Driesh and Mayar

[IainG]

Saturday, 17th October 2009 looked a great day for hillwalking. With the excellent forecast, it looked like one of the last remaining days of 'fair weather' walking to be had for quite some time to come.

Driesh and Mayar are a fine pair of hills in Glen Doll, at the head of Glen Clova. We've been up this pair many times and it's two Munros you never tire of, especially in these conditions.

We set off up Glen Clova and along the single track to the road end in Glen Doll. There is a great Forestry Commission car park which charges £1.50 a stay. I'm a great believer in making a contribution to these valuable facilities, but unfortunately both the parking meters were out of order. With the weather, I wouldn't be surprised if they were in fact full!

Since our last trip here, they've built a new visitor centre. Impressive structure.



We followed the signs for Jocks Road and headed up through Glendoll Forest. Very alpine feel in the chilly morning air.



One of the highlights of this walk is without a doubt Corrie Fee. A huge an impressive geological wonderland. A hummocky floor and steep rocky walls.



The path winds it's way between the hummocks and climbs on an excellent constructed path to the left of the waterfall seen in the centre of the picture. A fair grunt, but the views are incredible.



From the rim of the core, there's still a wee grunt to go up easy slopes to the dome of Mayar.



The summit cairn of Mayar, looking over towards it's partner, Driesh.



Looking south from the summit. Spectacular stuff.



Looking north over Erne Craigs.



Looking south west.



And looking west over endless bumps.



A nice easy walk over to Driesh made all the better by some stunning scenery.



There was already a wee crowd on Driesh when we arrived.



Looking over to the Lochnagar range.



We headed back over the shoulder of Little Driesh and made our way down the Shank of Drumfollow.



A lovely evening as we entered the Glendoll Forest again.



The majestic Craig Mellon.



Something very autumnal about this walk.

[munrowalker]

Nice pics, looks a lot better than when I walked at same time last year. That waterfall is pretty spectacular!

[Paul Webster]

Nice autumnal shots - whets the appetite from our forthcoming trip down to Angus - just over a week now until we invade your neck of the woods

They were amongst my first 2 munros many years ago - I may be going for a slowest Munro round prize. I reckon they've changed alot - certainly no made path in Corrie Fee back then, or charges at the car park (mind you we are going back to times of which my memory is vague). Helen has never been to Angus and hopefully will be doing the two Munros as it's getting embarrasing that we don't have descriptions for them, whilst I'm gonna head for Ben Tirran across the way - scene of another of your reports.

Sounds like its been very wet over Angus / Aberdeenshire lately .

[IainG]

Paul,

Lots of changes up in Glen Doll. No campsite anymore, no Youth Hostel, a path through Corrie Fee, and they charge for parking!!

It's been absolutely pessing it here for the last two days. Lots of floods and I also have a leaking roof now

How are you doing Ben Tirran? Are you doing the 'man's route' from Hunthill in Glen Lethnot, or are you taking the easier route from Glen Clova?

[Paul Webster]

Easy route - I've the excuse that I want to put a walk on for Loch Brandy / Wharral as well as the Corbett one - that way I can get two walks for the site out of just one. Haven't quite fathomed the best combinations to do yet.

[IainG]

I haven't done it, but it looks to me that a good route would be up by the east of Loch Brandy, over Green Hill, over to Ben Tirran, then descend down the east side of Loch Wharral to the road, then along the road to the Hotel?

[doogz]

good to see you out and around again iain......

nice set of photos to go with it..

we got blown off almost when we were up last year it was a howler

doogz

[mountain coward]

The world suddenly got fatter! (pano photos )... Love the Craig Mellon shot... a lovely walk - I did it the other way round but in 'dreish' weather! You're right that it's certainly a walk to do again though... most Munros I don't really intend to do again but I did these on my own and decided while i was doing them that I'd do them again but take my pal Richard...

[monarchming]

Great report Iain and I was meant to climb these two Munros yesterday but my plans fell through.I am hoping to make the drive up from Ayrshire at the beginning of November so these pics give me an appetiser of what lies ahead.

[monty]

Great pictures Ian,
I was intending to do these last week also but my knee has a slight problem which seems to be improving. Hopefully do them soon. Your report certainly makes it easy for me to follow

[IainG]

Monty,

It is very straightforward from the carpark in Glendoll all the way to the rim of Corrie Fee. From there, it's a bit of a bog trot before it get's firmer up near the top.

Just be careful when walking over to Driesh. Last time I was there in the mist, we missed the turn for Driesh and headed along the ridge on the rim of Corrie Sharroch instead. Quite an easy mistake to make

[James_McG]

Hi Iain,

Great report & some fantastic photo's, looks an excellent walk, one I'll need to look into

You really got a fantastic day weather for your climb!

Jim

[thomasp67]

Great pics.

What camera do you use?

Did you crop the pics or are they already that aspect ratio?

[IainG]

Thomas,

The camera is a Hasselblad Xpan and the film in these shots is Fuji Velvia 50, a 35mm slide film. It's a legendary camera normally associated with landscape photography.

The camera shoots in this ratio, it takes a double width 35mm frame per shot. So, for a normal 36 frame film, you get normally 21 wide format shots.

The only cropping I've done is to take the rough edges out which show up when the film is scanned.

[thomasp67]

Thanks Iain

I use a 10MP digital camera taking 4x3 images then I crop to 16x9. It does the job but I'm going to spend a bit to upgrade to something a bit better. I had a little look at a few stores on the web to buy a Hasselblad, pretty pricey, but I really like pictures, maybe someday. When I go walking I take at least 100 pictures on a good day, sometimes more, out of that I may get a handful of good ones. I think going back to using a film might be a bit heavy on the pocket as well.