Don’t miss the cairn!
Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 7:23 pm
After some deliberation as whether to walk up the Meall nan Tarmachan ridge or Meall Ghaordaidh we decided on the latter as the forecast was for rain later and the cloud level was sitting around 3,000 feet. It seemed a straight forward route, through a gate, across a field, over a stile then along the track where there would be a pole on the left, to turn up at the cairn. Only problem was we missed the small cairn!
On we went across a burn to another pole further on. Still couldn’t find a cairn so decided to just head uphill. Back across the burn and followed a broken fence which was mentioned in the Walk Description. Still no path but up we went. Over bog which wasn’t too bad as it has been dry lately. 200m from the summit we were into the mist. Looming up ahead were quite steep crags which we couldn’t safely see a route through. Decided, reluctantly to head back down. However, for our course down, first we walked back under these crags and came across the path we should have been on! The path was well worn so easy to follow. So decided to continue up. A little bit of scrambling and soon the large, circular cairn appeared through the mist. Sadly, absolutely no view whatsoever.
Followed the good path down to see where we went wrong. How we missed the cairn we’re not sure but probably chatting too much! We reckon that we would have been a good hour quicker had we found the path initially and would have made it back for tea and cake in Killin.
On we went across a burn to another pole further on. Still couldn’t find a cairn so decided to just head uphill. Back across the burn and followed a broken fence which was mentioned in the Walk Description. Still no path but up we went. Over bog which wasn’t too bad as it has been dry lately. 200m from the summit we were into the mist. Looming up ahead were quite steep crags which we couldn’t safely see a route through. Decided, reluctantly to head back down. However, for our course down, first we walked back under these crags and came across the path we should have been on! The path was well worn so easy to follow. So decided to continue up. A little bit of scrambling and soon the large, circular cairn appeared through the mist. Sadly, absolutely no view whatsoever.
Followed the good path down to see where we went wrong. How we missed the cairn we’re not sure but probably chatting too much! We reckon that we would have been a good hour quicker had we found the path initially and would have made it back for tea and cake in Killin.