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We've often thought we'd like to see what the views are like from the top of Ben Vrackie as we've travelled up and down the A9 and promised ourselves we'll do it one day if we ever had time on our way north on holiday. Well, we never seemed to have time or we just wanted to get to our destination so it remained on the "to do" list, now, it's almost a local hill, so nothing should stop us now.
We set off to do Ben Vrackie on the 7th March as a birthday walk for Denise, on the way I hit a deep pothole on a minor road near Alyth (road works on the A926 so we were diverted around Alyth) and destroyed a tyre and damaged an alloy, it was a pretty hard impact, the AA came out to check the car over to make sure there was no further damage and put the spare on for me, we went back home, we didn't fancy a walk after that
and we'd run out of time anyway
we were beginning to think Ben Vrackie was jinxed for us
Fast forward a week the weather was set fair for the 14th so we put Ben Vrackie to the top of the agenda and set off for Pitlochry (avoiding the A926 this time
) and arrived at the carpark in Moulin at 09.15
The walk up Ben Vrackie is straight forward on good tracks and paths all the way to the summit so there's plenty of time to concentrate on the views and take photos on the way. The first section is through trees, it felt like spring, the sun was shining and the buds on the trees were opening. We soon arrived at the gate where the trees are left behind and the walk across the moor begins, we got our first view of Ben Vrackie too.
When I was looking at the map I thought it would be nice to see what Ben Vrackie looked like from Creag Bhreac, a little lump you pass on the way up so we made a detour to have a look.
Not a bad view
we returned to the path and continued.
Looking back, a hail shower was moving across
We reached Loch a' Choire, it looks a good spot to spend a bit of time, especially during the summer, we had a cold north easterly wind today so we only stopped a short while to have a look at a memorial seat carved into a boulder then started the steep climb to the summit.
The path is pitched all the way up so it makes for steady progress, it's steep but only takes about 30 minutes from the loch to the summit where there's a trig point and view indicator. The views were worth waiting for
We spent about 10 minutes looking at the views, Beinn a' Ghlo was prominent, we could see Schiehallion, Beinn Dearg, Ben Vuirich, over to the Glen Shee hills and I'm sure we could see Ben Nevis? so many hills, a lot of the Corbetts we could make out we've still to visit.
Before we went back back down to the loch we had a walk over to the cairn to the NW and then to the high point on
Creag Tharsuinn a little further on to see what the views back to Vrackie were like from there.
We returned to the ascent path and very carefully went back down to the loch, pitched paths aren't our favourite way off a mountain.
We went right at the loch to walk along side it, this is one of the variations on the WH route description and worth doing as a way to get some different views of Ben Vrackie and down to Killiecrankie and beyond.
It felt quite remote on this side so we sat down on a boulder and had lunch looking at the views.
After lunch we followed the track and re-joined the outward path a bit further on, we turned right here and were back at the carpark about half an hour later.
One last look at Ben Vrackie before we entered the woods
This walk is a nice way to spend four or five hours, there are easy paths to follow and basic navigation, it's worth taking a bit of time over
