Over The Hill

Following on from a windy but brilliant day on Beinn Ghlas back in April, Ian and I returned to the NTS car park at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve only this time we departed the car park via the southern path and into the beautiful woodland walk which heralds the start of the Tarmachan Range on the western end of the reserve heading for the Meall

an Tarmachan, the 1044 metre high Munro which give its name to the classic Tarmachan Ridge walk that we have completed on a number of occasions. However, today it would be a straightforward up to the main summit of Meall nan Tarmachan and return.

Clear of the woodland area the well defined path continues in a general westerly direction for 2 kilometres, climbing to around the 700 metre height on the crest of the south ridge of Meall nan Tarmachan. This is one walk where stops are inevitable, not for tired legs, but to ensure that you look behind to some wonderful views east towards the main Lawer Range, where if you have the visibility and pick the right spot, you can capture the peaks of Meall Corronaich, An Stuc, Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers all 1000 metre plus Munros in a single frame, just beautiful. But it is not only the hills behind you, there are plenty of fine views over Loch Tay to the lesser hills to the south of the loch; and off course, you do gain a slight respite from the climb to refresh the limbs.

The path, still easily followed now turns abruptly north and climbs steadily towards the un-named dome ahead, a fine 923 metre high viewpoint, from where a very short descent leads to a high style over a fence, across a grassy bealach and onto the final, and most demanding section of the route, a short ascent of only 100 metres but on a fairly steep incline that taxes those leg muscles as each step is defined by the man-made structured path rather than by personal choice of foot placement, often the scourge of such paths. The up-side of the short but steep climb is that once on the upper ridge it is then just a matter of a few moments on a gentler gradient and the stone cairn is reached, at 1044 metres this, on a clear day is a wonderful view point. Sadly today all we had was wind and a heavy mist drawn in by the drifting cloud base. But, it was still fantastic to set foot on this classic summit once again.

There is little shelter on the open summit, but, for those in the know, a short step off the main ridge and there is a very small rocky outcrop behind which two very happy walkers can just huddle and enjoy a leisurely break and gaze into the mist defying others to appear and break the tranquillity.

We would have liked to continue along the ridge to Meall Garbh and explore the possibility of making a descent down the south ridge of Meall Garbh to the quarry track below, making a circular route of today’s walk as an alternative to the standard continuation over Meall Garbh and onto the arete with a descent and climb to Beinn nan Eachan, but given the blustery wind and very poor visibility with the mist and low cloud base, we decided to leave such exploration for another day, hopefully.

And so we simply retraced our steps for our return to the car park. An interesting point highlighted on the return was that this very popular mountain was almost devoid of others as we made our ascent, meeting only two individuals who were early starters and on their descent as we climbed. In contrast, as we made our descent we encountered quite a few on their climb to the summit, most of whom enquired as to how windy it was and did we have any views. We invariably replied, “windy and blustery, and thick mist above 900 metres”. Oddly enough their “Thank you” seemed somewhat flat.

A great day, and thank you once again Ian for your company.

---