The Occasional Munroist
| Route | http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=47 |
|---|---|
| Distance | 17.4km |
| Munros | Carn Gorm & Meall Garbh (2 out of possible 4) |
The walk starts at Invervar, which is near Fortingall (which is itself near Aberfeldy) in Perthshire. It seems that over the years the estate which owns these hills has not been very welcoming to hill walkers, in particular they pretty much don't want to see people during the stalking season. With this in mind June seemed the perfect time for a visit. The estate has now provided a small parking area in Invervar with strict guidelines that once it is full people should just go somewhere else. The parking area is not that easy to spot and I initially overshot. If you are coming from the Fortingall direction the parking area is down a track on the left just before the phone box. There is space for 8 cars (although that depends on everyone parking with consideration) so these are never going to be busy hills, more than 30 people in the whole area in any day is going to be incredibly rare. I was the first car there at 8:30am, it took me about 1hr 45minutes to reach Invervar from Edinburgh.
The peace and solitude is definitely the main point of these hills. They are not exciting, airy ridges and there is no tricky climbing involved. They are mostly a mixture of grass or rocks underfoot. After the first top is reached the descents and ascents are fairly small. In thick cloud or white-out conditions navigation could be very tricky so it's definitely one for people who are confident navigators in poor weather. Having said that, quite a long section in the middle is following a line of rusting fence posts and it's quite hard to get lost along there.
There was a hint that the weather might improve in the afternoon so I decided it was worth going for it, particularly as it wasn't raining when I reached the parking area. However within about 15 minutes I had on my full waterproof gear and that's how it stayed for the next 4 hours. The climb up the first hill, Carn Gorm, is a fair slog and I found it tough going. Recent trips to the gym have definitely taken their toll on my legs. I headed on round, over An Sgorr and Meall Garbh desperately hoping for some let-up in the horizontal rain. I made it around to Meall a'Bharr before it really became clear that the weather was totally set-in for the day. With the rain now making it's way in through my "waterproof" trousers (the zips failed to hold up against the horizontal waterfall) it was time to head down. I headed off pretty much due South which is not a conventional route but was safe and fairly simple if rather hard going over the heather, eventually I picked up the track and got back to the car at about 13:30. I'd only recommend that a route if you really need to get off the hill. It's been a long time since I've been quite that wet from hillwalking, it was definitely a lovely feeling to be getting into a dry set of clothes and heading off to a nice bookshop/cafe in Aberfeldy for a warming cup of tea. Next time the forecast is bad I might just take a towel as well.
Today's top tip: make sure you have a full change of dry clothes waiting in the car...
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