cairn, Cairn Bannoch, Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach, Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr, Lochnagar

Date walked: 22/08/2021

Time taken: 9.5 hours

Distance: 31 km

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So I had been looking forward to this route for a while, Lochnagar and the Four others on the White Mounth :D

The weather looked promising, and before I even reached the car park I spotted these two huge Sea Eagles (I think they were Sea Eagles, let me know if they are not :lol: )

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Eagle
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Eagle


It was then time to walk (After paying £5 to park), the walk quickly goes past the toilet and visitors center, then forks right towards the first Munro of the day - Lochnagar.

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Walk Start


This part of the walk was great, a quick walk through woodland, a river crossing then a gentle incline toward the bealach between Meikle Pap and "The Ladder".

Once up on the bealach, the wind got pretty intense - so was a quick photo then on to the summit of Lochnagar. The cliffs and loch looked amazing from here! :D

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Lochnagar


I followed the corrie around, until reaching the large cairn at Cac Carn Mor, it was impressive! But lochnagar was looming so I made my was across to the top - before reaching I noticed a figure in the mist :shock:

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Stag in the Mist


Lochnagar

Turns out these stags were chilling right next to the Cairn - sadly the views disappeared when I got to the top, so I focused on the Stags.

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Lochnagar Summit



They were happy to be photographed - well except from the last one! Cheeky Stag :lol:

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Stag One

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Stag Two

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Cheeky Stag


What a sight to see, probably the highlight of my day :D

Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach,

It was then on to the next Munro - Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach, it was nice easy walking to get here, not much in the way of views as it is an open plateau though. A great feeling of space though.

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Càrn a' Choire Bhòidheach


Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr

It was a similar walk to number 3, with a small river crossing in between - Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr. Now this munro is probably best known for the plane wreckage of RAF Canberra. The cairn has a hint of this as parts of the wreckage are now interwoven with the cairn. I made my way North to have a look, literally about 15-20m away lies a wing from the plane.

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Plane Wing


Sadly the wing has been engraved with peoples names and initials.

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RAF Canberra
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Plane Wreckage


It was a slightly eerie sight, as the two crew members sadly lost their lives here. Some of it is in surprisingly good condition, considering it was in 1956 and has the harsh conditions at 900m up.

Cairn Bannoch

Anyway, it was on to number 4 - Cairn Bannoch. This was probably the easiest Munro-Munro link I have ever done :D just what you want at that part of the walk. It was slightly rocky towards the summit, but before I knew it I was at the hill of the cake. There were great views of the a waterfall here.

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Cairn Bannoch
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Waterfall


Broad Cairn

Finally, it was time to make to to the final munro of the day - Broad Cairn. Again a nice easy walk over the tundra like plateau and I was there. There were surpringly good views from here! Down to loch Muick and beyond.

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Loch Muick
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Broad Cairn Views


I had my lunch here then made my way back to the start of the route. I had read that this is a long old slog (6+ Miles), and don't get me wrong - it is a long way! But I really enjoyed it, stunning views down Loch Muick and over to the Royal Bothy (Glas Allt Shiel).

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Royal Bothy


This was built in 1868 by Queen Victoria. Amazing setting.

The final bit from the end of Loch Muick to the car park was hard going, but all in all I had an amazing day out :D

Also got my Munro total up to 86, feels great getting towards the triple figures! Really enjoying the journey.

I also have a Youtube channel, where I am filming my whole journey from start to finish (Yes I must be crazy :lol: ).. I love video editing/photograhy and the outdoors, so this is the perfect way to combine them :D Plus I love looking back at my trips!

Here is the video if you would like to check it out:



Probably gives a better picture of the day out, rather than my description :lol:

Thanks for reading/watching.

James
Coutts94
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 82
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Re: Lochnagar & The White Mounth, Stags, Eagles & Plane Wrec

Postby jimbell21 » Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:58 pm

Cracking photos and video James, good work 👍
jimbell21
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Posts: 262
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Re: Lochnagar & The White Mounth, Stags, Eagles & Plane Wrec

Postby Mal Grey » Mon Aug 23, 2021 2:11 pm

Nice report, thanks

Definitely looks like a white tailed (Sea) eagle.
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Mal Grey
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Location: Surrey, probably in a canoe! www.wildernessisastateofmind.co.uk

Re: Lochnagar & The White Mounth, Stags, Eagles & Plane Wrec

Postby BlackPanther » Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:44 pm

Always nice to see photos from this corner of the woods :D

Your first photo of the wreckage is actually part of the tail rudder. Surprising how much debris is still left up there. Most walkers don't even see half of it, many pieces are located lower down the slopes, like part of the second wing, a wheel still complete with tyre, large parts of the engines and the tail section, not to mention hundreds of small, mangled pieces scattered all over the mountain. We took a separate trip last year to climb Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr on its own (from Callater side) and photograph as much wreckage as possible, took us the whole day and I bet we still didn't find everything.

There is also a second wreck on Lochnagar, less known than the Canberra: RN Fairey Firefly on Cuidhe Crom.
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BlackPanther
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