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It was the first dry day for a while, and luckily on a Sunday so we didn't have to worry about stalking. We followed, more or less, the route described in the SMC guide from the Glen Artney car park. The Hare was disappointed to start by walking uphill along the road to get down to the bridge across the river, but it gave us a good view of the hill.
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- View of the horseshoe ridge from the road
Once over the river, we turned left a bit too soon, going past Dalclathick Lodge instead of the higher house, but continued anyway along a grassy track and through a gate into tussockland (the bright green section in the above photo). We carried on along the track for a very short way before setting off uphill in the direction of the hill, picking our way between the tussocks for a disappointingly long time. There was one more fence to cross but the old wire was easier to cross than the patched up gate that we found. The ground improved as we got higher, but there were still quite a few sections with rushes. We went up slightly further westwards than if we had gone the suggested route, but the gradient was a little easier. No hags of great importance were encountered and we arrived at the first summit.
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- Looking along the grassy ridges
Then on along and up a long grassy ridge, with numerous knolls to add to the interest.
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- Looking over to Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin, from near one of the knolls
We had our lunch at point 705 on the map, which has been resurveyed to 708 and is now the official summit of the ridge. Then we continued down and up over more knolls to reach Beinn Dearg.
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- North to the Lawers range
Looking across at Mor Bheinn, it is interesting to see that our hill was covered in grass and Mor Bheinn covered in heather.
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- Over to heathery Mor Bheinn
We set off down the long south ridge, which has an impressive drop down into the glen. We carried along this edge then dropped down, crossed a burn and continued along a further low ridge heading for the ford. Animal tracks often eased the way through the vegetation. I don't think we crossed at the ford but we were very close. Then more walking through rushes to find the stile over the wall, and round the forest to Dalclathick. If we'd up come this way, we would have got a track for a bit further uphill and possibly easier walking through the rushes. As we crossed back over the bridge, we saw a large notice asking walkers to keep to recognised paths (i.e. low-level walk down the glen) from Aug to Feb, and giving a phone number for Drummond Estates. We hadn't noticed this notice at all on the way out. Apart from the low-level tussocks, this was a good route and I'll put it on my list of hills that can be repeated.
