Beinn a' Ghlò from Bridge of Tilt

[Tnf1972]

This was the first of our 2 days in the hills above Bridge of Tilt. We arrived on the Sleeper from London around 0630 at Blair Atholl. We dropped everything, other than what we needed for the day, at our airbnb and headed off around 0730. I decided to use the Walk Highlands route with the alternative descent option described to take in the supplemental top Airgiod Bheinn and cut across to pick up the path as if you had followed the main route (more about that later!).

We took the road into Glen Tilt and walked the three miles into the new car park. You do pass through / over some cattle grids and gates. The car park looks new and has a pay point (as we were on foot, we didn't see which app or provider you need) so check in advance or take change to be able to pay for parking if you fancy taking around 6 miles of your total walk.

The start of the road in

As you walk up the road you come across a monument to the raising of the Royal Standard around 1644 by the 1st Marquis of Montrose in support of King Charles the 1st. I love it when you find these historical sites dotted around the countryside that you don't expect.

Monument to raising of the Royal Standard in 1644

Although you get sights of Càrn Liath on the way in, the best views really start at the car park and you can start to see the path you will soon be taking to climb upwards.

Leaving the road & views of Càrn Liath

As you follow the track upwards and just before you turn left and start the climb up from the wooden hut, you get a great view of the path and what to expect.

Càrn Liath getting closer

The ascent is fairly relentless with large sections of steps and loose gravel / stones in place. Progress was steady and with the amazing views all around, we took opportunities to stop and admire the views westward especially as the early cloud cover had now disappeared.

Steps up Càrn Liath

Once you reach the summit the 360 views were outstanding on all sides. We reached the summit after around 2hr 30mins of walking and stopped for a coffee and snack, after c20mins we were ready to head onwards to the 2nd peak of the day.

On top of Càrn Liath, looking at what's next

Descending down from the summit of Càrn Liath you drop almost 200m in altitude before starting the climb up-to Bràigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain. The descent and climb to the summit took us about an hour so it was time to stop for more coffee and some lunch. After another c20min break were were looking at the next, and the highest peak of the day and got ready to move. We could also see that the descent of Airgiod Bheinn was going to be fun as it looked quite steep as you can see to the right in this photo.

On top of Bràigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain

The walk to Càrn nan Gabhar started and we descended almost another 200m from the summit before starting the climb back up. As you reach the summit plateau, you walk past the first cairn and the trig point in the middle to get to the actual summit at the back. The ground is quite rough so it is not the fastest section and if the weather is bad extra care is needed. Fortunately there was no chance of not being able to see today. So we had our final summit stop after another hours walking and admired the extensive views to the East and looked back at where we had come from.

Looking at the Cairngorms from Càrn nan Gabhar summit

On top of Càrn nan Gabhar, looking back at where we had come from

We started working our way back and followed the path back down and instead of turning right back to the Bealach an Fhiodha to pick up the path to descend to the left, we carried on up the gentle slope of Airgiod Bheinn and along to the summit point.

On top of Airgiod Bheinn

As we started the descent, we were trying to find any form of path to follow down the ridge, as it drops off on all sides we started carefully heading downwards. You can see some sections of path between the rocks covering the surface. After a long day (11 miles so far) and with tiring legs, this was a tricky descent but we took it carefully and where possible, moved onto the grass to the side of the the path. Some sections were so dry with loose stone we both took a couple of slips, nothing serious but enough to keep the mind focussed on the job at hand. At this point we were passed by two walkers with a dog using walking poles to descend with ease and we both decided that the extra stability and points of contact with the ground going down would have been a valuable asset at this time. In the end we picked a crossing point where we could see the path we wanted that ran close to Allt Bealach an Fhiodha and just headed straight for it. Once we had reached the path the going was much easier and we followed it back to where we turned off to start the climb up Càrn Liath and retraced our steps back to Bridge of Tilt.

All in all a great day in the hills with stunning views, tired legs but happy hearts and looking forward to our dinner.

Garmin Track for the walk

activity_11255350668.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts