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Yesterday I did the 3 Cairnwell Munros from the ski centre and the weather was fantastic – almost sun cream weather!
The forecast for today was exactly the same, but the reality was the total opposite. The cloud was low to start with, but given the forecast for the tops, I was even hopeful I’d get an inversion – how wrong I was!
I had parked at the ski centre for yesterday’s walk and stayed the night in the van. I then opted to leave the van where it was and walk to the starting point, since the WH route comes back past the ski centre anyway, I’d have to walk along the road at one end of the day. Personally, I think that’s the better option, for two reasons – it gets the road walking out of the way early and it’s a much larger car park, although there is a charge (£8 for a two-night stay).
I started the walk at 07:00 just after first light and headed off down the road, hopeful of a good day ahead. Just the one slow human today and no fast border collie as there isn’t really room to sleep in the van with Meg as well.
- Just after leaving the main road – looking up towards Carn and Tuirc.
It’s a pleasant walk alongside the river but two words describe the going best – boggy and soggy!
The bog continues until around the 840m mark, just after the rocky section begins.
From somewhere around 650m I lost sight of the road and was in the clag, and that was it for the rest of the day apart from a few very brief sightings of blue sky.
- Looking up towards Carn and Tuirc a little higher up – the summit clear at this point!
- Another view up to Carn and Tuirc.
On the plus side, there was no wind, and I didn’t need a coat all the way to the summit, although I was a bit wet from the mist when I got there (09:45). I’d been there a few minutes when another walker surprised me by appearing out of the mist, but he was just doing the one Munro that day and soon headed back down the way he’d come.
Leaving a summit in the right direction can be tricky sometimes, but that is especially true in the mist. After walking across the top plateau, I should have headed east to pick up the path to Cairn of Claise, but instead walked north-east; in the mist, I was drawn to a couple of cairns, which lead to the path but a little further north than I should have been – they were marking the route up from that direction. The detour cost me about half a km.
From there the path winds its way up to Cairn of Claise, more or less following an old fence line. It was easy going but the grass was very wet.
On the way up the cloud was teasing me and threatened to clear a couple of times and then changed its mind. I didn’t realise until I got home and looked at the photos later that I was being watched by the clouds!
- Being watched by the face in the clouds!
Near the summit the route turns right (south-west) onto a less distinct path, but that’s exactly where the boundary wall begins, so easy to follow to the summit.
At the top it’s rocky and the cairn is on top of the boundary wall – I arrived there at 11:00. I was sitting there having lunch when a second person appeared out of the mist – this time a runner! I’m always impressed when I see someone running up a Munro! He was the last person I saw all day - another direct contrast to yesterday, but not surprising given the weather.
- Looking at the route ahead from Cairn of Claise.
Once I was off the stones and onto the grass, it was once again easy going, soft but once more very wet.
The path follows the boundary wall with one slight detour, at which point the WH route goes to the left of a tiny lochan, but I stayed to the right to keep the wall in sight and was glad I did because I could see some peat hags on the left of the lochan, so I’m glad I didn’t stumble into them in the mist.
- The route ahead to Glas Maol – looking like it might clear again, but no such luck!
At around 1000m the route diverges from the main path and bears right to head for the summit of Glas Maol. There is a tiny cairn marking the turn – very useful.
- Tiny cairn marking the route up to Glas Maol.
- Almost at the summit of Glas Maol – ski tows can be seen on the right.
The cloud did clear a bit but by the time I reached the summit cairn (12:20), it had descended again.
Yet again, I managed to go slightly the wrong way from the summit, but only about 100m (distance) this time before I realised my mistake, so was soon back on track, literally!
- Looking south towards Creag Leacach.
There is a large cairn, marked on the OS map at Bàthach Beag, which marks the turning for the route down. To get to Creag Leachach the route carries on past the cairn and initially to the right of a boundary wall. There is a lot of old wire from disused fencing lying on the ground, some of which is partly buried – I managed to get a foot caught in a large piece of it and nearly fell over – it’s quite dangerous, especially in poor visibility.
The path switches to the right of the wall at one point and for a while there is a path on both sides, but it looked like a steeper drop on the left, so I stayed on the right-hand side.
- Looking south-west towards Creag Leacach.
The final approach to Creag Leacach starts as a scree path, but then turns into a boulder field that undulates up to the summit; there are two false summits before the top, that’s never welcome, but it seemed even worse in the mist. Finally, I came to a small cairn next to the boundary wall and I was at the last summit of the day – it was 13:40!
It’s possible that in good weather the true summit would be seen rather than the false ones, but in the clag it was difficult to tell.
- The first false summit on the final approach to Creag Leacach.
- Looking north-east on the way down from Creag Leacach.
After making my way back over the boulders and alongside the boundary wall back to the large cairn at Bàthach Beag, I began the traverse below Glas Maol. The path for the next km was very good and easy to follow but seemed to go on forever as by now the clag was thicker and it was all quite eerie.
No more photos now as there was nothing to see but the inside of the cloud – no silver lining there!
After passing below Glas Maol and shortly before I reached Meall Odhar, the path becomes indistinct and then it splits - it looked like the lefthand one would be the one to take as it was heading downhill, but a quick check told me to take the righthand fork.
The path leads to the top of some ski tows, which looked to be in disrepair – I don’t ski, but these looked as if perhaps they were no longer in use, but that may be because I’m not sure what they should look like. Anyway, that was a very desolate section, with a rabbit warren of paths that undulated quite a bit before finally heading downhill. In the thick clag it was very quiet and not somewhere I wanted to hang around too long.
The track through the ski tows, etc. is wide but with lots of loose stone, so not good to walk on at the end of the day. As I headed downhill I though I could hear some traffic noise below me and then I came out under the cloud and the road was only 75m below me.
So, the clag was a lot lower than at the beginning of the day, but I was pleased to see the road and I could even see my van in the car park.
The last part of the descent was steep and slippery with all the loose stone.
I got back to the van just before 16:00 – I was going to have a coffee but I was aware that the final part of the road home (about 3 miles from where I live) was going to be closed from 19:00 for road works with timed access on the hour, so I opted to drive straight home and managed to get to the road closure point 10 mins before it was closed.
So, all in all, not a very pleasant day due to the weather and such a shame that there were no views, but 4 more ticked off, so I mustn’t complain!
Bye for now!
