Meall a'Bhuachaille

[GraemeMac]

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So with 3 days off from work I had a good look at the mountain weather forecast for England, Scotland and Wales and everywhere was supposed to be pretty bad apart from the Cairngorms. The Cairngorms had always been lower down on my list of walking areas to go to as I didn’t think the scenery would appeal to me hugely, due to the more rounded nature of the hills. So with a completely open mind we set off stupidly early in the morning from Newcastle to Aviemore with the intention of doing a walk the next day.

Whenever I plan a walk for us I nearly always have a couple in mind and end up deciding at the last possible minute in the car which one to do. Today was no exception so we stopped at Loch Morlich (which looked brilliant in the early morning sun) to decide between Cairn Gorm and the northern corries or Meall a’Buachaille. In the end we went for Meall a’Buachaille because the wind was supposed to be very strong on the highest tops and we didn’t think it would be too much fun clinging on for dear life at the top of the corries.

Set off from the visitor centre car park through a forest track with some great looking pines. The path levels off and the views start to open up.

The view is brilliant over Glen More and Rothiemurchus towards Cairn Gorm. In my relatively short walking experience there has only been a couple of times I’ve had to keep reminding myself I’m in Scotland, those being Loch Coruisk and this view here. It all felt very Canadian due to the vastness of it all and the amount of trees. The pine trees looked brilliant in the early morning sun.

Turned left up the path at Ryvoan bothy.

One of the lochs looked almost looked like it was in a desert the way that the sun was shining on it.

The bothy is already at about 400 metres above sea level so the ascent was enjoyably quick up a good path.

Great views from the summit and as it expected the wind was extremely strong. The shelter on top was brilliantly positioned and we were easily able to sit and have lunch. Cloud kept on sweeping over Cairn Gorm whilst we remained cloud free which made me think we definitely made the right decision to do this one.

Decided to take the path which goes directly back to the visitor centre instead of going over Creagan Gorm as we didn’t want to risk being knackered by the end of the walk. Again the path was great fun going down with the view of Loch Morlich and Cairn Gorm in front of you all the time. The light streaming down from behind Cairn Gorm added great effect to it all.

shame about the devastation in the foreground

Last part of the walk joins up with the path near the start and back to the visitor centre. Overall probably the best walk we’ve done so far due to the great variation of scenery. Definitely going to try and do this in winter.

Extremely haunting looking tree

[mountain coward]

That's a great looking tree in that last pic! Still haven't done those yet (will do Creagan Gorm as well when I go up) but they look a great walk. It looked very steep up from Ryvoan Bothy when I looked at the walk though... I just love that area - scenically and for walking

[GraemeMac]

That's a great looking tree in that last pic! Still haven't done those yet (will do Creagan Gorm as well when I go up) but they look a great walk. It looked very steep up from Ryvoan Bothy when I looked at the walk though... I just love that area - scenically and for walking

the path was really good and wasnt that steep.Think they have constructed a new path (which is the one we took) but the other path did look steep in places. Ive definitely fallen for the area now after thinking that i wouldnt be too impressed by it.