Walking Highland Perthshire. Ronald Turnbull
on the right, and decorated still more by the pointy summit ahead – Meall Garbh. The little peak is reached by the well-defined path zigzagging up. From Meall Garbh the gently angled but well-formed south ridge carries a little path clearly used as a descent off the ridge – avoiding both the charming ridgelet and the eroded rocky step ahead.
Behind Meall Garbh, the path follows a short narrow ridgeline with bare rock to scramble over. Descend the still quite sharp crest, until the final drop to the col. This drop is steep, on eroded bare rock in a fairly exposed situation. Clean rock is usually preferable to steep grass. But in wet snow conditions, one may prefer the steep grass slope immediately round to the right, descending northwest from the top of the steep section.
The path continues weaving around knolls of grass and rock, then heads to the right out of a col to bypass another steep section. From the next top, Beinn nan Eachan, the path descends northwest, before swinging left below steep ground to a narrow col. This leads southwest for the short ascent to Creag na Caillich.
The traditional descent has been to return north for 200 metres, to the first dip in the ridge: here a small cairn marks a faint path descending southeast into Coire Fionn Lairige. However, a better way has developed, following the natural ridgeline south from Creag na Caillich. Descent from the ridge end will be westwards: so it’s surprising that at the final knoll, the path heads out to the left – east – purely so as to contour above the brink of the crags of the ridge end.
On Creag na Caillich, looking south to Loch Tay
Having teetered these brinks, the path descends grassy slopes westwards to about the 700m level. Here it bends round to the left, to pass through a small peaty col below the southern crags. This is the col north of Point 685m. The intermittent path drops down the grassy valley beyond, to an intake dam (NN567367).
A grassy track contours eastwards, following a buried water pipe, with several small intakes. After a gate through a deer fence, the track bends uphill. Here fork off right over wet ground to Intake 1, and cross a concrete bridge above the small dam to the start of another track. This contours forward to meet the stony track descending from an abandoned quarry. Follow it forward around the hillside for 3km, to join the path descending from Meall nan Tarmachan.
SUMMIT SUMMARY: BEN LAWERS
Meall Garbh, An Stuc, Ben Lawers, across Glen Lyon from Creag Ard (Route 22)
Scotland’s nine highest mountains all lie in the Ben Nevis range, or else in the great high plateau of the Cairngorms. The 10th, somewhat to our surprise, is Perthshire’s Ben Lawers. There is, though, a difference. Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui have huge and celebrated crags to climb on. Ben Lawers is Scotland’s biggest mountain made of grass. Grass – but also wild flowers. In high slimy corries where the sheep can’t reach and minerals seep out of the mountain, little alpine blossoms make Ben Lawers into one of our largest nature reserves.
Across Loch Tay to the Lawers group
Lawers grass means you can go, in heather-free comfort, pretty well anywhere above the 800m contour. From Lochan nan Cat, any slope not altogether rocky tempts as a possible line onto the ridge. Grass is eaten by sheep, and shepherds ride quad bikes; so, on the north side, the unexplored valleys between the ridges have useful tracks, with high slopes above offering a dozen more ways to get lost on Lawers.
FIGURE IN THE MIST
A mysterious figure was seen on the summit by a respected member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club some time between the wars. The wind was so fierce that Ratcliffe Barnett was unable to stay upright. Through the mist he saw a human shape, apparently unaffected by the wind and the drenching rain, and unaware of Barnett crawling towards the cairn a few feet away. The ‘man of the mist’ was gathering small stones, wrapping them in newspaper, and putting them in its pocket – the sort of obsessive behaviour typical of ghosts (but also of geologists).
BEN LAWERS ROUTES
13 Edramucky Burn (from the Lairig road)
14 Up and down from the Lairig road
15 Lawers Four from Lawers village
16 The Cat’s Bowl (from Bealach Dubh col)
17 Down via Beinn Ghlas to Lawers village (from Ben Lawers)
ROUTE 13
Edramucky Burn
| Start/finish | Nature Trail car park NN608378 |
| Distance | 2.5km/1.5 miles |
| Ascent | 250m/800ft |
| Approx time | 1¼hr |
| Max altitude | Top of Edramucky enclosure 630m |
| Terrain | Small paths, sometimes damp; big but stony path for descent |
The high car park of the former Ben Lawers Visitor Centre allows a short, easy walk at big-mountain altitude. The young woodland in the fenced enclosure gives shelter, along with a chance to enjoy plantlife uneaten by sheep. Willow and birch were planted at the start of the century, with natural regeneration to follow. Summer flowers include moss campion, yellow saxifrage, wood cranesbill, globeflower, goldenrod, marsh hawksbeard, northern bedstraw, lady’s bedstraw, and alpine lady’s mantle. The Nature Trail has numbered waypoints and a leaflet.
Start on the wide path through the low walls of the interpretation area, through a gate and across the road. After a short moorland crossing the path enters the fenced-in area. The main path heads uphill to left of the Edramucky Burn, but take the Nature Trail that turns off right to a footbridge. It heads up in the stream valley, recrossing it twice. At 540m level it rejoins the main path.
Descending by Edramucky Burn towards Loch Tay and distant Ben More
Turn left, to cross the burn, and where the path turns downhill, take the small old path uphill. Ignore a ladder stile over on the left. The old path ahead runs up to left of the stream, in places a soggy trench.
With the plantation fence (and another ladder stile) ahead, turn off right to cross a stream. Remains of old shielings are above the second stream branch, which you also cross to rejoin the well-made main path. Just ahead is where it leaves the enclosure at a gate.
Coire Odhar option
From the gate at the enclosure top, one might like to continue to the col at the head of Coire Odhar. There and back from the enclosure gate is 3.5km with 250m of ascent (2 miles/800ft) – about 1½hr. See Route 14.
From the top of the fenced enclosure, turn down the well-made but stony main path. A sign asks you not to reuse the Nature Trail path in descent, so stay on the main path back to the car park.
ROUTE 14
Up and down from the Lairig road
| Start/finish | Nature Trail car park NN608378 |
| Distance | 10km/6.5 miles |
| Ascent | 850m/2800ft |
| Approx time | 4¼hr |
| Max altitude | Ben Lawers 1214m |
| Terrain | Small paths, sometimes damp; big but stony path for descent |
| Note | See map in Route 13 and map here |