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I flew up to Edinburgh Airport, got picked up by my mate in the evening and headed north to Braemar, the intention to do something around Lochnagar. Before heading up I was glad I checked it out at WalkingHighlands.co.uk, as we didnt realise there was a well plodded route around Lochnagar called the White Mounth! From the map it looked really good, 5 munros in one hit, in a circuit but also achievable, given the predicted good weather. So, in the SYHA that night we concluded the next day we would aim to do the circuit....
We drove to the carpark the next day at the start of Louch Muick (pronounced Mick?? 308851) to meet up with a couple of other mates who were meeting us there. We took a leisurely pace, and by the time they arrived we didnt start off till 10am from the car park. At this point I was doubtful whether we could do the full curcuit before nightfall...I neednt have worried!
I was surprised how busy the car park was. This was my first time in the area, and it seemed everyone was wanting to go up Lochnagar. A very popular place. When we started walking 2 signposts offered our 2 routes, Lochnagar route first or Louch Muick route, we chose the latter and headed toward the Loch.
- Track around the southern shore of Loch Muick
Blue skies and not a drop of wind....we knew it was going to be a corker of a day! We walked around the loch with good views of our intended route.
- Loch Muick and Broad Cairn in the distance
The track was wide and flat. It clung on for most of the way round the loch and then began to zig-zag up to the Plateau.
- Zig-zag track in the distance
Given that the route starts at around 400m it was only a 250m steep walk up the zig-zag track before the climb flattened out, and the plateau began.
The route looked remarkably easy, we could see the top of BroadCairn, and a "motorway" running most of the way up it!
- Track on Plateau
A shed marked the spot where we took the path up to the BroadCairn and after an easy plod, we made the top of the first munro only 2.5hrs after we started off!
- The shed, and a track to the right going to Broad Cairn
- Track up Broad Cairn
- Top of Broad Cairn
After a spot of lunch, we could see how easy it was to the next Munro Cairn Bannoch, literally no climbing more a dander across and within 40 mins we had reached the top of the 2nd easy Munro.
- Route to Cairn Bannoch
At this rate, we were thinking this has got to be one of the easiest circuits you could do to bag a load of Munros.
- Top of Cairn Bannoch
If you keep your eyes peeled you can find bits of the old plane crash. We found this in between the rocks...not quite sure what it is??
- Plane wreckage
The route to the 3rd Munro again looked like a wee dander rather than a climb.
- Route to 3rd Munro
And again within an hour the top of the 3rd Munro was reached. there were 2 cairns here, but I took a photo of the one with the wreckage, which I guess is also from the plane (or a fence !)??
- Top of Carn an Sagairt Mor
En route to the 4th Munro, there were hoards of hares running around, they seemed pretty tame....what is a collective of hares anyway?
- Hares
The route to the 4th Munro had a dip and a little climb, but again a track led you up to the top. Once you reach the top of the track, keep walking and a small cairn marks the spot of another path that takes you to the top of Carn a Choire Bhoidheach.
- Route to 4th Munro
Time was good, the walking was easy, the weather was great and we had done 4 Munros! the pic below in the background u can see the route to Lochnagar was easy also.
- Top of Carn a Choire Bhoidheach
Again within an hour we had reached the top of Lochnagar, and excellent visibility The track follows easterly around the Coire and good stone steps lead down to eh main track that takes you back to the car park.
- Top of Lochnagar
- Viewpoint
I guess in bad weather this route would have been a bit more of a navigational challenge, but then again becuase you were never off a track, it would be hard to get lost (except in snow and a whiteout of course
!)
So this walk has to go in my list of walks to take beginners up the mountains...there's good tracks all the way, there's no difficult climbing, there's options to go back to the Loch rather than complete the circuit, and you bag 5 Munros in one go! How often can you say that with minimal effort....well if u can discount the 30km walk that is
)!