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Tol Tom and Cairn x2

Tol Tom and Cairn x2


Postby dektasker » Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:43 pm

Route description: Tolmount and Tom Buidhe via Loch Callater

Munros included on this walk: Cairn of Claise, Càrn an Tuirc, Tolmount, Tom Buidhe

Date walked: 08/09/2013

Time taken: 6 hours

Distance: 31 km

Ascent: 1064m

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That’s me converted to taking a bike when I can. Parked the car at the Glen Callater car park and took the bikes off the roof rack. The path is well signed posted and though there are a few boulders it is more than good enough to cycle.
Some tips

• Take a bike it saves a lot of time.

• Do Cairn of Claise and Cairn an Tuirc. It will not add a lot of time to your day and the views are great.

• You can take bikes to the grouse butts and then walk and cross the callater burn and up to Tolmount. There are plenty of shallow crossing places. It is then an easy ride back home.

Must admit my thighs felt on fire cycling in. The path is not steep but has a constant gradient which means you do need to peddle a lot. However this is great for coming back on the way home. The cycle took around 30 minutes going in. There is a fork in the path and we stuck to the more obvious path which was to the left which leads to the bothy.
Image.

It is a well defined path that you follow along the shores of the loch. As you enter the head of the glen the path disappears and the ground becomes pretty wet with plenty of bog. You cross the burn a few times but there are plenty of large stones to stand on to get you across.

The climb up the corrie looks worse than it actually is. There is a wee false plateau but from here the final push up is fairly easy.
The views back along Glen Callater are great with the loch looking glorious from this height.
Image.

From the start of the loch to grab both Tolmount and Tom Buidhe took 2 hours. Boab had mentioned that we could easily take in both Cairn of Claise and Cairn an Tuirc as they only required a small detour from the route down. This exactly added another 45 minutes or so to the trip overall.

On the way to Tom Buidhe we left our backpacks on the path where we would return towards Cairn of Claise. What a great relief this is. Dumping the weight of the packs just gives you load’s more energy. Will do this more often weather permitting.

The walk to Cairn of Claise is easy to follow and though you climb up a good 200+ meters it is fairly easy as you transverse along Pyes of Claise You’ll find a row of fence posts which guide you toward the summit. It is a bit rocky and at the summit it was very windy. We had our first break here behind the summit to get a wee bit of shelter and to be honest we needed both. The views are great and there is a very impressive buttery which I think might be Craigie Glasalt? From here there are good views to the Cairnwell and Carn Aosda and both look good from this distance.
Image.

The walk to Cairn an Tuirc is fairly easy and it take a little bit longer to reach than the other munros. The views to Braemar are great and you soon realise what a wonderful setting Braemar is in. The walk back is initially fairly easy but you soon lose the path. Coire Loch Kander looks very imposing especially with Loch Kander nestling at the foot.
Image.

From here the path is lost and we cut across the heather toward the top end of Loch Callater Some of the ground is fairly wet but though there are bits that are steep it is easy to find a good route, We actually headed towards the grouse butts and found the land rover tacks which hug the shore of the loch. From here the walk back was quick.
dektasker
 
Posts: 41
Munros:271   Corbetts:2
Joined: Apr 15, 2012

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