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Amazing weather for November led me to plan a two-day trip to Glenshee, the first of which was to climb the Cairnwell Munros

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It was definitely a trip of two halves

! On the first day, the weather didn’t disappoint, it was blue skies all day and at one point, I wished I’d brought some suntan lotion

! The second day turned out to be the complete opposite, but more on that in the next report.
A nice leisurely start to the walk at 10:00 and I was on the summit of Carn Aosda before 11:00! Timewise it doesn’t get any better than that

! However, although it’s only a 300m ascent, it’s steep, right from the ski centre and the path is loose stones, so not very pleasant to walk on.
- Looking down at the ski centre from Carn Aosda.
- Beautiful sunshine on the summit of Carn Aosda – looking towards Cairnwell.
- Looking north from Carn Aosda.
After leaving the summit, the path improves for a little while and then gets a bit boggy on the way out to Carn a’ Gheòidh, but it’s easy going and clear to follow. It’s about 3 miles to from Carn Aosda, and it took me 1¾ hours to plod out there at my usual slow pace!
- Looking back at Carn Aosda.
- Looking south-west towards Carn a’ Gheòidh.
- Looking west across Loch Vrotachan.
- Looking back at Carn Aosda in the distance from the route out to Carn a’ Gheòidh.
It was the weekend, a beautiful day and very busy with walkers, runners and dogs of all shapes and sizes! I was glad I’d left Meg (the fast) at home as I’d never have gotten anywhere with all those dogs for her to say hello to

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The last 50m of ascent to Carn a’ Gheòidh is a bit steeper, nothing too bad, but the path is badly eroded with some loose rock.
- Looking north-east on the way out to Carn a’ Gheòidh.
- Looking towards the final ascent of Carn a’ Gheòidh.
- Looking north-east from the summit of Carn a’ Gheòidh.
- Looking west from the summit of Carn a’ Gheòidh.
I stayed on the summit, with several other people, admiring the views and the inversion over the south-west, then left at 13:15 to make my way to The Cairnwell.
- Looking south-west from Carn a’ Gheòidh.
- Enjoying the views of an inversion to the south-west.
- And a close up… 😊
The return walk to the turning point up to The Cairnwell didn’t take too long and there’s a couple of paths up; either over or bypassing a small “bump” at 873m (doesn’t have a name on the map). I took the lower bypass path, which was fine, but there were a few rocks to walk over (a mini boulder field).
- Looking north-east on the return from Carn a’ Gheòidh.
The final approach to The Cairnwell is steep and the path is very badly eroded, it’s really just loose rock and scree.
The summit is quite dismal with all of the infrastructure, but it’s not just that, it’s old grey concrete buildings (one falling down) and lots of loose rock, along with some towers/masts – to be honest, it looks like a bomb site

. I arrived there at about 14:30 and didn’t hang around – it was depressing.
- Looking west from The Cairnwell.
- Looking east from The Cairnwell at part of tomorrow’s hike – it turned out to be the best view I’d get of those mountains!
WH says that it’s possible to make a direct descent, although it’s steep and pathless. I did consider that but it was very steep and so I opted for the longer route down the official path.
The initial section from the top and the lower part of the path near the ski centre are steep and with a lot of loose stones, a bit of a chore to walk on. The middle section was ok, an easy path.
I got back to the car park at 15:30, which is 30 minutes better than WH longest time – a first for me!

Then it was time to set up “camp” in the van for the night ready for round two in the morning

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See you tomorrow!
