Mount Keen with my son

[laurianna]

We had planned to do this walk a few weeks ago so we set off from Dundee at 8.30am on a bright morning and after 70 minutes driving we parked the car at Invermark car park 15 miles from Edzell with plenty spaces left..
We picked (almost) the perfect day to do this walk and found ourselves pretty soon in the middle of a large Glen with not a.soul in sight! The Queen's well was worth looking at although we were advised not to drink the water there! However the thought had never occurred to me anyway
After an hour of walking we passed the cottage and over the stream we started to gently climb. Still nobody about for some strange reason on a lovely Saturday morning! It was an easy path and as we started to walk away from burn we met another walker descending who advised us of very windy conditions at the summit. As we still couldn't see Mount Keen at that stage we were anxious to get on.
Ten minutes later however and Mount Keen appeared in our view and although it looked quite far my cheerful son predicted we would reach the summit in an hour fairly easily!.
More people came in sight, all advising us how we do it was and my son realised that a hoodie was perhaps not the best attire! We did reach the summit after 2 hours 40 minutes and by then it was very very blowy but thankfully no rain or fog.
Our lunch was rushed with the wind blowing everywhere and my son feeling the wind chill so after 15 minutes we started our descent. It was deceiving to think we had got there only to find another summit tucked away - often the case with.Munros!
The wind chill was the incentive to move fast and our descent was faster. The wind soon abated when we dropped 200 metres however and it became much warmer. We did inform a few folk we passed that it was very windy but generally they were all well equipped for the clinb. I can easily imagine that that this Munro would be very exposed and a nightmare in bad weather however.
The walk back at the base seemed to take much longer - perhaps we were just tired- and it was a relief to see our car in a now packed car park.
My only disappointment was missing the tea and scones in the house/cafe near the car park but we were keen to get home as I had another engagement later. Will climb this again but from Glen Tanar.