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A walk around The Cairnwell Three

A walk around The Cairnwell Three


Postby martin.h » Fri Nov 01, 2024 11:07 am

Route description: The Cairnwell Munros

Munros included on this walk: Càrn a' Ghèoidh, Càrn Aosda, The Cairnwell

Date walked: 30/10/2024

Time taken: 3.45 hours

Distance: 12 km

Ascent: 697m

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Back in 2014 we did the three Cairnwell Munros on the same day as the four on the eastern side of the pass, it was a tiring day, any memory we have of them is a bit hazy, we don't recall much about them except for the ease of navigation and that we were running on auto pilot, not taking too much notice of what was around us :roll: :lol: Every time we've driven over the pass since we think it would be nice just to do the three as a fairly short day and hopefully get an idea of the surrounding views without too much of the ski hardware getting in the way :lol:

The forecast for the 30th October had changed from fog and gusty winds to a light breeze with sunshine all day, we weren't going to miss this opportunity, not at this time of the year, something was telling us to get out there :lol:

We were away from home just after 07:00 and were at the Glenshee Ski Centre at 08:40, the cafe was open so we went in to pay for the parking, it's easier to do it that way for us, we're not great fans of scanning QR codes, it's £4 for all day so pretty reasonable. Away from the car at 09:00, Carn Aosda first on the agenda. We were following the WH route so there's not much variation from that except for the descent off The Cairnwell.

Early morning sun around the Ski Centre
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From car to summit took 30 minutes, this must be THE quickest ascent of a Munro for us so far, the last time we did this Munro was from the A93 at NO147799, so there's a definite advantage setting off at an elevation of 650m this time :D
We were so busy concentrating on the way up we didn't really notice the chair lifts :lol:

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On the summit the views are ok, Carn Aosda isn't a bad introduction to the munros for anybody setting off on their Munro campaign, both for ease of access and if you look beyond the buildings below you.

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Carn a' Gheoidh was next so we set off down the stony track towards Loch Vrotachan and followed it as far as NO130784 where there's a junction onto a path that's more like a mountain path and better to walk on.

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Although we were on one of the most popular Munro walks we hadn't seen a soul since we left the carpark and by now it was past 10. The day was fantastic, really clear, good views and the sun was out warming us up, as we were getting closer to Carn a' Gheoidh it did feel quite remote away from the ski centre, it felt like we were the only people for miles around, we weren't expecting this, it was well worth setting off that bit earlier. At the summit we could see Carn Aosda and The Cairnwell, they looked a long way off but had taken less than two hours to get here from the car, we savoured the feeling of solitude :D

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We stayed a while at the summit, just looking at the views, mountains we've been to the summit of and mountains yet to enjoy especially the Cairngorms north of Braemar way in the distance, roll on 2025 :D

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The Cairnwell was next on the agenda so we left our view point and set off from the summit, back the way we'd come.

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A bit lower down we met our first fellow walkers, a group of four who had made The Cairnwell their first of the three, as we got closer to The Cairnwell we met a group of eight and a couple of solo walkers all enjoying the lovely conditions.

We took the traversing path starting from NO127781 and arrived on the track leading to the summit of The Cairnwell at NO132777 and simply followed it to the summit. This is probably the ugliest part of the route, a loose stony track which is not much more than a scar on the landscape :(

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On the summit you can get away from the buildings and masts and get some nice views.

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We had something to eat at the top, the views across to Glas Maol, Cairn of Claise etc were good, especially in the sunshine.

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I was taken with the view across to Carn nan Sac, it looked pretty impressive :D

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We set off from the summit and, instead of following the WH route, we took the alternative path starting at a gap in the fence at around NO133777, this path is a bit soggy in places and takes you all the way down to the chairlift building across from the carpark, it looks like a mountain bike track judging by the tyre marks and the board walks lower down, better to walk on than the track, nice and springy :D :lol:

If you ignore all the trappings of the ski resort it's a nice place to be, we enjoyed this walk and will do it again, maybe an early morning walk in the summer to catch the sunrise, that would be nice :D
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martin.h
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 700
Munros:228   Corbetts:32
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Joined: Jul 31, 2011
Location: Formerly Halifax, West Yorkshire, now Angus
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