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Carn a' Chlamain had never really been on my shortlist of hills at all, and especially not so early in the year - I had really expected to be in the Howgills that weekend, until it just seemed like too much time away. So an unexpected day for walking in Scotland called for an unexpected hill, and a forecast for a summer day called for a summer one, and I had Glen Tilt on my mind.
I had a potter through Blair Atholl, visitor centre and shop and burn full of ducklings, before following the road up to Old Bridge of Tilt, where I ended up in the car park and got quite lost trying to find the right way to start off - I figured it out eventually and found myself crossing a little stone footbridge which I had walked under on the road, and ending up on the track which roughly follows the river.
I meant to take the detour through the rifle range, because I had checked that only short range shooting was taking place, but I missed the junction entirely and only realised what I'd done when I reached the Cumhann-leum bridge. It was a very nice spot, so I didn't really mind.
- The river
Just after the bridge I met a man who asked me if I had met some children walking down the road - he had seen them coming down the hill, and then they had vanished. But I hadn't, so he went on!
Further on, the open ground near Gilbert's Bridge gave me my first good view of the hills ahead.
- First sight of the high hills
I though about crossing over at Gilbert's Bridge to take the path up the other side, but decided to stick to the side I was on and walk past the buildings. The glen was more open here, out of the trees.
- The glen
The road had crossed over to my side of the river at the bridge, and all along the road the cattle grids had been taken up for some kind of repair job - and at every missing grid there was a yellow diversion sign pointing to the other side of the road, a yard or so away and perfectly obvious!
- Very small diversion
A lady coming down the glen in a car stopped to ask me if I had met any children, but I could only say that I hadn't, but thought I had met her husband looking for them. I never did hear what had happened, but I assume it was just a muddle, because I kept an eye out for news for the next few days and so probably would have heard if anything had really gone wrong.
I walked on past Marble Lodge and crossed the river again, along with the road, at Gaw's Bridge. Flat ground by the river here made a very nice lunch spot, looking over to the little building at Balaneasie.
- Balaneasie
A long descending ridge runs down from the main ridge of Carn a' Chlamain to the valley floor, and a track runs up it most of the way, with the walker's path taking a shortcut up the steep nose to join the track as it slants up from further along.
- The path
I'd really have been quite happy to keep walking up the valley, into the wilderness, but it was time to start climbing. The view from the start of the climb showed me the slopes of Beinn a' Ghlo running down into the valley as it continued on.
- Further up the valley
The track is quite distinct as it appears ahead and goes on zigzagging up.
- The start of the track
After that first steep climb, the track led on fairly gently - it just looked a long way to the summit, when you could see so much of it at once. It was all unusually dry up here, although there were odd patches of snow tucked into the summit ridge - dusty on the track, and faded looking all around. A wet patch where a tiny burn ran by the track was almost a relief!
- A long way to the summit
A mile or so further on and I was climbing through the patches of stones which marked the edge of the main summit ridge.
- The summit ridge
As I came over the edge of the ridge the world opened up ahead as a great emptiness - the most striking feature was a snowcapped Ben MacDui over An Sgarsoch, but it was the scene as a whole which took my breath away.
- Cairngorm view
Strange grooves led across the very flat summit ridge towards the little peak of the summit itself. Up here, with grass under foot rather than stones, it felt even more oddly dry - a bit crackly.
- Grooved summit
The track leads round the summit rather than over it, and I started looking for a path up a bit too late and came onto the summit from the side.
- Carn a' Chlamain summit
I'd already seen the most stunning view, on reaching the ridge, but the summit itself had another wonderful one, right down Gleann Craoinidh, which seemed to open up under my feet.
I'd been confused by the hills to the west whenever I looked at them, because I knew that I had turned off the route of the A9 to the right rather than the left, so should presumably be looking more or less along Loch Rannoch. It was only when I looked at the map later and realised how the road and the main valley swing round at Killiecrankie that I could make any sense of it - Ben Lawers behind the Glen Lyon hills behind Schiehallion!
- Gleann Craoinidh
I took an alternative route down entirely by accident, having tried to find the more direct path off the summit which I should have come up - I did, but instead of leading me back to the track it led to a smaller path which cut down off the ridge early and joined the track much further down - very nice walking.
- The path down
A hill which is just a slow walk on the way up is often just a quick walk on the way down, and the descent felt a lot shorter, even allowing for cutting the corner - a good thing, because from a start at 11ish it had taken me 5 hours to reach the summit, leaving not much more than 4 hours to get back to Blair Atholl, eat dinner, and get the train home.
So for reasons of speed I decided to leave the path on the other side of the river for the next time I come to Glen Tilt, but to avoid retracing my steps completely I took the upper track at the junction above Auchgobhal, cutting back down to the river at Croftmore - a pleasant detour.
- Glen Tilt again
I ignored the signposted route to the car park at Old Bridge of Tilt this time, since it just goes round in a loop, and stuck to the track until it comes out on the road by the car park, then took the track which crosses the main castle drive and comes out not far from the station. So I reached the Atholl Arms with about an hour in hand for a very nice dinner in the sunshine, only slightly encumbered by the attentions of a friendly drunk who wanted to save me from eating alone - he was perfectly cheerful and harmless, but quite repetitive! Despite that danger it made a good end to a walk, only about a minute from the station so that there's no danger of missing the train.