Walkhighlands

“If we leave home at 7 we will be walking by 10 easily” I said.
This was a bit late in the day for Katie so at 6.30 we piled all our gear into the car and set off for Glen Muick. She was of course quite right – when we arrived at about 9am the car park was filling up rapidly. We scraped together all the change we had and after spending several minutes feeding the ticket machine with £3 worth of 5ps we set off. Fortunately everybody else was heading for Lochnagar so we were on our own as we approached the loch. We crossed the bridge and walked down the northwest shore of the loch until we reached the trees at the far end. A path leads up through the wood (lovely foxgloves) over a wooden bridge and then up beside the burn to the spectacular Falls of Glasallt. On reaching another bridge we followed a narrow, rather indistinct path up the hillside to Creag a’ Ghlas-Uillt and then on to our first Munro, Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach. Along the way we saw lots of mountain hares lolloping about and a large herd of red deer. Arriving at the summit cairn we were approached by a man (German, I think) who showed me his OS map and wondered if I could if I could be of assistance. “We are following the McNeish but the path goes down here and the mountain is over there”. This is indeed the case – the path on the map contours round Carn an t-Sagairt Mor rather than going to the summit. In fact I had done these two hills from Glen Callater in the winter and had taken this route back to the glen. This was a huge mistake as the snow was very deep and it took me far longer than it would have done to go back over the hill again! I suggested they went via Carn an t-Sagairt Beag (as I should have done) and off they went as we settled down behind a rock for a cheese sandwich. Then we followed our own advice and soon found ourselves passing the wing and other fragments of a crashed aeroplane on the slopes of Carn an t-Sagairt Mor. A search on www.aircrachsites-scotland.co.uk revealed this to be the remains of Canberra B2 which crashed in November 1956. There was no sign of the Germans and we hoped they had not got lost. But as we descended southeast towards Cairn Bannoch we were relieved to discover them having lunch on the bealach. Having given them directions I felt rather responsible for them!

There was a bit more traffic on Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn but we enjoyed the high level relatively flat walk between the two hills. Descending from Broad Cairn we branched off towards Loch Muick at the first opportunity. Our plan was to have afternoon tea on the beach at the west end of the loch but we could see that, although it was not exactly Brighton on a Bank Holiday Monday, it was not the quiet, secluded spot that we imagined. We did wonder if the Germans had spread out their beach towels before heading for the hills! So we stopped for our refreshments a bit further down the loch. We met a couple pushing bikes who wondered how much further they would have to push before they could get back on again – quite a long way as it happened! Back at the car park things had quietened down a bit and we headed off to look for a somewhere to camp.

It is a great hillwalking round is'nt it - once up on the plateau it is terrific walking over the tops
good report bootsandpaddles

as for Cameron McP*sh

Was Lochnagar not put out when you missed it out?

LOL to the feeling responsible for folks after you've given them advice - I usually do too

Great report. Does the carpark fill up as early as 0900? Anyone know if it fills up early in the week? Depending on the length of walk I have to do, 1000 is more like my normal starting time!