#hillwaking

Before the snow sets in in the Scottish Highlands and the skiing season begins we decided to go for a walk up Carn Aosda (915m / 3002ft) and The Cairnwell (933m / 3061ft). Those two mountains are classified as ‘Munros’, which are any mountains in Scotland of at least 3000 ft in height. Since the Cairngorms, the Eastern part of the Scottish Highlands are more of a plateau, the ascent is much shorter compared to mountains in the Western Highlands, many of which start closer to sea level. But that is what makes for the difference in the landscape. The Western Highlands look tall and pointy, while the Cairngorms look round and flat and there are many ‘corries’, hollows which were shaped by glaciers thousand of years ago. These mountains are very old and were shaped and ground down by glaciers in the ice age. It’s almost as if the mountains are missing their peaks. It does make for much easier walking though. To get to these mountains however, we first had to drive up north through the mountains on a long, twisty road with some very scenic views:

We parked at the Glenshee Ski Centre and went up to Carn Aosda first. I wasn’t prepared for just how cold and windy it would be, although there was no sight of snow just yet. Despite it’s flat appearance, the way was short, sharp and steep. Luckily, I was taking frequent photo breaks:

Here is a closed look at one of the ‘corries’:

After about 45 minutes we were finally at the (rather flat) top.

The view was great, however. On the other side you could see The Cairnwell, the mountain we would go up next.

You get a good idea here just how flat and round the Cairngorms are:

You can see the road we drove up on continue further up North. It’s known as an ‘Old Military Road’, but might be an ancient route, which people would have taken to get to the North of Scotland by foot or horse. This road is called the A93 and eventually leads to Aberdeen. On the Western side of the Cairgorms is the A9, another ancient road, which leads all the way to Inverness.

On the way back down we spotted a few mountain hares. They were easy to spot because they had already changed into their winter coat when there was yet to be snow.

Due to the strong wind, the sky was changing rapidly and new clouds were being blown in all the time, but for the time being the sun was out and we had a brief period of rest while we were walking on the plateau between the two peaks.

Loch Vrotachan:

Looking back towards Carn Aosda on the left:

It’s amazing just how barren this landscape is and yet there is plenty of wildlife, which includes mountain hares, grouse and also reindeer, which we didn’t spot unfortunately.

Finally, we were getting closer to the Cairnwell.

During the snow these hills are used for skiing, but the ski lift chairs totally double as a cosy bench to sit on to rest your feet. The view is amazing either way.

On top of the Cairnwell we were met with a great view and the sun breaking through the clouds, sending its rays down.

While taking those pictures it was drizzling slightly, but because of the wind it felt like many tiny needles or icicles smashing into my face, so it was difficult to stay on this side of the mountain for long. I did try a few more times, just to observe a change in scenery within 10 minutes. The same valley quickly clouded over and it started to rain.

Just as soon as the shower came, it went away again and for most of the journey down we had sunshine. At about 3.30pm the sun started to set and threw a warm shade all across the hills.