A cold day on Carn a'Ghille Chearr
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 2:59 pmI was staying up in Aviemore with friends for our annual Christmas party. We always like to have a walk on the Saturday before stuffing our faces with festive fizz and food in the evening and this hill seemed a good short day option. We parked on the minor road above Cromdale at about NJ097282 in a rough turning semi-circle and walked east along the road until we came to a metal gate on the right. We followed the straight track until it came to a T-junction, where we turned left, still on a good track through another gate. Where this track turned back down the hillside, we cut across the heather for a short distance to pick up the same track at a series of steep zig-zags (shown clearly on the OS map).
Where this is shown to end on the map, we found no sign of the footpath shown on the map but we did find a peaty ATV track going a long way up the hill beside some well-constructed grouse-butts. We cut left off this track near its top to cross rougher ground to reach the junction of paths marked on the map. From here, we plodded through some pretty wet ground towards Carn Eachie, the terrain becoming drier and easier as height was gained.
It was an easy stroll over to the summit trig.
We didn't want to linger long because of the biting wind and time was getting on. Because of this, we decided to try a different route on the way down and, as is often the case, this was only partially successful. We cut down through some heather to reach another ATV track on the right side of a very straight fenceline heading down the hill to meet the road east of Wester Rynaballoch and at first all went well enough. However, there was a sting in the tail: four barbed-wire fences and a wide and deep drainage ditch to be negotiated, which we did pretty well with the exception of one ripped pair of trousers! Really, I wouldn't recommend this route at the end of the day. All that remained was a stride along the road in the cold and dark back to the car. The heater was much appreciated on the journey back to Aviemore, as were the cups of tea and hot mince pies as we arrived 'home'.
- Looking over to Carn a' Ghille Chearr from the top of the zig-zag track
- Looking back at the route of ascent and Creagan a' Chaise
- Approaching the summit
- A view of Ben Rinnes from the summit
