The Carn Deargs of Glen Roy

Wednesday 15th May 2013 

Two Corbetts on my way back to the Glen Roy road from Luib-chonnal bothy 

Distance: 14km; Ascent: 730m; Rain & hail showers and quite windy up high; Solo

See tracked route in new window

Despite last night's merriment I was still awake at 6:30am this morning!  However as I had a relatively short day's hill-walking planned I decided to have a bit of a leisurely morning at the bothy before setting off into the hills.  Andy left by 8am heading for Creag Meagaidh, whilst Andrew, Phil and Alan left at 8:30am heading for Melgarve on their way to Laggan.  The river outside the bothy didn't appear to be particularly tricky to cross this year, unlike when it was in spate when Lynsey was here last year.

Luib-chonnal bothy

Phil, Alan & Andrew crossing the Allt Chonnal

After spending a while chatting to Richard back in the bothy, I decided that I really should think about climbing some hills today!  Therefore I set off walking from the bothy at around 9:45am and followed a vague path on the south side of the Allt Chonnal, with good views back to the bothy with Creag Meagaidh beyond.

Creag Meagaidh and White Falls

By the time I reached the bridge over the burn, around a kilometre upstream from the bothy, it was raining heavily.  So waterproofs were donned before I continued along the north bank of the burn.

Bridge over the Allt Chonnal

The rain turned out to be a relatively short-lived heavy shower, and soon I was bathed in warm sunshine :-)  This was how the weather would stay for much of the rest of the day, with heavy rain and hail showers interspersed with drier intervals.

Looking up the Allt Dubh to Carn Dearg (N)

As I continued along the north bank of the Allt Dubh, there were good views up to my two peaks for the day, which unimaginatively were both called Carn Dearg!  Once I had reached the 550m contour the bealach to the west appeared to be full of peat hags.  Therefore I opted to take a diagonal line NW up the steep slopes to eventually arrive at the summit of the northern Carn Dearg (Corbett, Marilyn) soon after half-past midday.

Summit cairn on Carn Dearg (N)

There were good views from up here, especially across to the Loch Lochy Munros and Ben Tee.  However it was very windy and quite cold so after a quick lunch I descended southwards towards the bealach, with good views across to the southern Carn Dearg.

Looking towards Carn Dearg (S) from Carn Dearg (N)

The slopes on the southern side of the bealach were also quite steep, but after 200m further ascent I finally reached the summit cairn of the southern Carn Dearg (Corbett, Marilyn) at around quarter-past two.

On the summit of Carn Dearg (S)

Again the views from the summit were excellent and I could see most of the way down Glen Roy from here.  However despite the sunshine it was still quite cold due to the bitter wind, so I didn't longer long.

Looking down Glen Roy from Carn Dearg (S)

To descend I initially headed SW for around half a kilometre, after which I picked up a faint path marked with stakes.  This initially headed in the right direction, but after a few hundred metres it appeared to start heading NW, which was definitely the wrong direction for me!  Therefore I headed directly down the steep slopes to reach the vehicle track in upper Glen Roy.

The River Turret in Glen Roy

I crossed the bridge over the River Turret and reached the car shortly afterwards at 4pm.  It had been a good short backpack, even though I hadn't even been away from the car for 24 hours!  Now I headed to Aviemore for the evening where I met up with Martin, Philip and John for a curry :-)

See here for my Social Hiking map from the day's walk.

N.B. 21/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 15/05/13 (from 23/05/13).  Links to social hiking and hill-bagging also added.