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Pannanich Hill was mentioned as the location for a Granite City Hillwalkers Sunday walk. I couldn’t make the Sunday concerned but as I’d never heard of Pannanich I had a look on the map and thought it would indeed make a nice wee walk.
Saturday morning was dull, dull, dull as was my mood (poor week at work) – but the forecast said it would soon brighten up. Had family commitments for Sunday (the wife wanted to watch Andy Murray lose live on TV so I had to take my daughter to her orienteering) so it had to be today or nowt. Did think of taking myself off to Lock Lee but I’d left it too late in the day so made for Ballater instead.
Parked up in the main village car park just before 1pm and was soon underway, still under a blanket of cloud but with a few tantalizing patches of blue. Initial path was easy to locate – straight over the bridge & across the South Deeside Road and into the forest by a signposted path. Take the right one and you’re on your way to Glenmuick House, passing an unmaintained monument to some baron or other. Wasn’t long before said house was in sight, over the locked deer fence high gate, then left up the hill. Fairly steep and with hardly a breath of wind I was soon boiling hot & down to 2 layers despite the 1°C temperature.
An hour from the car park to the 601m top. But the cloud was even lower than when I started. The view down Deeside to the east was still pretty good but couldn’t much in any other direction. Had my lunch & then followed the track to south to Craig Vallich. A bit of snow & ice about but by the looks of it there had been a smattering of more recent snow on the hard old stuff so that in my unsuitable old leaky summer only boots I could still get a grip. Quite a few folk about despite the underwhelming conditions, including one gent well into retirement in his tweak jacket & ice axe.
Sun almost put in an appearace as I made my way back Ballater but it wasn’t till I got back to the car park that it eventually cleared up! So it did brighten up – it just did so after dark
But at least I got a decent stretch of my legs and found a route that looks like it will ofter up excellent views in better weather.
Moody Muick with the Coyles of Muick prominent on the right
BTW...
Pannanich isn’t a hill that appears on any list I know. At home I have all the listed Scottish hills loaded in Memory Map so I was looking what the nearest one that did appear. Turns out to be Cairn Leuchan which at 700m is a Graham top of a Corbett. But which Corbett? Conachcraig is the nearest at 10.7km, but its across Glen Muick so it couldn’t possibly be that. With Mount Keen being on the same side of the glen as Cairn Leuchan and just 4.7km away (not that I could see it) I thought that maybe this was a mistake and it should be classified at a Graham top of a Munro. The only other Corbetts it could possibly mean is Ben Tirran (The Goet) above Glen Clova or Mount Battock on the other side of Mount Keen. Ben Tirran is 15.9 km from Cairn Leuchan, while Mount Battock is 18.1km. Go figure…