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The Glenshee hills are not amongst my favourites but just over an hour’s drive from me, so with some decent if chilly weather today I felt the need to get out and tidy up a few more Munro sub-tops on the east side of the ski centre. I was up at the top car park by 7:50am and got going around 8am. Cold up there, the car said -2°C and there was a fair wind chill on top of that. Just one camper van there when I arrived, they must have had a cold night. Starting from 660m does seem a bit like cheating, but it was going to be a wandering around back and fore and up and down sort of day, so not too trivial a walk.
My first destination was Meall Odhar, a sub-top of Glas Maol, just a plod up by the ski tows on the east side of the A93. I walked all these Munros with my wife in 1989, but we didn’t include any sub-tops on our itinerary. I have probably been up Meall Odhar using the poma which terminates almost at the top, but I don’t think that counts.
- Meall Odhar complete with poma
- Glas Maol - cold up there
Then it was straight up the track/path onto the summit of Glas Maol before turning north to drop then climb northeast following assorted paths and ATV tracks to reach Cairn of Claise.
- Cairn of Claise
I considered a short detour to re-visit Carn an Tuirc but no sub-tops over there, and it’s a bit of a drab slog. Next destination was Druim Mòr, just under 2km south of Cairn of Claise, over pathless stones and grass to start before picking up one of the many ATV tracks that criss-cross the area which eased progress. There is a pathetic little cairn which presumably marks the top on this very flat area of grass.
- Druim Mòr
- Caenlochan Glen
The view south across Caenlochan Glen was more interesting, this is quite a rugged little coire with cliffs on either side.
I contoured around the headwall of Caenlochan Glen to regain the track I had used earlier, then veered south over pathless ground to avoid re-ascending Glas Maol. Slightly rough going, but not too bad. There is a level(ish) corridor between the crags of Brudhach Mor and Craigie Doubs which leads out onto the wide col between Glas Maol and Little Glas Maol. I followed a faint path, possibly made by deer, over the final section which got my attention as it traversed fairly steep ground with a precipice below.
Once past this brief moment of excitement, I met another ATV track which ran over Little Glas Maol. Another flat, featureless, grassy area with very little prominence (maybe 15m) and a couple of rocks marking the undistinguished summit.
- Little Glas Maol, Big Glas Maol in background
I returned to the col and contoured round the south side of Glas Maol at about 960m to meet up with the path and old parish boundary wall running south to Creag Leacach. By now there were lots of groups of walkers out and about.
Creag Leacach has more about it than the other Munros in the area. There is a nicely defined ridge leading onto a rocky summit at the end. It was also much windier here than at any point on my walk, and very cold.
- Creag Leacach from Little Glas Maol
- On Creag Leacach looking towards SW Top
I continued along the ridge by the wall out to the southwest top at 943m. This qualified as “top of the day”, some proper rocks on the summit, no need to guess the highest point and no poma.
- Looking North to Ski Centre from SW Top of Creag Leacach
I hunkered down out of the wind and had lunch here before retracing my steps back to the cairn at Bàthach Beag where I took the bypass path on the southwest flank of Glas Maol to get back to the ascent route.
- The Cairnwell and Cairngorms behind.
- When was the Measll Odhar cafe last open?
And so back to the car by 1:50pm, plenty time to nip into the café at Braemar Mountain Sports for a coffee and cake on the way home. A good day out, not the best scenery in Scotland, but a little bit of snow cover always makes the hills look better.
