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A hill with a bit of a bad press but it has its moments.
We parked on the verge of the A941 at Bridgehaugh. Probably enough space for two or three cars. There followed a two mile walk along the tarmaced but potholed estate road beside the River Fiddich. This was a surprisingly pleasant start to the walk with pine and larch to the right with occasional gimpses to the hills above and, to the left, a bit of a drop down to the meandaring, dancing river. The opposite bank though was populated by plantations. Still, all in all a fine walk in.
Glen Fiddich House turned out to be largely a sprawling group of abandoned and derelict buildings with only one cottage and a set of kennels further on seeming to be in use. We mistakenly walked past the track onto the hill but soon realised the error. That said, we could have done the clockwise loop that would have included the Elf's House cave. In retrospect we chose the better option.
The hill track was steep at first but soon settled to a gentle incline heading south west then west to the junction and beallach with Morton's Way.
The view ahead was quite impressive with the cairned foretop of Corryhabbie dominating the skyline and the eastern track past Elf's House visible.
The fact that the hill track takes a full two kilometres to bend its way round to the beallach makes the walk take on a feeling of wildness because there is nothing there apart from the heather, the hill and the track with the view east hemmed in by the long parallel ridge to Cook's Cairn. The beallach itself then reveals views west to Rinnes, Carn Daimh and beyond to the Cairngorms.
Morton's Way now takes over. No change really, other than in the track now having a name. There is though a set of long zig zags for the pull up to the cairned foretop which reveals better and better views over the surrounding land. At the end of the zig zags the big country feel returns with the hill track still stretching relentlessly ahead -first for a kilometre of gentle rise to a false summit and then another flatter kilometre to the summit.
Just before the summit we see the route down to Elf's House but we are too tired now to think of heading that way for the return. Besides, the views from the ridge really are pretty good; south to the white Cairngorms and Lochnagar, west to a graceful sweeping curve between Rinnes and the Convals, north to Bin of Cullen and Thunderslap Hill (I just wanted to include that somewhere for the name!) and east to The Buck, Mount Keen and others. At the summit itself the Cairngorms are brought just that little bit closer to make this feel like a well worthwhile expedition.
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John Little, on Flickr
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John Little, on Flickr
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John Little, on Flickr
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John Little, on Flickr
