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I must have passed this hill hundreds of time over the years without ever noticing it. It's not that obvious from the A9, lying quietly on the east side of Loch Garry without any visible summit to catch the eye. I always looked at the hills as we went through, but not this one. I didn't even know it was there.
That changed when Moira and I were heading down to climb some hills around Crianlarich and saw the chance to fit in a short climb as we passed. A look at my Corbett map revealed a nice easy one near Dalnaspidal with a track all the way. Not the kind of hill you'd drive a long way to climb but ideal if you're passing.
We watched for the Dalnaspidal turn off as it would be easy to miss and end up on the dual carriageway south without any quick opportunity to turn back! Once off the busy A9 we followed the quiet approach road to Dalnaspidal Lodge, parking just before the level crossing.
Railway line heading north
Once over the level crossing we took the next right turn on to a smaller track with a public footpath sign, which heads in the direction of Loch Garry.
Road for Dalnaspidal Lodge which we turned off to right
This track leads to a sluice bridge over the Allt Dubhaig, where you're meant to take a left turn to follow the near high grassy bank of the concrete waterway. But what used to be an opening at this point is now blocked off with inwards slanting metal fencing. We could have climbed it but it didn't feel quite right so we walked a bit further on looking for a way through, which there wasn't. We could see a bridge over to our left which would give access to the start of the climb but out of curiosity (on my part anyway) kept going as far as the bridge heading straight for the loch. This was the wrong bridge.
A bridge too far and Meall na Leitreach on left
We didn't cross this bridge but turned left over a flat grassy area and headed for the other bridge, which involved a climb over a locked gate and going through another gate to reach it.
Meall na Leitreach and River Garry from bridge we crossed
From the bridge we headed straight on to a T junction with a track where we turned left and immediately right on to a wet ATV track up the hill.
View back to start of wet ATV track
This slightly awkward route was to take us round the perimeter of Dalnaspidal Lodge, rather than have sundry random hill folk wandering through it whenever they please. The field in front of it contained a rather excited horse racing around - possibly because another horse was being ridden towards the loch (along with walker, cyclist and dog) and perhaps he would have liked to have gone too. We watched the horse/walker/cyclist/dog combo as they progressed towards the loch. They looked a curious group to be out for an afternoon walk together.
Dalnaspidal Lodge
More mud
View north through the Drumochter Pass
The muddy track kept to the east side of the Allt nam Pliadean burn and continued to be muddier than we expected compared to the dry underfoot conditions we'd had lately further north.
Higher up - more mud
As the gradient eased we met another walker coming towards us and stopped for a chat. The track became less distinct in a muddy section before curving off to the west towards a small cairn on a slight rise before a gentle descent and reascent towards the highest part of Meall na Leitreach (Gaelic for 'the hill of slopes').
Small cairn
From this point on the going was dry.
Path ahead leading to summit
Zoomed SE to Schiehallion
The summit cairn is about 150m off to the left of the track with a faint path across low heather leading to it.
Summit cairn looking north
South from summit
Not sure if that's the Glen Lyon or Ben Lawers group in centre?
Summit cairn looking NW
Did I mention it was a bit windy?
We retraced our steps and were soon back on the road heading south. The next day turned out to be low cloud and rain so we were glad we'd grabbed the chance of fitting a hill into the journey down.
Watched from afar