Carn Daimh, sub2000/marilyn from Tomintoul village

[gld73]

Managed to collect my new car in the morning, so from noon was free to take advantage of the good weather forecast in at least parts of the Highlands for the weekend. A quick call to the The Smugglers Hostel in Tomintoul got me a bed booked for the night, and when I said I would be hillwalking, Kenny, the manager, suggested Carn Daimh as a good one for an afternoon walk as it was close to the village.

So by 1.30pm I arrived in Tomintoul. Rather than drive to the Glenconglas parking area to start the circular walk, I had plenty daylight left, so parked at The Smugglers and did the walk from there to add on a few extra km. I took the road route to Glenconglas, heading north on the B9008 out of the village before taking the left turn onto the single track road to Glenconglas, then crossing over the Speyside Way Spur at one point on this road (that was the route I would take back from Carn Daimh to Tomintoul, so the walk ended up as a sort of "figure of 8"). It took almost an hour to get to the Glenconglas parking area, where a sign showed the various waymarked routes on the Glenlivet estate. A sunny Saturday, but no cars parked there, and I didn't see anyone else on the walk surprisingly.

Glenconglas parking area with Glenlivet Estate info sign showing the waymarked routes. Route 6 starts here.

View of Carn Daimh from early in the waymarked walk

Not too much to say about the route - I followed the waymarked route (same circular walk as the Walk Highlands route description) on good tracks through nice gentle countryside and forestry. The route goes right to the summit of the marilyn Carn Daimh, where there there is a large cairn and a view indicator, useful to see what hills I was looking at.

Carn Daimh summit cairn and view indicator; Ben Rinnes behind

Ben Avon and Beinn a'Bhuird summits staying out of cloud too

Summit view finder

The Speyside Way Tomintoul Spur passes right by the summit, so I took that route back to Tomintoul. The initial part is a very good track, though it does get muddy going through the woods and in parts through the heather moorland. All easy to follow though.

You can't miss the section of Speyside Way leading down from the summit

After coming out of the muddy section through the woods, that path continues clearly through heather

On the path through the heather, the post marking where to go right to return to Glenconglas parking area or straight on for Tomintoul on the Speyside Way is nice and clear

At a post indicating where to turn right to head back to Glenconglas car park, I continued on the Speyside Way. This come out at the north end of the village where there is a parking area and Glenlivet Estate info board. (If you wanted to do Carn Daimh from Tomintoul by the quickest easiest route, starting here and going there and back via the Speyside Way would be the route to take rather than the longer circular route). I turned left through a short section of woodland on a path to avoid walking on the road, then was at the first house and back on the main street, so just a few minutes back to where I'd started.

Not a tough walk by any means, but a pleasant one, and just the right distance for the time I had in the afternoon.

Ended up just doing my walk the next day from The Smugglers Hostel too, but that was because my car was frozen over in the morning, and I decided the mile walk to the start of the long "Inchrory and Strath Avon circuit" for the graham Cnap Chaochan Aitinn was preferable to scraping ice off and defrosting the windscreen!