Over The Hill

The last time I walked in the Cairngorms was, dare I say it, over 45 years ago, and my abiding memory is of wading across a freezing river and a bitter cold night spent in a high level bothy, only made bearable by mugs of coffee liberally laced with brandy from the hip flask of an up and coming young Flying Officer; and, later on in the week, of waking up in my sleeping bag covered in snow which had fallen overnight (How I came to be outside my tent in my sleeping bag in the snow is another story!). Hopefully, this HWDR weekend would be a bit more sophisticated than that!

First up for the weekend were a pair of Munros to the west of the Drumochter Pass, Geal-charn and A'Mharconaich. At 423m altitude, Balsporran Cottages alongside the main A9 is the favoured starting point for this pair, the high start point making the total ascent of these two mountains a mere 800m. And things get even better as you find yourself heading towards the heather hillside along a well maintained estate track, which continues up the hillside until it eventually peters out and becomes a well worn peat track through the heather and towards the cairn at 840m marking the start of a broad, rocky summit plateau.

The going may have been relatively easy as far as Munros go, but the weather was not being very helpful, as low cloud hung around the summits, and a cold wind and drizzle made for unpleasant walking conditions as we crossed the kilometre of open top towards the main summit cairn, at 917m just making it into the Munro Tables by a couple of metres. A pause, just long enough to get our summit photos and we were off on our descent down the southern slopes, which, in complete contrast to the heather slopes of the ascent, were a mixture of broken rock and course grass.

No sooner had we left the wet and cloud shrouded summit than the weather changed in an instant and suddenly we had much clearer skies and no drizzle, things were definitely on the up as we crossed the 739m bealach and climbed on a rough stoney path through the heather towards the south west ridge of our next objective, A'Mharconaich. Taking advantage of the change in the weather, we had a short break in a convenient grassy hollow before reaching the ridge, from where it was once again a kilometre of broad, easy ridge walking to the summit cairn and wind shelter at 975m.

From the summit, we could see Balsporran Cottages with the north east ridge pointing almost directly towards them, our route of descent was obvious, and a fairly straightforward descent albeit that the final kilometre would see us weaving around and between some minor humps and bumps before making a crossing of the Allt Coire Fhar to gain the track back alongside the main railway line and the cottages.

With an evening meal planned for 7:30 we had time to spare, and so made a small detour as we returned to Newtonmore to visit the historic site of Ruthven Barracks which were built by George II's army in 1719 after the 1715 Jacobite Rising to house a detachment of infantry troops whose orders were to maintain law and order in the local area. We noted with some interest that there were 4 such barracks built, one of which was located at Inversnaid, Loch Lomond, and, on checking, is clearly marked on the OS 25000 map as "Garrison of Inversnaid (rems of)". There you have it, our cultural lesson of the day - things are certainly looking a little more sophisticated than on my first visit!

Thanks everyone for your company - Great day, looking forward to tomorrow.