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Had been thinking of trying to do a couple of munros further east as a bigger detour on my drive back to Inverness from a few days in Edinburgh, but an earlier start and higher cloud would have been better for that .... so at the last minute I decided just to stick to the A9 and stop off at Bridge of Tilt to do this corbett, having done the munros from here in the past.
Set off from the surprisingly full car park (given it was a cloudy Wednesday in September) at 12:15 and followed the WH route up Glen Tilt, then over Gilbert's Bridge and onwards towards Beinn Mheadhonach. Once the vehicle tracks were left behind, the path was still easy to follow all the way. The summit plateau was in cloud on the approach, but the view down Glen Mhairc was lovely as I dropped down towards New Bridge. The informal path from there was easier to follow than I expected, right up to the summit plateau. A nice surprise to also bump into dogplodder from the WH forums, descending the hill with a friend as I was heading up - the only other people I saw on this hill today.
- View down Glen Tilt from the ruins at Ach Mhairc Mhoir
- Top of Beinn Mheadhonach in cloud (centre right) as I approached
I was fortunate that the cloud lifted briefly while I was on the summit plateau, so I walked to the places which looked like they could be the highest (within a few centimetres of each other in height, so I don't know which was the true summit for certain) before heading back down when the cloud started to come down again. No great views today, the nearby munros seemed to have their heads in the clouds the same as Beinn a'Ghlo did when I was up there last week.
- Looking east from the summit plateau towards Carn a Chlamain and Beinn a Ghlo, the munros still had their summits in cloud
- Looking back south along the plateau from part way along. Cairn in the photo as a feature, though this point may not be the summit
I returned the same route, though looked back to see the clouds had lifted properly and I could have had lovely conditions at the summit if I'd been up there half an hour or so later. Oh well.
- Typical! Descended the hill, crossed the bridge and looked back up beautiful Glen Mhairc ...to discover Beinn Mheadhonach (left) was out of the clouds completely
Didn't take the variation on the return route, just followed the same track back. Overall, a quicker and more straightforward walk than I'd expected, a lovely way to break up a journey on the A9.