Easter in the Cairngorms

Easter 2012 was spent in walking in the Cairngorms with The Rucksack Club. The first challenge was to get there by public transport. Luckily there were no hiccups along the way and the three changes of train to get to Aberdeen. From there it was a two hour bus journey to Braemar. It total it took 10.5 hours to get up and 12 to get back as I ended up having to spend over two hours in Aberdeen before catching the train home. In total the costs of getting there by public transport was around the cost of a full tank of petrol.

Entrance to Stable Block

We stayed at the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge Basecamp, which was well appointed for 12 people in four bedrooms, with a good sized kitchen, dinning room and lounge area. The latter had a TV for checking the weather forecasts, mobile reception being very poor.
Situated in the old stable block the basecamp is ideally situated for access to the mountains in this area of the Cairngorms. Over the Easter weekend the adjacent lodge was open to the public and we had the opportunity to see the rooms which are not often open to the public. The sheer number of deer skulls in the main reception rooms and the ballroom is not to everyone’s taste!
On Good Friday I walked from the Lodge down to the Linn of Quich and then followed the track up through the forest and intro the hillside beyond. After the recent snowfalls there was still plenty of snow on the ground, although it was fairly soft going. After following the track for some time the route took me uphill on a non-descript path to Carn na Criche and its cairn. From here it was a case of following the ride to the summit of Carn na Drochaide with its wide stony plateau. The path down constantly disappeared into the snow but the way down was across the spur of Carn Dearg and then across the boggy area towards the woods above Alanaquoich.

On the way up Lochnagar

Saturday started early with a drive over to Spittal of Glenmuick and the start of today’s walk up to Lochnagar. The weather forecast was for an unpromising afternoon, hence the need to start walking early, despite this the car park was already filling up. Despite this we didn’t see an awful lot of people during the day.
There was a fair amount of snow as we ascended and we followed the main route up to the summit. Visibility was poor on top and following compass bearings we passed the first cairn and then onto the cairn on the top of Cache Carn Brag. The route down was to take the path down via the Falls of Glasalt and onto Loch Muick and the shore path back to the carpark.

On Sunday a couple of us headed out to tackle An Sochan. Parking by a woodland at the side of the A93 we followed the valley up until the second side stream and then headed uphill to the cairn and on up the bleak summit. As we ascended we came close to a small group of Mountain Hares still resplendent in their white winter coats. After admiring the view  from the summit cairn we headed back to a shelter cairn for some refreshments. The return was merely retracing our steps.

Looking down upon Mar Lodge

Monday morning everyone else departed the area on their way home or to tackle other peaks. My stay was to continue for another day, this time staying at the Youth Hostel in Braemar. After the two Munros of the previous days I headed up Montone  the local Corbett. The trig point on the summit is completely overshadowed by an enormous transmitter mask and associated buildings. Despite that the views from the summit were very good and it was possible to look down upon Mar Lodge and see Carn na Drochaide from the walk on Friday. A Ptarmigan loitered for a while in from of me and allowed an excellent view of this interesting bird.

This was a great few days in the Cairngorms, with reasonably good weather, fantastic accommodation and good company.