Meall Chuaich - Megga Cairn
Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:36 pmSet off fromKintore for what was meant to be a few days walking near Newtonmore. Chose this one to do on the first day as it allowed me the 2 hours travel time and a finish early enough to pitch a tent up at Newtonmore.
This typed from memory at the moment as my phone got soaked the next day, and i've lost all track logging and photos. Hoping to recover them later so will add them if successful.
Started the walk about 1300hrs, having parked at layby 94 southbound on the A9. Up through the gate and soon up at the aquaduct where I turned left to follow the track. It was a warm dry day so just wore my wicking layer. The track went for a few miles and then crossed a bridge just before the generator station.
Just past that there is a huge pipeline coming off the hill which has a newly made track up beside it. Ignoring that track I continued on towards the lock turning right a couple of hundred meters past it. Soon passing the bothy on the RHS. It been done up sice the photo on the WH guide. It now has big windows and there were rows of union-jack coloured camp chairs on either side of the room. I guess it must be now used by stalker parties.
Following the path for a short while to a small pile of stones marker indicating where to start the ascent up Stac Meall Chuaich.
The initial path was quite boggy but entered into rock fields about half way up. The path was hard to ditinguish going in placed but no real problem ascending. Crossing just to the right of Stac and then onto the summit of Meall Chuaich, which was crowed with one of the most impressive cairns I've seen so far. It wasn't like the usual pile of stones it was more like a war memorial. Actually somebody had left a rememberence day cross on it so maybe it was a war memorial. The back left of it had quite a few stones fallen out of it, so I spent 10 minutes just refitting a few.
Tried retracing steps back down, but initially not to easy due to the rocks. Once back on the boggyness of Stac. From that vantage point overlooking the loch, you could see a track going to the pipeline and the turning 90 degrees right to join the one running beside it. It almost looked an easier one to follow tha the slighly winding one back to the generating station.
The rest of the return uneventful just musing over how little power the generator must actuall give for such a massive construction of pipeline and aquaduct.
Got back to the car shortly after 5 oclock. Turned around and headed up to Newtonmore.
This typed from memory at the moment as my phone got soaked the next day, and i've lost all track logging and photos. Hoping to recover them later so will add them if successful.
Started the walk about 1300hrs, having parked at layby 94 southbound on the A9. Up through the gate and soon up at the aquaduct where I turned left to follow the track. It was a warm dry day so just wore my wicking layer. The track went for a few miles and then crossed a bridge just before the generator station.
- Aquaduct bridge to generator station.
Just past that there is a huge pipeline coming off the hill which has a newly made track up beside it. Ignoring that track I continued on towards the lock turning right a couple of hundred meters past it. Soon passing the bothy on the RHS. It been done up sice the photo on the WH guide. It now has big windows and there were rows of union-jack coloured camp chairs on either side of the room. I guess it must be now used by stalker parties.
- Stalkers Bothy
Following the path for a short while to a small pile of stones marker indicating where to start the ascent up Stac Meall Chuaich.
- Boggy ascent route
The initial path was quite boggy but entered into rock fields about half way up. The path was hard to ditinguish going in placed but no real problem ascending. Crossing just to the right of Stac and then onto the summit of Meall Chuaich, which was crowed with one of the most impressive cairns I've seen so far. It wasn't like the usual pile of stones it was more like a war memorial. Actually somebody had left a rememberence day cross on it so maybe it was a war memorial. The back left of it had quite a few stones fallen out of it, so I spent 10 minutes just refitting a few.
- Summit cairn
Tried retracing steps back down, but initially not to easy due to the rocks. Once back on the boggyness of Stac. From that vantage point overlooking the loch, you could see a track going to the pipeline and the turning 90 degrees right to join the one running beside it. It almost looked an easier one to follow tha the slighly winding one back to the generating station.
- View of return route
The rest of the return uneventful just musing over how little power the generator must actuall give for such a massive construction of pipeline and aquaduct.
Got back to the car shortly after 5 oclock. Turned around and headed up to Newtonmore.