Over The Hill

With the shorter winter days now with us and shorter walks the order of the day, this was our opportunity to tackle Meall Buidhe, the one remaining Munro lying between Glen Lyon and Loch Rannoch that we had yet to complete. An early start saw us driving towards Crianlarich with clear skies and just a hint of snow covering the top of Ben Lomond and every other Munro passed en-route to our start point at the Giorra Dam on Loch an Daimh.

From the track on the north side of Loch an Daimh, and directly north of the huge dam structure, an indistinct path rises over rough heather clad, and at times, very wet and boggy ground as it makes its way steadily upwards towards Meall a'Phuill. At around 770m height, you have the option to continue north to the summit of Meall a'Phuill, or to swing northwest, over some peat hags towards the main ridge of Meall Buidhe. We chose the later option, deciding to leave Meall a'Phuill for our return.

A broad summit ridgeline awaits you once across the peat hags and makes for a final kilometre of very easy and enjoyable walking towards the prominent cairn marking the 932m summit of Meall Buidhe. Our approach to the summit was marred by the arrival of a thick mist and a drop in temperature that had us donning extra layers, and even digging out those winter gloves as a we took refuge in a shallow depression just to the east of the summit cairn and waited for this unwelcome winter squall to pass over. Fortunately, as we had hoped, this was to be just a passing, and, the only squall in an otherwise beautiful day.

Squall over, we continued beyond the summit, and made the short descent and re-ascent to the northern end of the ridge, the 912m top of Garbh Mheall, from where we could gaze down on the waters of Loch Rannoch and beyond. We re-traced our steps, back to the summit cairn, where, in clear blue skies we took the obligatory summit photos which I had forgotten to take just a short while earlier as we sat in the mist and awaited the passing of the squall.

Enjoying the fine blue skies, and wintery chill, we walked the length of this lovely ridge, enjoying the views ahead, over the Carn Mairg group of mountains, with the distinctive cone of Schiehallion pointing ever skywards on the distant skyline. And, as we had promised ourselves on the ascent, continued eastwards beyond the ridgeline to take in the summit of Meall a'Phuill, which we found to be lined with a series of well constructed cairns, the reason for which we could not quite fathom, but may probably mark some estate or other boundary line.

A southerly descent from Meall a'Phuill soon had us back on the rough path and descending towards the dam and Loch an Daimh, from whence we had started earlier in the day.

A wonderful start to our winter days, and a fine hill well worth the early rise.

Thanks All - Great day.