The weather was looking bad for the weekend; however my dad fancied the Sunday if there was any chance of it improving. We were forced off the Monadhliath a couple of years ago when I got extreme knee pain so he fancied a return to do the outlier Carn Dearg as the land rover track in would mean an easier type start to the day. I wanted to do the Graham Creag Liath but Dad insisted on trying the Munro so we thought we’d just do the one Munro instead of the three in the Monadhliath as this would be a long day for his first. If we felt like it on the return we’d pop up the Graham.
We arrived at the café outside Newtonmore and had a bacon roll and pot of tea and then headed up behind Newtonmore to Glen Banchor to park. My Granda lived in Newtonmore and you pass his old house on the drive up to Glen Banchor as well as the Church we paid our last respects to him in. My dad had his Terrier, Billy with us today so the dogs outnumbered humans. Billy is 9 years old and an experienced Munro dog, he generally goes about trying to get his teeth into anything and anyone, dad got him 8 years ago as a rescue, and he has fear aggression. He is a loving doggy once he trusts you, it’s just he likes a good scrap and the bigger and tougher the opponent the better! Typical Terrier.
- Dad with the Rogues Gallery
We started along the land rover track and the weather was ok, a little light drizzle but when we got to the point you cut over the field to the gate up the river Allt Fionndrigh you could see the top of the Graham and the track ahead.
- Cutting accross to the Landrover track up the side of the Graham
Dogs were on the lead at this point as lots of sheep, three dogs chasing sheep and it would have been a Turkey shoot for the farmer!! We followed the track up till you cross over the river on a shanty looking bridge.
- Dodgy Bridge
- Dad and Billy Crossing
Once over the dogs got off the lead as no more sheep in sight. We made our first pit stop on top of the col between the Graham Creag Liath and the Ridge up to Meall na Ceardaich. Roy did his usual scouting for pools of mud/water and successfully found an adequate pool of peaty water and proceeded to get barket. The other two just looked on wondering what the hell the batty spaniel was thinking as the wind chill was around -3. Brrrrr.
- Bl**dy Dog
- The graham Creag Liath behind dad
We proceeded up Gleann Ballach skirting the side of Meall na Ceardaich so as to keep our height.
The Summit of Carn Dearg was visible to our left and the ridge round to it looked easy enough, we hadn’t taken into consideration the strength of the wind.
- Weather closing in
- Looking back to the Graham Creag Liath
- Dogs resting up
- Dad doing well
Once we got up to the top at around 884m we found the old rusty fence which runs all the way to the summit so we dropped the bags beside a big stone to save time and set off round the ridge to the summit. There were lots of Mountain hare going around but they were too good on the rough terrain for the dogs to be a threat.
- Carn Dearg Summit somewhere in there
- Lochy and Billy have spotted something
- Curving back around to the ridge to Carn Dearg
- Carn Dearg behind the first Bump
We had to keep well to the right as the wind was horrific and we did not chance going too close to the cliffs over the edge of the summit, the rain was also constantly battering our faces and it felt like we were being sand blasted. We did not linger on the summit instead heading straight back to the bags, I hate not getting views on a summit but sometimes just being out in the hills even in testing conditions is enough to stoke the fires we need for our kicks.
We retuned the same way we arrived but no pictures as the rain on the descent was relentless and we both got a good soaking, my boots were sodden, time for the four season’s boots to be dusted off for the next walks. All in all a good day out which made us both feel like we’d had to work for our summit, dad felt great the next day and no issues so his recovery is coming along fine. Now we need to return for Carn Sgulain to complete the Grey Mountains.
. Love the dog photographs. Reading about walks and looking at pictures are no substitute for the real thing.
