Meall Chuaich

26.5.03 - Drumnadrochit Trip, Day 1 - 15km, 600m - 260 mins

Area 5: The Drumochter Mountains

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Meall Chuaich951m3120ftM214#88
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The hold-up at Drumochter

The week in Drumnadrochit in May 2003 was my third trip in the company of Alasdair, this time not with Isdale, but with Howard and Dan. The idea of going in May was to catch some good weather but without the midges. Dan and I had been staying in Edinburgh for two nights, and Howard and Alasdair picked us up there around 8.30 on Monday morning in beautiful sunshine. As we drove north towards Drumnadrochit, where we were going to stay in a small cottage belonging to friends of Howard, the weather clouded over a bit.

We were planning on climbing Meall Chuaich on the way north, but just south of Dalwhinnie we came upon a huge tailback of stationary traffic. It turned out to be caused by a lorry on fire, apparently full of sheep carcasses. In the hour or so we had to wait we got on our boots and strolled around enjoying the scenery of the Drumochter Pass, while Dan ran up the road to see exactly what was happening.

The remains of the lorry

The remains of the lorry

Alasdair scans the hill for signs of a path.

Once past the hold-up we got parked by the road and set off along the same track by which I had come out from Carn na Caim three years before, beside the aqueduct and past the little power station. It was quite a trek to the foot of the hill, but when we got there we started up without much delay.

A well-built summit cairn, and not a fence post in sight!

It was quite windy and Dan, who had a woolly jumper with him but had not brought it on the walk, was getting a bit cold. We had lunch on top, in the time-honoured fashion, sheltering behind the cairn, before setting off down again quite soon.

Loch Cuaich and the Allt Cuaich from the hill

I quickly got ahead, having been lagging on the uphill, and ran down most of the way in my usual manic fashion. However, on reaching the bottom I stopped to wait for the others and discovered that the yoghurt I had brought had burst open in my reckless descent making rather a mess of my rucksack. For the rest of the week I made sure to eat my yoghurt as soon as possible each day - usually for elevenses!

The day

Once everyone was together again we walked the long walk out again, past all that exciting stuff - it was especially enlivened that day by the presence of several workmen with their vans, who appeared to be doing repairs to the aqueduct. Once back to the car we got going north again but were soon held up at another place with roadworks. We stopped off at Safeways in Inverness to buy our week’s food. Then, suitably stocked up, with bags of food everywhere, we set off down Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit, or actually Milton, a mile up a side road. The "cottage" was a very nice converted outhouse behind Bob and Rhona’s home - he was a retired manager for Marks and Spencers, hence the fridgeful of M & S produce - no chance of going hungry during the week! Dan and I installed ourselves upstairs in the low-ceilinged attic bedroom, while Alasdair and Howard took the pull-out sofa beds in the main room downstairs.