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I only became aware of the Monadh Liath Munros a few months ago. I’d somehow got it into my head ages ago that yes, there were mountains in the huge expanse of land north-west of Newtonmore and Kingussie, but that they weren’t Munros. But on a recent drive up the A86 from Loch Laggan, I got curious about the hills I could see to my left as I turned towards Dalwhinnie and found out I was wrong: there are four Monadh Liath Munros, and three of them are do-able in one outing.
I drove to Newtonmore, parked the car at Shepherd’s Bridge and started the walk at 10am. I was on vehicle-friendly flat tracks for a while, and then the route started to climb up Gleann Fiondrigh. There was a footbridge to cross on the left, then a path up to a bealach, then a right turn followed by a left turn, and then I was suddenly into wide open Gleann Ballach. The path was a bit boggy - and a bit intermittent - but I could see where I was headed: the “boggy bowl” at the head of the glen.
From there, I took a sharp left turn to climb a sort of diagonal slope (the walk description calls it a “grassy ramp”) up to the top of Carn Dearg. The airiness of the summit took me a bit by surprise – but in a pleasant way – because it had all been track, grass and heather up to that point.
It was a bit of a slog to get to the second Munro. I left the top of Carn Dearg at 13:20 and didn’t reach Carn Sgulain until 15:50. Long plods like this are often better if I can switch off a bit and just get into a groove. But the stoniness, bogginess and path-intermittent-ness meant that I had to concentrate quite a bit more than I’d have liked. There were lots of opportunities to gaze north and west over the huge expanse of high-level moorland that is the Monadhliath proper, but it was also nice to look back at the craggy side of Carn Dearg.
There are two potential summits to Càrn Sgulain. I chose the small cairn as mine, before heading over the peat hags once more to cross the Allt Cuil na Caillich and climb the short slope to the top of A’Chailleach, where I was suddenly greeted by a pretty massive cairn.
The route down was pretty straightforward. I found the path southwards from the summit easy to find and follow, and I kept to the west side of the Allt a’Chaorainn until I reached the footbridge. After that it was a straightforward descent on a vehicle-friendly track all the way back to Shepherd’s Bridge, which I reached at 18:15. A 16-mile round trip, according to Strava.
The fence-post-following stretch from Carn Dearg to Càrn Sgulain made it a walk that felt quite a bit longer than it actually was. But it was an enjoyable walk, despite the many bogs and peat hags which made me recall Kinder Scout and Bleaklow on the first day of the Pennine Way. It also triggered memories of a plod along the Ochil Hills I did with Claire last February. But the walk it mainly reminded me of was the one with the four Munros (Càrn Gorm, Meall Garbh, Càrn Mairg & Creag Mhòr) at the east end of Glen Lyon that I did from Invervar seven years ago: clockwise, fenceposts, and strong plateau vibes.
