A roaring silence on Munro number four

It’s amazing how comfortable a pile of rocks at 3,000ft above sea level can be when you’re in need of some sleep. With my two little daughters demanding constant attention at home day and night, I sometimes think I’m at my most relaxed when I manage to escape to the wilds – even if that is for a circuit of four Munros with a couple of miles of cycling added in for good measure.

So it was that on top of our final summit of the day on Gael-charn I lay down, shut my eyes and listened to the peaceful roar of distant stags. It would have been easy at this point to drift into a blissful deep sleep – but we still had to descend to Balsporran Cottages where Peter and I had left our bikes to allow us to complete this long circuit with a speedy finish along the cycle path that runs alongside the A9 over the Drumochter pass.

Having dropped the bikes at the cottages on our way south, we parked the car a stone’s throw from the summit of the pass, which offers the added benefit of starting the ascent of these undervalued mountains at roughly 450 metres above sea level.

We followed the cycle path a little further south from our parking spot at lay-by 81 to head through a gate and along a track, forking right to reach an underpass below the railway line then taking the clear track that leads towards Coire Dhomhain. Heading up the glen you get a good view of three of the four hills we would be tackling, starting with Sgairneach Mhor at 991m then the highest of the day, Beinn Udlamain at 1011m, followed by A’ Mharconaich at 975m. If we still had the legs for it, we would add the 917m Munro of Gael-charn to the day’s list.

The track up to Coire Dhomhain makes for easy progress and we followed it to the first bridge that crosses onto the south side of the burn – a new construction not marked on any of our maps. We struck right a short distance beyond the bridge to follow a mixture of animal tracks and well-trodden ways up to a small bealach at the base of Sgairneach Mhor’s north-east ridge.

From here the going is easy up the gently sloped ridge, with pleasant views into the north-facing Coire Creagach. As we approached the summit, the early morning mist and cloud began to clear off the tops and we got our first glimpse of the Ben Alder group of mountains which sit on the far side of Loch Ericht.

A zigzag descent took us south-west, north-west then south-west again in terrain which could be quite disorientating in mist to gain the south ridge of Beinn Udlamain. It was clear now so this area of unexpected remoteness so close to the A9 through Drumochter was easy to negotiate, and we made our way steadily up to the summit, enjoying an improving view to the west over Loch Ericht to the visually more impressive range beyond.

We were following an old fence line by now so navigation was straightforward. We even encountered a hill runner heading up to the top as we headed down to the 861m bealach. From there we continued to follow the ridge up to A’ Mharconaich, a relatively gentle out-and-back stroll before returning to turn right at a cairn, feeling we would happily make the last Munro of the day without any difficulty.

It turned out to be a fine decision as we had a wonderful wildlife encounter with a mountain hare. The first one we saw took sight of us and bolted, as you would expect, but a second just waited, watching and listening to our every move as we got our cameras out and started snapping away. Eventually it became so calm it just returned to eating and ignored what we were up to just a few feet away.

We saw more hares at the summit of Gael-charn but, as we sat down to enjoy a bite to eat, I lay back, listening to the barely audible sound of the stags in some distant corrie, enjoying this moment of relative solitude and the peace that can be found in the Scottish mountains.

Finally being driven from my slumber I surveyed the land below and it was laid out like a map showing the access tracks to the Ben Alder group, a range of mountains I am yet to explore for myself. Thoughts of cycling down those tracks to a bothy or wild camp in the future inspired some vague plans which one day will come to fruition.

For now we had to descend to our bikes at Balsporran, so we took the north-east ridge down to meet a rough and boggy track that eventually improves – with work looking like it will continue higher up in the near future. Keep left where it meets another track coming down from Coire Fhar and cross the railway just before the cottages to reach the car park.

Picking up the bikes, it was a quick and easy two miles along the National Cycle Network path up to the summit of Drumochter, where we completed this circuit of four simple but enjoyable Munros.

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