ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Bus journey offers high hopes for hill walkers

Published: 18:30, 29 May 2023

John Davidson joins Moray Mountaineering Club for a ‘bus meet’ to climb four Munros in the Glen Shee area

Crossing the old Seann Spittal Bridge at the start of the walk.

There’s a reason these four Munros on a high plateau offer a relatively easy day on the hills.

Soft, mossy grass underfoot and gentle gradients make for a surprisingly straightforward trek over this part of the Mounth, that vast stretch of high ground from the edge of the Highland boundary to the River Dee.

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It’s all to do with what lies below. Deep, lime-rich soils make for a more fertile landscape, with the area hosting an array of montane plantlife. I noticed an abundance of spring flowers including plenty of cloudberry on our way up the initial steep slope – the only such one on this outing despite the number of Munros involved – to Carn an Tuirc.

I’d joined a bus trip with the Moray Mountaineering Club, who have this year returned to putting on the transport for the first time since before the pandemic. The “bus meets” provide a great way of accessing the hills for those without their own transport, or just to reduce the impact of more people driving to often distant or remote places.

Following the boundary wall and fence posts between Carn of Claise and the Monega Pass at Glas Maol.

They pick up at Elgin, Forres, Nairn and Inverness, and on this occasion a long trip to Glen Shee was on the cards. This is an area I haven’t spent that much time in, so I was pleased for the opportunity to climb some more distant hills.

Our walk began at the old Seann Spittal Bridge, the northern end of the old Monega Pass, the highest of the Mounth roads which heads over Little Glas Maol at 973m on its way to Glen Isla.

We started by crossing the old bridge, which was built in 1749 under the direction of William Caulfield, the successor to the better-known Highland road builder, General George Wade. While the pass heads south-east towards Sron na Gaoithe, our route took a direct line on the north side of the burn aiming for the first Munro of the day, Carn na Tuirc.

The route is soggy in places but climbs easily enough to a junction of streams where the Allt a’ Gharbh-choire bends round to the right, close to some ruined sheilings. From here a path continues roughly east for a steep climb directly up the face of the hill, which gets rockier towards the top.

Eventually the gradient relents, and you emerge almost at the cairn – and in our case in the cloud. Despite a hopeful forecast, we would be in the clag for most of the day from this point on.

Some of the group approaching Cairn of Claise.

We dropped down to the wide bealach above Coire Loch Kander before following an easy grassy slope, with the aid of a track most of the way, gradually higher. We soon reached an old wall and fence line, which is followed for the last couple of hundred metres up to the summit of Cairn of Claise, among a brief smattering of rocks.

It had taken barely any effort between these two Munros, which made me wonder about some of the classifications on this most famous of hill lists. I’ve climbed subsidiary tops of Munros that involved a greater deal of exertion than this!

The route to Glas Maol meanders along the high ground of the Mounth now, over the edge of the Garbh-choire. It follows the county boundary, marked by the crumbling wall with the remains of a later fence, for most of the way. Again, the gradients are easy and it’s more of a high-level stroll than a climb to claim another Munro.

The wall does give way to a line of rusting fence posts and, at an incongruous old gate, we joined the Monega Pass road for a brief spell, heading left along this grassy track that it is believed was once used by drovers wanting to avoid Gleann Beag and the steep Devil’s Elbow.

A waterfall is passed on the way up to the first Munro of the day.

A short way along the historic route, a small cairn marks the point where you leave the track and head right to climb – and I use the term in its loosest sense – to the grassy summit of Glas Maol, where there is a large shelter and an OS trig point. This is the highest point on this route, at 1068m above sea level, but still there were no views for us today – a shame, as it must be a spectacular vantage point looking out across the plateau.

We took a bearing from the top to aim for the narrower approach to our final Munro of the day, passing over Bàthach Beag then reaching a small shelter at the bealach. The tiny entrance to the howff and the limited space inside means you wouldn’t be heading in here unless you really needed to!

The ridge leading up to Creag Leacach was much rockier than the previous three tops, but it was easy to follow the wall all the way over then to a small rise after it bends to the right.

Still in the cloud, we picked our descent line to the bealach below Meall Gorm and soon picked up a path, of sorts, that led the way, then around to the right to descend a soggy line beside the burn to reach the Allt Coire a’ Bhathaich.

A steep little pitch down at the bottom followed by a couple of burn crossings took us onto an eroded path alongside the north-east edge of the stream.

Reaching the car park at the Devil’s Elbow, it was nice to be greeted by the waiting bus, and a chance to don some dry clothes for the long journey home, as we shared tales of our day.