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Knee recovery still slow, so just managing 1 smaller hill every week or so just now. Was hoping to try a bigger hill as a stop off on the Inverness to Edinburgh journey, but I didn't leave home until early afternoon, so realising I'd left it a bit late to do the one I'd been intending near Amulree, I took the Dalwhinnie turn off and parked by the entrance to the quarry to do Meall nan Eagan; it's one I'd intended to do for a while having read walk reports, but had thought I'd probably leave it for winter.
Nothing unusual to the route I took - I went down the private road towards the lodge, then took the left branch just before the buildings. I then just followed the river/burn all the way to near the base of Meall na Eagan (staying on the north side of the burn, ignoring all the bits of track which appeared and then promptly forded across to the south side). It was a flat walk in, then a steep-ish ascent straight up the heathery / grassy slopes of Meall nan Eagan, any bits of crag easy to go around. Being a hill done from Dalwhinnie, there's not a huge amount of actual ascent to be done, around 320m total from the car to get to the 658m summit. Big fence post and tiny cairn on a rock at the summit, nice to see The Fara from this side as well as the other hills around, the Drumochter munros with their summits in and out of cloud. Weather stayed more or less dry for me, just a couple of light showers.
Headed back the same way. Nice straightforward walk just a few minutes from the A9.
- Route in alongside the Allt an't Sluic, Meall nan Eagan ahead
- View from the summit looking back east to the route in
- Summit view south