A Glenshee Four

[Driver84]

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The father-in-law had been talking baout doing Cairn of Claise and Carn an Tuirc all week. The day of the walk was preety much decided for us thanks to a long and late night sesh at the pub! The Saturday also turned out to be a late one, arriving back from North Berwick at 11:45, and with that we decided on leaving Rosyth at 7:30, now that there is plenty of daylight at our disposal!

Arriving at the car park just north od Glenshee ski centre at 9:30ish we were booted up and on our way by 9:45. Back-tracking down the A93 we reached the old bridge that the river. Sticking to the north side of the river we followed the faint and boggy track venturing towards Carn an Tuirc hut. The track was a little indistinct in places but we managed to maintain our general path, re-stumbling onto it. Near the base of the final haul, near the hut, the track splits. We took the split that climbs steeply up the side of the hill and over a very short amount of scree and onto some more rockier terrain. Although steep it was by no means a thigh burner and good ground was covered quickly. Before long we were on the rocky plateau and soon the summit cairn was in sight. A quick stop off at the wee wind shelter, about 15m west of the cairn, for a wee energy intake.

Summit of Carn an Tuirc

From here we headed east and descended slightly onto another faint track that leads onto a quite welldefined 'land rover' track that was to lead us nearly all the way to the summit of Cairn of Claise. There isnt much in the way of descent and re-ascent between the two, as the plateau is large and the gradient is easy going. The ground was being torn up by our pace, Cairn of Claisebeing summited roughly 30-40 mins later! Again crossing rocks to the cairn.

Summit of Cairn of Claise

Carn an Tuirc from Cairn of Claise

From here I had a decision to make. The father-in-law has previously done Glas Maol and Creag Leacach. With the weather being good and map and compass at the ready (just in case) was I to go on and summit these two while the F-I-L returned to the car meeting me back down by the ski centre? A quick evaluation of the map, and some convincing to the F-I-L, I was able to point out Tom Buidhe and Tolmount. We were up here anyway, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to 'bag' these ones from here. I could come back at anytime to do Maol and its neighbour. That was it. Decided. Tom Buidhe and Tolmount it was. Again over relatively simple but sodden, boggy ground we made our way to Tom Buidhe first. 45 mins later we were at the summit. A quick check of the watch and we had plenty of time to continue from here.

Tom Buidhe summit, Tolmount on the left.

Back down onto the sodden plateau again and soon off of it as we made our way up Tolmount. 30 mins this time from Tom Buidhe to here. We were making good ground!

Tolmount summit with Cairn of Claise (left of centre) and Carn an Tuirc, right.

Now for the final leg. And man was it longer than I (either of us) had anticipated. A rough path was plotted into the GPS and off we went.

It seemed to be relentless. Plodding along, getting sucked into the marshy ground didnt make it any easier. after a good hour or so we seemed to be getting no-where, completely featureless up there and would be so easy to get lost in cloud/bad weather. The F-I-L assured me we were on track and weren't far away from re-joining our original ascent path. And sure enough we stumbled upon the track. The land rover track from Carn an Tuirc to Cairn of Claise! Smack-bang-in-the-middle of it! My heart sank. A slight mis-reading of the GPS had assured me we would be closer to the summit of Carn an Tuirc than this.

Drearily we made our way on, climbing back up the side of Carn an Tuirc, skirting the summit and down off the other side, this time avoiding the scree but over steep grassy ground and walking down right on top of the ruined hut. Well that was a bit of relief but there was still a good trek to go back to the car. By now the late night was catching up with me and fatigue was setting in. My feet were begining to stumble and I actually ended up twisting my ankle which made the last 1KM all the more harder. I was down to my final layer. The build up of heat all day, the sweating was taking its toll. I'm sure I'd have been alright had we planned for it and I had it in my mind it was going to be a longer day than normal. But finally, 8 hours after setting off from the car, we made the last wee push back up (down!) the A93 to the car park. Relief!