Glas Maol and Creag Leacach

15 September 2011

Participants - Neil and Ben
Where - Glas Maol, 1,068m/3,504', Munro/Marilyn and Creag Leacach, 987m, Munro, Map 43, NO 166765 (Glas Maol). A leisurely 4 and a bit hours.

I keep returning to the Glenshee hills, they provide good walking on easy terrain and although close to a main road and a major ski area they have a great feeling of remoteness. You do need good weather to appreciate them though, it would be a complete waste to be here when the cloud is down, unless its just navigation practice that you're after. Today, I decided to take the route that gave the highest starting point- from the Cairnwell car park. The first part of the climb was up an unsightly track past even more unsightly rusting ski tows and various buildings to the top of Meall Odhar. There are signs that work is being done to improve this area- several new buildings that are rather more sympathetic to the environment have sprung up since I was last here- but there is still lots to be done. From Meall Odhar, we could see our planned second Munro of the day- Creag Leacach- to the south.....

Before that however there was the little matter of the steep pull up the side of the big northern corrie of Glas Maol- the Fionn-choire. Snow lies here well into the spring. Here is Ben contemplating the route.....

An eroded path is now well established and we were soon up and strolling across the broad plateau to the cairn of Glas Maol.....

On a good day like this and with a high starting point it was difficult to appreciate that we were on top of one of the bigger of the Munros; I've been up here in winter and it is an entirely different story. We raised a Ptarmigan, it's coat already turning white, and a flock of over 20 Golden Plovers flew off as we approached the cairn. There were also a large number of hares, more than I have ever seen up here before. Visibility was A1; this is the view north towards the Cairngorms.....

We then turned our attention to Creag Leacach, the most shapely of this group of hills. We dropped down off Glas Maol to meet the narrowing ridge that links the two.....

This is quite a rocky hill nearer its top and the stones have been used to build a substantial wall along part of the ridge. This is the view from near the summit looking back towards Glas Maol.....

There were a number of other people about and I asked one of them to take a photo of Ben and me at the cairn with Glas Maol in the background.....

And this is the view looking west with the Beinn a'Ghlo group and Glas Tulaichean in the distance.....

Taking the Meall Odhar route meant that this was basically another "return the same way" walk so we retraced our steps back along the ridge. There was however a bypass path that meant we didn't have to re climb Glas Maol although Ben obviously thought that we should be doing that as he shot off uphill again, presumably on the scent of a hare. Fortunately he returned just as I was thinking that I would have to climb the slopes again to look for him. From Meall Odhar there was a good view of the Cairnwell across the road.....

and we took our time wandering down through the ski slopes back to the car.