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Beinn Bhrotain and Monadh Mòr

The final set of hills for my big trip to Braemar were to take me back into some of the remoter parts of the national park. It was a warm and clear day, and I set off with the bike one last time on the Linn of Dee Road, and then onwards to White Bridge. I left the bike around 500m past the bridge, and set off at a jog towards the hill, feeling my relative lack of fitness (I’d been nursing knee pain since the end of May which was still affecting me while running).

• Beinn Bhrotain 1157 m Munro
• Monadh Mòr 1113 m Munro

Beinn a' Chaorainn and Beinn Bhreac from Derry Lodge

I’d been in the Cairngorms for over a week, but the start of that period I’d kept away from the big hills thanks to high wind forecasts (and, as it turned out, high winds in reality). So the second week of my trip was going to involve back-to-back days of hills, and this was the third in a row. I was just about starting to feel it, and my legs grumbled a little at cycling out to Linn of Dee yet again. This time I was joined by Andrew and Shona, who were themselves up in Braemar, also here to climb Munros. We met at the Linn of Dee carpark and then cycled on along the same track I’d taken two days earlier to get to Derry Lodge.

• Beinn Bhreac 931 m Munro
• Beinn a' Chaorainn 1049 m Munro

Ben Avon & Beinn a' Bhuird

After excellent conditions the day before on the Macdui horseshoe, I was out again in search of more hills the next day. This time the forecast was slightly less favourable, and I’d have a substantially longer walk-in, to reach the most easternly region of the plateaux, and the impressively large Ben Avon.

• Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe 1172 m Munro
• Cnap a' Chleirich 1174 m Munro top
• Beinn a' Bhuird 1197 m Munro

Ben Macdui Horseshoe

After a weekend of high winds over the massif, and a general lack of favourable walking conditions, on Monday the forecast had finally turned favourable. So it was that I set off on an early bike ride from Braemar, past Linn of Dee, and out to Derry Lodge, ready to tackle one of the bigger rounds from this trip. Compared to some of the other ride-ins in these parts, this one felt like a breeze, though I took a slight detour from the road, and took the landrover track which I’d climbed Creag Bhalg from a couple of days earlier. On the way out I passed a fair number of walkers and cyclists (including one braving the landrover track on a road bike): clearly the hills and walks from Derry Lodge were in demand.

• Càrn a' Mhaim 1037 m Munro
• Sròn Riach 1113 m Munro top
• Ben MacDui 1309 m Munro Council Top
• Creagan a' Choire Etchachan 1108 m Munro top
• Derry Cairngorm 1155 m Munro

On Morrone

The poor weather outlook was set to continue for at least another day, though by now I was itching for something a little bigger than a Graham, and decided that it was finally time, on my third visit to Braemar, to actually climb the hill which rises above the town: Morrone.

• Morrone 859 m Corbett
• Morrone South Top 823 m

Ey Five

The weather forecast was not fantastic, but looking ahead things didn’t appear to be getting any better. So I took a risk, and set off on what was to be the longest and most remote of my planned walks for this trip, which would take me deep into some of the remotest mountains on the margins of the Mounth and Atholl.

• Càrn Bhac 945 m Munro
• Càrn Bhac South West Top 918 m Munro top
• Beinn Iutharn Mhòr 1045 m Munro
• Càrn an Righ 1029 m Munro
• Glas Tulaichean 1051 m Munro
• An Socach 944 m Munro
• An Sochach East Top 938 m Munro top

Rolling into the Deep (Cairngorm)

It was day one of a holiday which had already got off to a somewhat chaotic start. I’d relied on getting the train to Aberdeen, and then the Stagecoach bus in to Braemar in order to get a mountain bike up for a grand expedition into the mountains.

• Càrn an Fhidhleir 994 m Munro
• An Sgarsoch 1006 m Munro

Reaching the hundred above the A9

I’d spent a lot of time trying to decide on the perfect hill to complete my first century, the ton, of Munros on. I’d thought about trying to make it something spectacular (maybe this was the time to do Ben Nevis?) or geographically appropriate (my first was the most southernly, Ben Lomond, maybe I should aim for another cardinal direction?). I’d actually planned to make Mount Keen my hundredth, and then realised that over the winter I’d misremembered my count, and carefully laid plans to start the year on number 100 turned into plans to climb my 99th.

• Càrn na Caim 940 m Munro
• Càrn na Caim South Top 914 m Munro top
• A' Bhuidheanach Bheag 936 m Munro

Closing-in on a milestone: 99 Munros Bagged. Part 4

100 Munros

In the final instalment of the series, I cover all of the hills from the second plague year, 2021, which don't range quite as far and wide as previous years, but include some very tough days out, including trips into some of the remotest sections of the central Highlands; Loch Ossian, and Ben Alder, and a high-level traverse which had been in planning for many years.

May Day on Beinn a' Bheithir

Squinting at the night sky, the Ancients (and sometimes, the surprisingly moderns) allege to have seen the figures of twins, fish, virgins, sextants, and giraffes imprinted on the heavens. In comparison I normally expect geology to be… down to Earth. I’ve spent the last few years trying to muddle my way through learning little bits of Scottish Gaelic, and while it’s been fascinating at times, it’s had a rather catastrophic effect on my understanding of the romanticism of the hills. “Beinn Dearg” becomes simply a red hill, “Beinn Dubh” the dark hill, and “A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag” the little yellow place. Perhaps a little mystery and romance is left in some of the places after all… A hill name where this romance and mystery is not lost through greater knowledge, however, stands above the small town of Ballachuilish (the town of the narrows) on the A82 between Glasgow and Fort William. Its name, Beinn a’ Bheithir, is often translated as “the hill of thunder” or something along these lines, but really, this hill which bares over the aforementioned narrows, is named for a mythical dragon or serpent.

• Sgòrr Bhan 947 m Munro top
• Sgòrr Dearg 1024 m Munro
• Sgòrr Dhònuill 1001 m Munro

Closing-in on a milestone: 99 Munros Bagged. Part 3

Closing-in on a milestone: 99 Munros Bagged. Part 2

I’m now fast approaching climbing my hundredth Munro (indeed, until I recounted while preparing this blog post, I thought I was sitting on 99 already, but it turns out I’m not quite there, though by the time you’ll be reading this I should be!). I’ve been pretty bad about writing walk reports for each individual hill so far, and it’s high time I sorted that out by producing one great omnibus collection. It’s turned out that walking Munros has become one of the major focusses of life outwith work, so it seems only fitting that I give the effort so far a reasonable write-up.