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So, five (kids & 2 adults) head for Deuchary Hill having read in a thread on WH of a potential wild camp spot by the lochan (na Beinne) near the summit. We decided to scope it out for a future visit, heading North along the A9 from Stirlingshire in two cars and parking up at Guay off the A9, just up the road from Dunkeld.
The kids, as usual, raced off along the path with us in, not so, hot pursuit. We were walking from memory of the WH description of the route, how hard could it be?!
Always reassuring to know you're on the right track:
Coming through the gate we saw a few tents, mainly teenagers (possibly Duke of Edinburgh participants?), as we skirted around the track which then began to rise up the hillside to the right. The eldest girl of our lot was steaming on ahead around the well-made track, with the 3 boys and Alan not too far behind so, while I hung back with the youngest we decided to try and cut the others off at the pass by taking a shortcut off the main path and along a sheep/deer path to gain some height and explore some very large boulders we could see from below.
Time for a quick breather on the "shortcut":
We met the others back on a main track ahead, they having taken the left fork in the track. The elder kids were intent on following the most direct route up the hillside and off they went, they were in our sight at all times from this point and Alan trailed in their wake on this heading, while I sought a gentler route to the summit for the youngest.
Al fails miserably to keep up:
This meant continuing left (North) briefly on the track and then taking a zig-zag route up the hillside, taking care not to disturb the sheep who were with young. As we meandered up the hillside, we could see the other kids at the cairn and we joined them before too long.
The eldest at the cairn:
The final few metres to the cairn, perched on the edge of a crag, offered a decent mini-scramble so, while the kids had a snack, my eldest and I mucked about on the rocks for a bit. A hail shower skirted past, we were right on the edge of it, while the worst of it appeared to dump on the campers below.
Large, rock-y cairn:
At the very large cairn, it was clear we were not as yet at the summit so, we continued on up towards what we believed would be the true summit. I was beginning to get a bit confused and had marched on ahead a bit because none of the surroundings were as I had imagined them and nothing was making very much sense. I hadn’t yet see any of the many watery landmarks around Deuchary Hill. Anyway, we had to drop down from this ridge to reach the summit so cracked on through some fairly tussocky, heathery slopes. On dropping down it was also pretty boggy so, felt sure it wouldn’t be long until we were seeing some water. We encountered a few small deer at this point and they split and headed of in opposite directions, bounding through the heather.
The summit was reached and we could see a couple of the bigger lochs down below but, still hadn’t seen the lochan. There were great views from here and could make out Schiehallion looming large off to the West.
While standing here it was difficult to tell if this was the true summit as there was another top which looked like it was as high, if not slightly higher. With some dissent in the ranks, we took a poll and the boys opted to stay where they were while the two girls, Alan and I dropped down again and up to the next top.
Sorry boys (and girl), this may not be the summit after all:
We met two of the deer again and they flew back in the direction from which they’d just come. The next top was a joy with possibly even better views than those before.
The girls (taking the moral high ground) at the true summit:
We could now see Loch Ordie Lodge, by the loch of the same name, but its position in relation to us and to the other lochs we could see didn’t make sense and, still no lochan.
Loch Ordie, the lodge and a nice hill...wonder what it's called?!
We stayed only long enough for a few quick photos and headed off to get the boys on the way back down the hill, taking a slightly different route of descent which featured to odd lone tree and several animal carcasses which the boys in particular loved. We also stopped off at the large boulders mentioned earlier so the kids could muck around a bit in the warm, late afternoon sun.
On returning home, it was straight on to WH for a look at the route and it was immediately apparent, as any of you who are familiar with the area will probably already have realised, we had in fact climbed Creag Liath…rather than Deuchary Hill! It was that shortcut early on, designed to close the gap the eldest had opened up on the youngest that undid us, as it meant I’d bypassed the fork in the path that would have taken us on to Deuchary Hill which, I have to say, was a fine looking hill to admire from the top of Creag Liath!!
Still, a good time was had by all.
