The group comprising the Munros Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh, Carn Mairg and Meall na Aighean lie on the Chesthill Estate and this notice greets you at the start.
I’ll leave you draw your own conclusions but obviously it’s not a privilege to be here, at least not in the way they mean. It’s a right under the Land Reform Act. Also, it’s absurd to require that the circuit be done clockwise. Do it any way you like. Not on the notice but on the estate website is the instruction to be off the hill by 7pm, a blatant attempt to stop wild camping. Again a contravention of the LRA. The carpark at Invervar is permanently closed.
The path through woodland gave a pleasant start and lead to a rough track which we followed to a bouncy bridge by a small dam, then up by the forest edge to the open hillside. Once on the grassy ridge the path makes the going easy to the summit cairn. The toppled trig point to the north-west is not the summit but gives views to Loch Rannoch. We had lunch there.
The route is waymarked, surely a new low for the Munros, but it’s just a cynical attempt to keep walkers out of the corries which during stalking is fine, but at other times not. Waymarked or not, it’s the most natural way up Carn Gorm but lacks any interest.
It wasn’t a great day for photography:
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| The old trig point is not the summit |
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| Down to Glen Lyon |
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| Loch Rannoch from old trig point |
We only met four other walkers as we descended this popular Munro. A girl with two collies was setting off late for the full round of the four Munros not expecting to finish until 8 or 9 pm. Now, that’s what I like to see.
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| Looking west to Glen Coe |
4 comments:
I remember attempting either all or some of what I call The Glen Lyon Four. Arriving at Invervar a notice implied no access on that date. There was a phone number and I rang. I got a guy with a very refined, non-Scottish accent trying to be ever so polite, but still saying "no," but "We'd be delighted to see you during the permitted dates." That was the same day I recalled here on your recent post on Schiehallion which I went for after the above mentioned rejection.
On 1st April 2007 I did all four with my Thursday walking pal Pete. We go back to the late fifties and have been friends ever since but Pete is six years older than me - he will be 90 on 4th July this year. The Glen Lyon Four were the last of about thirty Munros we did together. Pete's legs had gone to jelly as we got down near the glen at the end.
Sir Hugh - This fiction of ‘permitted dates’ is typical of the tactics used by the estate. Perth & Kinross Council should have taken them to court years ago and if I recall correctly they were urged to do so in 2014 by Mountaineering Scotland (formerly Mountaineering Council of Scotland). At least you saved the day on Schiehallion. If I ever do the circuit of four Munros again I’ll do it anticlockwise to make a point. I note from a previous comment of yours that you ‘compleated’ on 28 June 2009. Friday 28th June is our 50th Wedding Anniversary! ‘Time flips by’ to quote our friend.
"Welcome." "Just to make it easy for you to turn around, we've closed the car park and you'll be fined if you park beside the road."
It's sad that there's no attempt from the Council to do its job.
Good to see you out and about. Time does fly - it's over 30 years since I did the anticlockwise round of these hills.
M
Anticlockwise seems sensible given that once up you’re travelling west.
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