Mayar (NO 240737, 928m) Driesh (NO 271735, 947m) 15 kilometres 930 metres of ascent I had a short bagging trip this week, precipitated by a visit from our niece, who fancied taking in a couple of Munros on a day-trip from Dundee. In the car park at Glen Doll I was overtaken by a wave … Continue reading Glen Doll: Mayar and Driesh
Cnap Chaochan Aitinn (NJ 145099, 715m) 20 kilometres 700 metres of ascent One of those Gaelic tongue-twisters, I’m afraid. The cnap bit (meaning “lump”) is pronounced “crap”. (No, really.) The whole thing is ˈkraʰp ˈxɯ:xən ˈaʰtʲɪn, “lump of the juniper stream”. (If the phonetics move you no farther forward, you can listen to a Gael … Continue reading Cairngorms: Cnap Chaochan Aitinn
Robert Smith: Grampian WaysNeil Ramsay & Nate Pedersen: The Mounth Passes It is clear enough where the Grampians begin; no-one is certain where they end. The limits of the range have been as elastic as the whims of cartographers, so that the word “Grampian” has become an uncertain scrawl on many maps. Robert Smith Grampian … Continue reading Two Books About The Mounth Roads
The Crow Craigies Climbing Party originated in the late 1970s, back during the Cold War when “CCCP” was an initialism known to all.* This alternative CCCP wasn’t so much of an Evil Empire, more of a small group of Dundonian school friends, just starting to wander around in the hills accessible from Dundee by public … Continue reading CCCP 2016: The Far North
ˈɡræmpɪən If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude … Continue reading Grampian
Cook’s Cairn (NJ 302278, 755m) 17 kilometres740 metres of ascent The guidebooks usually send you in to Cook’s Cairn from the south—from Tomnavoulin up Glen Livet and Glen Suie. But I wanted to walk in from the east, along part of the old drove road called The Steplar. There was enough room to run the … Continue reading Steplar Path: Cook’s Cairn
Craig of Gowal (NO 232809, 927m)Cairn of Gowal (NO 226820, 991m)Creag an Dubh-Loch (NO 233822, 983m)Broad Cairn (NO 240815, 998m) 25 kilometres1100 metres of ascent Glen Clova. I parked at Braedownie, paid the parking charge (one of many things that has changed in Clova since I started coming here), and set off up the glen … Continue reading Glen Clova: Bachnagairn Circuit
Beinn Mheadhonach (NN 880758, 901m) 23 kilometres 950 metres ascent So, a bit of a change from the micro-level route-finding that’s been preoccupying me in the Sidlaws. This one’s a big, striding hill, tucked up the back of Blair Atholl, in that rather nebulous region referred to as “the Grampians”. The name of the hill … Continue reading Glen Tilt: Beinn Mheadhonach
Berry Hillock (NO 372444, 282m [trig. point]) Carlunie Hill (NO 365432, 340m) Ark Hill (NO 357426, 340m) Unnamed Point 328 (NO 359408, 328m) Denoon Law (NO 355444, 210m) Crams Hill (NO 368450, 237m) 17 kilometres 580 metres ascent Denoon Glen is the next glen west from Glen Ogilvie, site of my snowy floundering last week. … Continue reading Sidlaws: Denoon Glen
Broom Hill (NO 383421, c290m) Gallow Hill (NO 391413, 378m) Ironside Hill (NO 399411, 354m) Craigowl (NO 376399, 455m) 14 kilometres 430m ascent The idea with this one was a ridge-level circuit of Glen Ogilvie—up on to the east side at Broom Hill, over the tops to Craigowl at the head of the glen, and … Continue reading Sidlaws: Glen Ogilvie