The Monadh Liadh

The last day of our trip and by contrast with the day before there were grey skies over Roy Bridge when we got up in the morning although we were hopeful of an improvement. We were up early once more, packed and had left the hostel by five past eight. Today's plan was to climb the three Monadh Liath Munros that remained to us after climbing Geal Charn (yes, there's yet another one lurking around these parts!) with Alasdair and Dan in 2003. The starting point is in Glen Banchor by Newtonmore, our only problem being that we hadn't intended to include these in our trip and had no map. We got to Newtonmore around 9 and after trying the Co-op, which didn't do maps, we managed to buy the relevant OS one at the garage. Then we found the road to Glen Banchor, got to the car park by the Allt a' Chaorainn and were off walking by 9.20.

The skies were still grey but the hills around were now clear as we walked up the track. The SMC guidebook talks about a turn in the track after which there is a cairn marking a path down to a bridge over the Allt a' Chaorainn, but we found the cairn and the path before we reached any obvious turn.

The sturdy bridge was very helpful, although why exactly it's there is a bit of a mystery. The path on the far side continues up towards A' Chailleach but is not a particularly good one and is very boggy in places.

Halfway up the slopes of the ridge the OS map shows some sort of building with no name. Sure enough, we came across it, an extremely small shed with a bench and table inside looking rather out-of-place. Is it a bothy? Or just a shed? A stalkers' den? It would give some sort of shelter from wind and rain and could probably accommodate two or three desperate hillwalkers in an a emergency. Howard proposed that it should be classified as a "howff" - a man-made shelter which does not merit being labelled a bothy.

The interior furnishings

Looking back down to Glen Banchor

We did have a certain time pressure, as we wanted to get back to Edinburgh not too late in the evening, so tearing ourselves from the fascinations of the howff we continued on up the slopes of A' Chailleach. It was still boggy in places but increasingly dry the higher we got. The weather was also improving - it was still cloudy but now there were patches of blue appearing.

Cameron McNeish describes this section as "relentless", which is a fair description although it isn't too steep. We made good time and reached the summit to be greeted by a cold wind.

We could now see the vast Monadh Liath spread before us, including the day's third summit, Carn Dearg, far to the southwest. The good news was that we knew there was very little climbing left to do to reach it - just a very long high level walk!

Much closer we could also see Carn Sgulain, the second Munro where we were now headed, although it is a non-descript lump for which we had to take a bearing to be sure we were heading for the right one. We were soon heading down into the gully between the two hills, beginning on some sort of path but soon losing it.

In the snowy cleft we found the Allt Cuil a' Caillich disappearing into what appeared to be a very long snow tunnel - an interesting phenomenon.

Then we were slogging up the far side which was a combination of bog and dry peat hags, and no sign of any path. We continued on our bearing and soon emerged on the ridge top to be greeted by a welcoming line of rusty fenceposts which showed that we were nearly at the summit.

Fenceposts! Ah, if ever there was a day on the hills that provided a treasure trove of material for that non-forthcoming chef d'œuvre, "Fence Post Phenomena of the Scottish Highlands", it was surely this day! True, they had figured no more than incidentally up to this point on the walk, but now they took centre stage. It was no surprise to find a couple of them nestling within the very architecture of the summit cairn of Carn Sgulain, for there is a line of them which runs all the way across the Monadh Liath, taking in this summit on the way. In fact there are two summit cairns on Carn Sgulain, the one further east allegedly being higher although it didn't look like it to us. Nevertheless it does have the distinction of being the one with a fencepost sticking out of it, so that must surely count for something.

The trek from Carn Sgulain to Carn Dearg would in fact be a navigational nightmare in poor weather were it not for the fact that, for most of the way, you simply have to follow the fenceposts. The sun was now coming out, and, after what Howard termed a "suggestion of lunch", we set off back along the line of fenceposts, passing a couple whom we had first seen back at the car park.

It was a great walk across the Monadh Liath from Carn Sgulain to Carn Dearg, mostly in beautiful sunshine. There were plenty of snow patches adding interest to the walk and the views, and offering emergency water sources for anyone who had not brought enough with them - for once I had.

There were distant views of the Cairngorms to the south and various hills north of the Great Glen to the north. About halfway along we found some flat rocks and sat down for lunch proper. I took off my gaiters, boots and socks and gave my feet a refreshing airing. Then we set off again, just after the couple we'd seen earlier reappeared, and presumably stopped for lunch near were we had.

The relentless march of the fenceposts!

Then finally we reached the head of Gleann Ballach and began to get a closer view of Carn Dearg. It was also around this point that we parted company with the line of fenceposts which from here continues westwards across the vast plateau of the Monadh Liath.

We passed Lochan Uisge on our right and climbed to the flat summit of Carn Bàn.

From Carn Bàn there is an appreciable dip before a steepish climb to the summit of Carn Dearg - the first strenuous bit of ascent we'd done since Carn Sgulain.

Snowfields on the slopes of Carn Ban

Approaching the summit of Carn Dearg

This was the twelfth and last Munro of our six day trip, which merited a twosome photo. Howard also took a 360 degree panorama series as we could see quite a bit from here, including the Ben Alder group.

Howard with the view eastward behind

Summit photo looking south

The view down into Gleann Ballach

A pair of ptarmigan on the ridge

We continued on to the south top before pausing to consider the best route down into Gleann Ballach and back to the path in Glen Banchor. In fact we dropped down to the bealach between Carn Dearg's south top and Carn Macoul before descending quite steeply by a stream and then, when the slope eased, taking a diagonal route down towards the confluence of the Allt Ballach with the River Calder in Glen Banchor.

This made for quite a long bog-hop, but we were nevertheless making good time.

Mullach Sron na h-Uamhaidh on the far side of Glen Banchor

We saw a mountain biker crossing the Allt Ballach ahead of us, and we stopped to take a brief look at an old barn which is apparently named Dalballoch, according to the OS map.

Then we were off along the path down Glen Banchor, which at first was rather boggy in places. Further on, after we'd passed Glenballoch, it became a much better track.

Looking northwest up the Allt Fionndrigh

Our feet and ankles were now pretty sore, but at least the track made for easy walking. In the end we got back to Shepherd's Bridge and the car park by twenty to five, which meant that we'd done the round trip in seven hours twenty minutes, which we reckoned was pretty good. And then we set off down the A9 to Perth, onto the M90, over the Forth Bridge and round the bypass to Edinburgh. It was still mostly beautifully sunny although we did have some rain around Drumochter. We got to Mum's about seven and Howard left soon after heading for Livingston where he was spending the night.