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Wintery Bennachie

Wintery Bennachie


Postby KatTai » Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:28 pm

Route description: Bennachie: Oxen Craig and Mither Tap

Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Bennachie (Oxen Craig)

Date walked: 07/01/2018

Time taken: 2.5 hours

Distance: 9.25 km

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My OH was going into work today in Aberdeen, so I figured I'd drop him off (with retired dog) and head over to Bennachie for a walk with the other two. I headed round to the Back O Bennachie car park, it's my preferred start point for walking up there, and well wrapped up we headed off following the track through the forest and we were soon out on the snowy hill side. There had been plenty of people up there leaving a path of compacted snow, good to walk on at the moment though that will change if it turns into ice!

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The dogs were having fun eating and rolling in the snow. Had a bit of fun with them at a rock outcrop where they were showing off with their posing!

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We skipped visiting the summits, we've been up several times before and there were a lot of people out so we took the bypass path avoiding Oxen Craig and headed along towards Mither Tap. While not the highest, it is by far the most popular of the peaks and everytime I looked there seemed to be a good few people standing at the summit.

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Spot the dogs...Mither Tap in the background


We followed the track around and Moss took an interest in one of the sign posts that are dotted around up there!

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Which way Moss?


We continued on our circuit, turning to Craigshannoch rather than heading up to Mither Tap to join the crowd. The snow here was less compacted, Craigshannoch isn't one of the popular ones I guess. There was no one there at all, and at the fork the dogs turned and started heading up themselves. While the other two summits may be popular with people, this one seems to be a favourite of my dogs!

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Craigshannoch visited we continued on following the track around until we reached the track we came up on. A very pleasant circuit, the dogs enjoyed themselves running about and it was a great way to spend and afternoon while OH was in the office!

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KatTai
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Re: Wintery Bennachie

Postby sprintster » Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:01 pm

I was up there last week and it was treacherous in the ice. I'm not a fan of crowds either so a route I like to do is up to Oxen Craig and then over to Watch Craig and down to Back o' Bennachie. Rarely meet anyone there.
sprintster
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Re: Wintery Bennachie

Postby kevsbald » Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:41 pm

The dog looks to be having a blast.
Love this wee hill, so enigmatic.

'Clachnaben and Bennachie, twa landmarks seen fae the sea'.

KP
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kevsbald
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Re: Wintery Bennachie

Postby KatTai » Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:39 pm

sprintster wrote:I was up there last week and it was treacherous in the ice. I'm not a fan of crowds either so a route I like to do is up to Oxen Craig and then over to Watch Craig and down to Back o' Bennachie. Rarely meet anyone there.


I was thinking of going across to Watch Craig, the path was quite clear in the snow so it was tempting!
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KatTai
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Joined: Feb 12, 2015
Location: Angus

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