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The plan was to climb as many hills as we could around the Ballater area, mainly because the A93 is my least favourite road and it would save me returning up it for a while, which is a shame as i'm a big fan of the Braemar area. So once we'd recovered from the bendy, twisty and bumpy A93 we set off for Geallaig Hill. Jimmy and Mo had just came off a night shift and had hoped to get a sleep on the drive up, no chance on that road, so were like a pair of zombies after the days walking. Well done Jimmy and Mo, your'e back with a bang. We parked at the cairn for Geallaig Hill, taking the track to the summit and returning the same way. 1hr 50mins.
- Track to Geallaig
- Towards Lochnagar
- Morven
We now drove to Ballater and parked just off the main road into a housing estate where a waymarked route leads to Craigendarroch. We took the direct route up and came down the path around the crags. This was the nicest walk of the day. Back at the car Mo came up with a brilliant idea, which was to stay the night in Braemar bunkhouse, Mo's best idea yet, come to think of it Mo's only idea yet.
As we were going to be walking on the Tuesday, this meant we could head to the Cromdale Hills which was only an hours drive and also allowed us to have more time to get all the hills done around Ballater. Well done Mo
why did Jimmy or i not think of that
. 40mins
- Path up Craigendarroch
- On way up
- Ballater
- The summit
- On our way down
Back in the car, we were now heading for The Coyles of Muick. The minor road along the east of the forest has warning signs of locked deer gates, but none were locked and we drove to the track halfway between Alltcailleach & Toldhu where there is plenty of space to park. We took this track, taking the third track of to the right. We saw a break but opted not to take it and continued a wee bit further before heading through the trees. The break we saw was the route we came down and would have been a better route up. After gaining height we came to a large cairn before making our way out the trees for the final climb towards the summit. We had lunch at the summit then returned back to the car. 1hr 30mins
- Left track here
- The Coyles of Muick
- The summit
- Loch Muick
- Summit
- Geallaig Hill
- The break we should have took on the way up
Back to the road trip now and we were on our way to Littlemill to climb Greag Ghiubhais. There is paking in the trees opposite the telephone box. We walked up the track, through a gate then followed the fenceline before making our way over the deep heather towards the ridge. A steep climb and a few wee scrambles and we were soon at a cairn. It was difficult to tell if this was the highest point with all the trees around but checked map and had a look aound but saw no other cairn so took summit photo and returned to car. 1hr 30mins.
- Creag Ghiubais
- Craigandarroch
- The summit
- On our way down
- Car packed for final one
Now we were heading for Meall Alvie which was to be not just the last hill of the day but also the toughest, which i take full blame for. We parked at the Forestry sign for Inver and took the track along the south of Creag na Spaine, this track bends round to the right, not shown on map, we continued round this bend but should have continued straight ahead along a fainter track. We then left the track and came out in the middle of Meall Alvie and Creag na Spaine. Jimmy was well hacked off but i perked him up by saying it was just up there, though it was still a wee bit away
We started to climb Meall Alvie then followed a wall. At the high point i looked around and saw a cairn hiding between a few trees, we were all delighted. We returned via the wall, then down steep slopes to pick up the fainter track and back to the car. 2hrs.
- Lochnagar
- Creag na Spaine
- Meall Alvie summit
- Balmoral
