Munro Bagging
A log of my experiences in the beautiful Scottish mountains.
A log of my experiences in the beautiful Scottish mountains.
It only seemed fitting that my first Munro was the one closest to Inverness. The living room window in my childhood home looks across the Moray Firth at this beauty so it was already a familiar presence.
Following on with the closest Munro to my home in Glasgow. A very easy going Munro with a nice big flat section in the middle! It’s almost always busy, so it’s definitely necessary to get out of bed early to ensure a safe parking spot.
The beautiful mountain used in the 1774 experiment to estimate the mass of the Earth. A short and sharp walk due to the high starting point of the car park, this Munro’s ascent is an easy 731m. You just need to watch the ankles on the boulders at the summit!
This is the Munro on the way to Ben Lawers. Famously overlooked for its more impressive sister, but stunning views from the top across the Lawers Mountain range none the less.
I think I can safely say this one is my favourite. Both for walk enjoyment and scenic value . The 10th highest Munro feels like a great achievement also, but it’s greatly helped by the high car park at the start.
The weather can really make or break a Munro experience. In this case, the majority of the walk up was through damp overcast conditions, at least until we came out the top of the clouds. My first cloud inversion sighting and it was unreal.
This one gets described as the Jack Russell Terrier of Munros. It only just makes it into Munro classification at 3,002 feet. Some serious scrambling opportunities if you stray from the main path and false summits for days.
A straightforward climb with awesome views at the summit, particularly of the neighbouring Stuc A’Chroin.
Stuc A’Chroin offers a fantastic scramble adventure up the harder route. Not for those uneasy with heights and sharp drops. If you decide to add this Munro to your walk I would definitely recommend re-climbing Ben Vorlich for your return to the car park. The flank of Ben Vorlich is more suitable for swimming than walking due to the bog!
The Tarmachan Ridge walk is spectacular and includes this Munro en route. A first experience of ridge walking for me and I can’t wait to try another. Dramatic views all around!
Non stop views all the way up of the neighbouring Glencoe Munros and then the view across Loch Etive from the summit is the sweet cherry on top.
This one is a much quicker ascent than Stob Dubh but care is needed on the loose rocks on the way up. I was also treated to my first saltire in the sky!
The big 'un! Prepare yourself for a long day with this one, it almost broke us. It's a long long tiring walk but nothing particularly technically complicated when going up the 'tourist route'. We initially had no view when arriving at the summit, we were met only with a long queue for a trig point selfie! But by the time we'd eaten some lunch and taken a break, the clouds cleared and we ended up with a spectacular view. Since bagging this one I also took part in a winter skills training course in the Glen below which gave an opportunity for some great North Face pictures.
A winter walk to put the freshly learned skills to (some) use. All good experience but not a perfect weather day which always taints the opinion of the munro in general. Nevertheless there was still some dramatic scenes at the summit to take in.
The Cairnwell Munros, easily bagged together with a starting height of over 600m, don't have a great reputation as being particularly scenic Munros. We chose to bag these in wintery/snowy conditions as it added a lot of character to the mountains. Yes, they are somewhat scarred by the ski developments but we didn't feel this hindered the beauty of the views.
Probably my toughest hillwalk yet. Definitely not a boring one! With a river crossing to start, a crawl under a railway bridge, deep slippy bog through the forest, a steep pathless ascent and a scramble at the summit, it was definitely an adventure. We also didn't get much luck in the way of views at the summit which was a real shame because I believe it is a fantastic view on a good day.
