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We drove up to the very end of the public road up Glen Isla, which at this point is nothing more than a heavily pot-holed track. This is clearly Landrover country, and I was beginning to despair that we'd find anywhere to park suitable for a Mazda. Fortunately, just before the bridge marking the entrance to the secret places of the glen, we found a decent area to park between the river and the 'road'.
- Parking area just before the bridge too far
- River Isla
Setting off on foot around 9.30am, we walked back along the road to Auchavan...
...and then took a sharp right onto the private road to Tulchan Lodge.
- Auchavan, with Monamenach lost in the clouds beyond
We soon turned left onto a grass track heading into the hills.
- Looking back down to Auchavan, with the car just visible to the right of the trees
- Looking up towards Monamenach
After a mile or so we reached a fork in the track.
Our route was the right-hand path heading into the fog and pretty well directly towards the summit.
A further half mile on the hill levels off and the path terminates at the summit cairn by an old broken fence.
Instead of returning by the same path, we decided to strike due east across the heather and grass, with the aim of meeting the Isla again and following it downstream and back to the car. Heading towards what appeared to be a sheer drop off in the fog I was confident that, while steep, the descent would present no significant difficulty.
And so it proved, as we emerged from the cloud, with the ground levelling off below.
We crossed a much less steep and rather boggy section, criss-crossed with streams.
We reached the top of another steep section, strewn with boulders half hidden by heather and moss. The Isla is visible once again.
- Looking back up, as Monamenach still refuses to reveal itself
- More rock, river and cloudy hill tops
- Looking up the glen, where lie the sources of the Isla, and the expanse of the Cairngorms National Park
At the bottom we regained the Tulchan Lodge road and turned south along it, back towards Auchavan.
- An old foot bridge, long lost to the erosive force of the river
Passing through a small plantation of pines, we took a track off to the left heading back to the public road, thus avoiding the need to go the long way round via Auchavan.
- Passing the end of the private bridge and so back to the car.
We arrived back at the car at noon - a short and relatively easy walk for a Corbett.