Creag Meagaidh (1130m), Stob Poite Coire Ardair (1053m) and Carn Liath (1006m)
Creag Meagaidh is a brute of a mountain, straddling a large area just north-west of Loch Laggan, above Gen Spean in the Central Highlands of Scotland. It has a series of dramatic cliffs on its eastern faces, enclosing two lochans in separate corries, with another on the northern side. Despite this the top is unusually broad and grassy, although it narrows at the summit itself.
Dermot and I are trying to build up our fitness in preparation for a climb of Kilimanjaro in September, and this is the latest of several hiking excursions with more needed during the final two months.
Sometimes appreciation of the weather conditions in the Scottish Highlands is relative. It was wet and windy the day before this climb, so we were prepared to put up with the low cloud and dry, calm, mild weather (a week later, another wet weekend is in prospect). Some brightness was forecast for the afternoon, along with heavy thundery rain showers, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.
We set out from Dundee at 7.35 and arrived at the car park at Aberarder, just off the A86 beside Loch Laggan, a couple of hours later. By 9.50 we were ready to set off. Stupidly I'd forgotten about midges (we don't tend to get many of them in Dundee) and we were already being bothered by them as we set off.
It's a clear, wide path up to the national nature reserve centre at Aberarder (see the SNH website page), where there are interpretive panels in a shelter which would be useful on a wet day. It was dry for us, but the cloud was low on the mountain tops ahead of us.
A Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) information panel beside the path gave a bit of information on the way the reserve is being managed.
On this National Nature Reserve, SNH seeks to establish a self perpetuating native woodland WITH red deer.
To permit growth of young trees it is vital that deer numbers are controlled. This annual cull of deer is achieved on the reserve using two methods. By live capture and by selective culling between 1 July and 15 February. Trained and experienced SNH staff accomplish this task using the most practical and humane methods.
During the stalking, visitors may be asked to consider alternative routes. We thank you in advance for your co-operation.
Our policies are designed to ensure that this unique mountain natural heritage will be conserved and enhanced for present and future generations.
This drawing was done in 1987 and as you can see the process of native forest loss on this land has been halted. The promise of a new and vibrant woodland is evident. Further good examples of the gradual and natural process of tree regeneration can be seen from the path as you progress into Coire Ardair.
We continued on the track which wound its way uphill among young trees and heather with a diverse mix of flowering plants. After a short, steeper section we were passing through thicker woodland, wondering where we ought to be turning off if we were to make our ascent via Carn Liath rather than the long hike up to Coire Ardair.
Pausing for a moment, we spotted a small cairn of stones beside the path and on the other side of the drainage ditch there seemed to be a bit of a track leading through the woodland. We could see old metal fence posts as well. This looked like a possible route onto the hillside. So we checked it out. Although there were lots of boulders to clamber over and round, it soon became clear that it was a well-established path, although it was much less clear than the constructed route we had been following into the glen.
It was also clear that this was a popular haunt for midges, among the young trees and damp vegetation, and they were hungry! We couldn't hurry over the rocky ground and they had plenty of opportunity to get a late breakfast. Finally the trees began to thin out, giving way to open moorland, and we left the midges behind.
We were still following the line of metal fence posts, on a reasonably clear track, climbing steadily. Then the fence posts went off to the left whilst the track went uphill. Away down to our left we could see the main path continuing along the glen beyong the belt of trees, and a group of walkers were looking for a way onto the open hillside.
The track led on up the hillside, past many more colourful little flowers, and we gradually approached the line of cloud that obscured the tops. Another walker caught up with us - it turned out he was the front runner for a group from Paisley, near Glasgow, who had arrived on a coach. The final section to the summit of Coire Ardair turned to the right over stony ground, which made walking more difficult, but otherwise it was a straightforward climb. It was 11.35, 1 hour 45 mins after we had set out, and we had climbed 752m (the car park was at 254m).
More of the Paisley group arrived, forming a pattern on the summit. Dermot and I decided to leave them to it, and continued on our way. First we had to head back the way we had come, but soon veering to the right (west) onto the broad ridge. There was a bit of a track, but we couldn't see more than 10 or 20 metres in any direction because of the mist.
A km west of the summit there was a sudden dip down to the head of a burn, with a short steep climb up the other side. Then we were on a broad hilltop again, Meall an t-Snaim (969m), the main feature of which was a collection of rounded boulders rather like a flock of sheep petrified whilst grazing.
Further on there were another two small tops, separated by another little gully, and then the ridge began to narrow with a steep slope on the left, although the path was fine. There was a steeper climb up to the next top at 1051m, with crags on the left, followed by an easy ridge walk along to the top of Stob Poite Coire Ardair (1053m) which we reached at 1.08 pm.
The Paisley bunch caught up with us again, so we set off down the steeper slope to the bealach known as the Window. This was where we rejoined the route coming up from Coire Ardair, which we would use for our descent. Our main thought was to have something to eat before the final climb to the top of Creag Meagaidh. There were plenty of comfortable spots to sit on grassy mounds, looking down into the mist which filled the Window. Fortunately it was calm, with no sign of rain.
Fifteen minutes later we set off again, with the Paisley team taking an early lead only to be undone by their own colleagues when a breakaway group came down the hill to meet them and they all stopped for a chat. We slipped past on the inside and pushed ahead up the steep slope. The track zig-zagged up steeply through the cloud over rocky ground but we were fuelled by carrot cake and kept on climbing.
As the slope eased, we reached the edge of cliffs dropping away to our left and the track followed the edge rather too closely for comfort. Fortunately it was easy enough to walk just to the right of the track, keeping a safe distance from the void.
A few craggy bits later we reached the top of the rise and the map showed we had to turn south here, away from the cliffs. Then the route curved south-west over a broad flat grassy hilltop. The compass came in useful here with no features of the landscape to guide us, before we started heading gently downhill and saw the steeper slope coming in again on the left. This meant we we were close to the summit, just a short climb further, but there was a late surprise as we saw an eerie line of white ahead of us. It turned out to be a deep bank of snow at the top of the corrie on the northern side of the plateau. We walked up beside this the final 200 metres to the cairn at the summit of Creag Meagaidh (1130m). Somehow the Paisley people had sneaked past in the mist and got there first. It was ten past two, 4 hours and 20 minutes after we had set out.
After a couple of photos we left them to it and went back down again. We were keen to descend fairly quickly, to be able to head back to Dundee by late afternoon. As we passed the bank of snow the sky began to brighten. We looked back and could just about make out the summit cairn which we had just left. Maybe it was going to clear up. At least it should be easier to find out way down. Mistake! We stopped off briefly at the big cairn on the northern side of the flat-topped hill that we had missed on our way up, then continued across the plateau following another guy we had passed earlier on our way to the top. That was the second mistake. I assumed he knew where he was going, and took my eye off the compass.
We ended up catching up with the other guy as we approached a line of cliffs, wondering exactly which cliffs they were out of the three miles of cliffs arrayed along the eastern side of Creag Meagaidh. The clouds had broken up to reveal a ridge ahead, but that too was difficult to identify. The other guy had a GPS thingy and we soon established that we were in the wrong place. We had continued east across the plateau and down the slope towards the cliffs, when we should have turned towards the north. As a result, we had to climb back over the high ground above the cliffs before we could descend to the Window. So that's what we did, crossing another deep bank of hard-packed snow on the way, before we reached the path which we recognised from our ascent. The mistakes didn't have serious consequences this time, but I was annoyed. At another time we could end up in the wrong glen! Plus we had lost time when we were trying to get down quickly.
As we went back down the steep slope towards the bealach the clouds lifted to our left above Lochan Uaine, giving us a view of the northern cliffs flanking the summit of Creag Meagaidh. The other guy, who was from Stirling, was going on to climb Stob Poite Coire Ardair before coming back down to the Window and descending to Aberarder to rejoin his wife who had gone back earlier, feeling unwell. From the speed he was going, we thought it would be some time before their reunion!
Visibility through the Window was much better than when we had stopped for our late lunch. We followed the narrow track along the left side of the gully, then had to drop down to a lower track among the boulders at the bottom. It was getting warm, so we removed a layer of clothing before starting down the steeper section. The view ahead over the Coire Ardair was the best of the day, but we had to concentrate on our feet as we picked our way down among chunky rocks and slippery gravel. To our right the cliffs of Coire Ardair began to appear, looking immense and awesome.
A strange figure climbed up towards us - a woman with flowing hair - and it turned out she was way ahead of her husband who we passed further down. It wasn't an easy descent but it didn't take too long, and with care it was safe enough. Both of us used walking poles for this section for some extra stability.
The path became easier, with a little burn on the left flowing through bright green moss and the grey surface of Lochan a' Choire ahead. The cliffs on the right had become even more jagged at this point.
Down at the lochan we reached a much better surfaced path and started moving at a quicker pace - we should be able to do the last 5 km or so quite quickly, we thought. That was yet another mistake (or at least a wrong assumption).
The path building work in the glen had been very sporadic, with several sections of carefully constructed pathwork interspersed with other stretches passing over numerous rocks, rather like the path we'd taken up the hillside early in the day. A couple of km down from the lochan the path started going uphill as well, climbing some way up the side of the glen rather than following the burn. Every so often there was a strange yellow metal case, over a metre high, which must have been dropped in by helicopter. Maybe this was to help with the next phase of path-building work. Certainly as we approached a couple of huts further down, we passed two yellow diggers being used for Highland Mountain Paths, and there were lots of bundles of big black plastic drainage pipes. This path-building certainly seemed to be a major civil engineering undertaking!
Thinking about path building - I remembered that the previous month in Glen Affric we had seen path building work under way; on Mount Battock at New Year we had passed big yellow diggers which were building a gravel and sand road over the hill; in Corrie Fee in April we had found the route transformed after recent path-building work; and fellow walker Michael had reported a new path had been built up to Loch Brandy in Glen Clova. Even on Kinnoull Hill recently I had been astonished to find all the main paths turned into parkland drives by major path-building work. All this suggests a programme of path construction across the Highlands which is transforming the routes which walkers are familiar with. Often it's for the better, where the old tracks are badly eroded by over-use, but sometimes it results in over-engineered eyesores such as the roads on Mount Battock and the gravel drives on Kinnoull Hill. Comments from other hillwalkers would be welcome!
There was another good bit of path just after the diggers, then more of the rough stuff, before we reached the solid surfaced path which we had left when we headed up the hillside. Soon we were on the downward stretch towards Aberarder, and the gently sloping ground looked rather like a great big rock garden! Maybe that's not surprising - rock gardens are supposed to look like versions of rocky hillsides, and there were certainly plenty of wild flowering plants in evidence. Although the views down here were fairly bright now, the cloud still hung over the summits - if anything it had crept lower down again.
Back down at the car, the Paisley bunch had beaten us to it! Even worse, the midges had regrouped for a final assault, and they threw everything at us as we removed our gaiters and boots and damp shirts and quickly scrambled into the car. Closing the doors and windows was useless - there were lots of midges inside with us, and we could feel them biting eagerly as we headed back on the road to Dundee! Dermot's book had said 6 hours 50 minutes for this route, and we finished almost exactly on time, just before 4.45 pm.
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