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Having briefly almost caught up with my Walk Reports, I've gotten a bit behind again: this one is from November last year
.
Anyway, it was getting a bit late in the year for Munros (for a lightweight like me out on my own, anyway
), so it was time to switch to Corbetts and Grahams - something that I always enjoy when the clocks go back, to be honest - the lower hills are less trodden on the whole, and have all sorts of unexpected delights
.
They aren't all "less trodden", though, of course - Ben Vrackie is a very popular Corbett, but I'd never tackled it despite driving past it regularly on the way up the A9. As often, I just had this one November weekend day free for walking, but thankfully the forecast was unexpectedly good, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to get Vrackie ticked off.
The car park just above Moulin was already chock-a-block when I arrived, so I had to park on the street (tidily, hopefully!) at the top end of the village and walk up a bit further. The sun was shining, however, and it wasn't too long before the target hill hove into view:
The well-constructed path made for fairly rapid progress, and it was an easy but scenic approach, although the Clag was coming and going a bit from Vrackie's summit environs at this early stage in the day: would I manage to get a summit view
?
Rather unusually for a "proper" hillwalk, this route comes complete with two proper benches at which one can stop for a breather and enjoy the view: one near the start of the route, and another one up at the far end of the Loch a' Choire dam. A very nice perk, to be frank: you don't get that on the Aonach Eagach, now, do you
? The lower bench has a wonderful view back down over Pitlochry:
The viewsome approach continued, with a nice craggy outcrop to the left of the track and Ben Vrackie looking a lot closer now in the distance:
Before long, I arrived at the foot of Vrackie's shapely cone. Like many hills, it has a cute wee Pet Lochan curled up at its feet: this one is called Loch a' Choire, and it has a hydro dam which the track crosses.
Although the going gets significantly steeper from the far side of the dam onwards, the well-maintained and well-engineered path makes light of it, and I arrived at the summit trig point and viewfinder somewhat quicker than I'd expected. A very fine vista with two lochs and a river:
There is one of those handy viewfinder thingies, pointing out what other hills can be seen in various directions: handy for me, since I'm a bit rubbish at that whole spotting-Schiehallion-away-off-in-the-distance game
.
A slightly blurry summit selfie:
Ben Vrackie enjoys a lovely view of the nearby Beinn a' Ghlo group of Munros, although these higher summits had their heads resolutely buried in the Clag!
Another pleasing vista back down over Pitlochry and environs:
Beinn a' Ghlo again, still not prepared to take its head out of the Clag, but at least looking as though it was grudgingly enjoying the sunshine this time:
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Enough of the summit views, already. After the usual M&S Melton Mowbray pork pie, it was time to get started on the descent. As I made my way back down, I spotted this wee craggy outcrop in the middle distance that hadn't looked so impressive from below:
A nice view of the Pet Lochan and its dam on descent:
Back down and over the dam now, with a lovely late afternoon mountains-upon-mountains vista:
When I got back down to the lower of the two trackside benches, I couldn't resist having a good long seat and just drinking in the autumn views over Pitlochry: none too shabby!
It's a grand wee outing this, which gives remarkable bang for one's buck in terms of grand views and a proper montane experience for relatively minimal effort
! Ideal for a shorter day at the tail end of the year, I'd say.
