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A Corbett and two Fionas

A Corbett and two Fionas


Postby martin.h » Wed Aug 28, 2024 7:51 pm

Corbetts included on this walk: Ben Gulabin

Fionas included on this walk: Mealna Letter or Duchray Hill, Mount Blair

Date walked: 26/08/2024

Time taken: 7 hours

Distance: 19 km

Ascent: 1274m

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We are taking advantage of our new location by getting into the hills as much as possible while the weather (and summer) gives us the opportunities. Looking for easy Corbetts within a 40 mile radius of home our choices were dwindling but one that stood out when I was browsing WH was Ben Gulabin, reading the walk description and walk reports it seemed a very straight forward one to do and would take a couple of hours, the thing that stood out was the views of the surrounding hills from the summit would be worth the journey (just over 40 miles from home) but we wanted a day out in the hills to make that worthwhile so Mount Blair was planned as an extra, well it was on the way home after all, this too was a short walk, just two hours, we wanted a bit more, looking at the map I noticed another Fiona across the glen, Mealna Letter, if we included that we could make a day of it, but would we feel like it after Mount Blair? well, lets give it a go and see :D

Ben Gulabin
462m ascent
1.45 hrs
5.6 km

The sun was shining when we were having breakfast, the weather gods were treating us to a lovely morning :D

It took just over a hour to get to the parking spot mentioned on the walk description, with it being a bit limited for space we set off early to make sure we could park there, we arrived at 08:10 there was no one else parked up :D we were off walking by 08:25.

The weather gods had changed their minds by now, it was over cast, thankfully the mountains were all clear and there was no wind, we set off up the track and found the going very steady we were getting some views too although these were getting threatened by the lowering cloud base to the south :?

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We arrived at the path junction where we turned left Creag Leacach and Glas Moel were still clear and what we could see to the west were also free of cloud so it was still promising something from the summit.

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To start with the track up to the summit is a bit of an eyesore, exposed peat, soggy and slippery getting wider and more eroded probably due to walkers trying to get better purchase at the edges but it soon gets dryer and becomes a grassy track further up.

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The views were there, just

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It swings to the right and soon the summit is reached.

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On the way we could see the cairn on the top to the SE and thought we'd go and have a look at the views from there on the way down as recommended in the walk description but, guess what? this happened :roll:

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but we did manage some views from the top looking north and west :D

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and then it started to rain :shock: all that technology in the sky didn't tell us this was going to happen :lol:

Ahh well. we'll just have to come back :D We started our descent, back the way we came, very straight forward. By the time we'd reached the point where we could see the car the rain had stopped and the clouds were lifting.

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Back at the car it had taken 1hr 45 mins so it is a quickie, boots off, a quick snack then we set off for Mount Blair.

Mount Blair and Mealna Letter
812m ascent
5 hrs
13.5 km

We arrived at the parking spot on the Angus/Perth and Kinross border and it was full, no room, nothing :shock: Luckily I'd read a couple of walk reports where there was mention of an area to park just down the lane heading towards Dalnaglar Castle, it's on the right where a gated track goes into the forest, it was completely void of cars so all was not lost and it only adds about 10 minutes to the Mount Blair walk. so, thanks to KatTai and Alfachick for that information :D

Boots back on and off we went. By now the weather had improved, it was still cloudy but there were some blue bits
appearing :D We walked up the road passing some toppled trees in the forest, Crikey, it must have been windy :shock: we went through the gate on the right a bit further on which is the start of the climb up Mount Blair

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It's a steepish climb over grass to start with on the way to a gate in the fence about halfway up, then it becomes a track through the heather and better defined. Stopping every so often to take a look at the views.

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We could see Mealna Letter and the route up we were thinking of taking, it's a long whale back and it looked like it would be a pleasant walk so we were beginning to like the idea of including after. On the way up we had to give way to a little ATV coming down, we were going to ask for a lift but it was going in the wrong direction, just our luck :lol:

Arriving at the summit we were greeted by some nice views, it's a pity about the mast on the top but I suppose they've got to go somewhere, the cairn is over a stile in the fence so we had a clamber to get there. We had a look at the view indicator on the summit and decided to have our lunch in the shelter that surrounds it out of the coolish wind, it's interesting to get an idea of which hills were surrounding us and how many we'd been on.

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After lunch we had another look at the indicator then set off down. On the way Mealna Letter was the main hill in view, we just had to give it a go.

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The descent from Mount Blair was not a tricky affair, in fact it was quite steady and we were soon back at the road, we had a quick rest then set off to find the start of the path alongside the plantation.

Some of the forestry marked on the map is not there now but the fence is and the path is too, to gain access to it the gate is still there so we went through it and picked up the path as it keeps close and to the right of the fence, it's a bit indistinct with the grass being so over grown at this time of year, this also had the added bonus of hiding the soggy bits some of which took us by surprise as we descended into ankle deep water :shock: so that was fun :lol: it becomes dryer the higher you get, the grass gets higher too so it was a bit of a struggle.

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When the wall is reached the path turns right alongside it, improves and is easier to follow.

It stays with the edge of the forest and the wall, the forest is left behind a bit further on so its just a case of staying with the wall. Higher up there's a gate in the wall/fence where our path turns right again still keeping the wall to the left all the way to the summit. We kept looking at Mount Blair when we stopped, we could see the path up it from this direction it looks really steep.

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On the way we spotted a herd of Red Deer travelling up the hillside from the right, all of them were stags, there must have been forty or fifty of them, maybe more, they gathered by the wall and then they all jumped it and the fence, we've not seen so many deer all together like that and I always thought Stags were solitary or is that just during the rut? anyway, it was quite a sight.

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After the excitement we carried on to the summit where we had to climb the fence to reach the cairn.

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The views from the top are nice, Mount Blair looking rather impressive, we didn't stay on the summit for long, the wind was quite strong and had a real chill to it, it was coming from the west so we set off down the way we came hoping we'd get some relief from it lower down.

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The descent was a bit easier than the ascent, especially lower down where we managed to avoid some of the really soggy bits. Mount Blair was still showing off.

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Back along the road to our parking spot we were still the only ones parked up so it's worth knowing about this alternative, if we do this hill again we'll do the WH route it'll be more interesting than our up and down route I think.

We had a good day, we did three hills and managed a longer day than our more recent ones, there was a point where I thought we wouldn't bother with Mealna Letter, I'm glad we did it instead of taking the easy option and leaving it, we have more spare time now so we're going to make use of it :D
User avatar
martin.h
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 700
Munros:228   Corbetts:32
Fionas:22   Donalds:18+2
Sub 2000:7   Hewitts:151
Wainwrights:214   Islands:31
Joined: Jul 31, 2011
Location: Formerly Halifax, West Yorkshire, now Angus
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