Mighty Beinn a' Ghlò

Both of us on holiday now, we had been hoping to head to Glencoe for a few days, but weather been a bit iffy, but with Thursday looking good we booked a night in the youth hostel in Perth, which uses UHI student accommodation during the summer. Was a surprise to find how warm it was in the area on the way down, a lot different to the overcast weather at home.

After breakfast and packing up on the Thursday morning we drove up to Blair Atholl and then a fair distance up a single track road to the quite large car park for around 8:15am. Note there is a charge of £5 for the day.

From the car park, head over the the cattle grid and then take the right turn through a gate. Following the track for around two kilometers then striking off north through a gate and followed the track around to the north east. After the boggy area the ascent becomes quite steep and just after the first cairn it eases off. The true summit is at the trig point around two or three hundred meters past the cairn. We took an early lunch at the summit taking in the views. Very hot today making the going difficult but we made good time so far.

The path from here was pretty easy to follow curving along the ridge north west then north east, past the point marked Beinn Mhaol. Here the path descends steeply to the bealach, and if required an escape route back to the valley. From the bealach the ascent is relatively steep heading east then north, but eases shortly before reaching the summit of the second Munro of the day, Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain. Great views again here back towards the previous Munro and to the last one of the day to the east. Another stop here soaking in the views and to reapply suncream again, seriously hot today.

We continued following the path all the way around past the 993m point, it did appear looking back from the next Munro that there might be another route directly from the 1016m point, but looks very steep on the map. Once at the bealach, we picked the less steep sloping path to the north that joins on to the return path. Close to the saddle point we met another walker on their way down, she told us the top was quite rocky and had regretted only having walking sandals with her.

Close to the saddle, Ailidh decided we should head down via the bealach instead of off the end of the Munro top as she felt it was too steep. So I headed up to do the top while she had an extra break, the Munro Top Airgiod Bheinn is very rocky on top, but there and back only took 25 minutes.

Meeting back with Ailidh we headed up to the final Munro. On the top it was very rocky and required care to walk over, first past a cairn, then the trig point, which isn't the top, instead its the rocky outcrop one meter higher another hundred meters further on. We had another break before retracing our steps back to the bealach.

From the bealach we headed steeply down the boggy path to reach the east side of the Allt Bealach an Fhiodha burn. The trail along the burn was very wet, boggy and at times felt more like heather bashing. There was a chance to cross the burn earlier, and I feel this might have been the better option, instead we crossed after the burns joined lower down.

After a while we left the boggy path and joined a well made path where we could walk side by side most of the time. Around two and half kilometers later at a T junction we turned right, now heading west and back towards the start point. After what felt like ages we past the point where we headed up Carn Liath in the morning, from here it was only around a 20 minute walk back to the car.

We had a brew up, then home via Forfar where we have supper. Overall a great day out, but really too hot for climbing!