Meall Ghaordaidh and Beinn nan Oighreag

Today’s trip is to the Southern Highlands, to a munro North West of Stirling. We pass through many a quaint Perthshire village before Mor Bheinn signals entry into hill country. The lush scenery tempts my camera out for a spot of bouncy blurry window-snapping

Glen Ogle viaduct

The original plan is to disembark at Duncroisk, but good weather and our later hour of arrival find the slim parking spot full, and the small road has little option of verges, so back East a k. There’s a track heads up to ‘shaft’ which we’ll follow instead

Nice camping spot beside the river here

The track winds up the hillside

Until a fence blocks passage

The lochay surge shaft. There appears to be a big hole there (as subsequent satellite photo clip shows)

We flank the enclosure and begin to climb upwards

Reaching a rocky outcrop below Creag an Fhithich we begin to get good views West along Glen Lochay

We could have skirted round lower and avoided some steep rocky bits but ach

I can see various old stone walls, ruins, shielings, sheepfolds

I’ll have a closer look on the way back down

Conditions looking good

The well-grazed grass begins to fizzle out

Over the Allt Dhuin Croisg

A natural shelter

Underfoot a shiny native goes about their day

Another watches our party advance upwards as the decision is made to do Beinn nan Oighreag first

Looking past Lairig Luaidhe

First of a few false summits

Our party tail end are 2 specks oblivious to the cloudburst behind them

Looking West to our main target, a couple small snow patches persist

Every few minutes the light changes as gaps open and close and sweep across. If I put my camera away I’ll miss something.

At max zoom looking SW clouds boil over shadowed crags

Reaching to cairn 909, Loch Lyon is revealed past the rocky edge of Creag Loaghain. A ‘dam’ fine view 😉

Big fluffy clouds

Has one of our party taken o-fence? Heading to the cairn 899

A fine seat

A spot of lunch is taken at cairn 899. Looking across Creag an Tulabhain

The question now is do we need to head way back to cross Lairig Luaidhe, or will we just take the most direct route.. looks pretty steep here.. a peep over..

It is pretty steep but the tussocky grass is grippy enough

There’s quite a few of these fly-eaters here, common butterwort. Flies get stuck on the leaves which then fold over

A lively frog has climbed a fair distance up the hill in terms of frog-metres from the pools n bog at the bottom

At the bottom a bit of peat hag wandering

oho what’s that.. looks like a cave

Would be rude not to investigate. A few seem unconvinced by the steep climb but we gotta go up there one way or another. Our scandinavian connection arrives first and gives an all-clear for trolls

More a scrape than a cave really. Ah well

These quartzy nodules have caught my boots a few times today

Pausing a moment to reflect

We’ve scattered a few golden plover, this is something else but to silhouetted to see

Glorious clouds n shadows

Troll head

We have evaded rain so far but there are dark patches afoot

Doing their cloudy thing

How do these snow patches get so filthy

A ribbon fed by the loch

We reach the summit. There’s a vein of white rock running across

There are a few others taking rest at the trig point shelter

Celebratory summit rainbow

Clouds drifting past alongside

Looking back from where we came

Time to head on down the ‘tourist path’ it’s unmarked on the map but eroded sufficiently that it’s easy to see

In and out between the tumble of rocks

A rainbow behind a hilltop, looks like a UFO has landed there

One minute it’s blue

Next minute it’s grey

There’s a fair amount of descent. From 1000+ down to about 200 at the road

At the bottom the rain finally snares us.. I rarely bother with the waterproofs unless dinging it down. Now is that time.

Looking back across to the other side of the Allt Dhuin Croisg where we went outward

We traversed that quite high up. The burn now near at hand is hidden down deep

A peep over the edge reveals a surprisingly deep gully

Through the rain lies the ruins of Tirai, a victim of the highland clearances

Rocky outlines spread across a few fields

Population: One. (Wheatear)

Standing alone

Looking beyond along the glen

Rain off like a tap

The standing stone amongst the ruins

A vertical panorama for a change

A horizontal one looking E to Meall Dhuin Croisg

Looking across the glen to the SW to Creag Mhor

Back down into the valley

Across the burn. Hold up, where’s my walking sticks.. lost on the hill! I probably put them down when changing into waterproofs, or maybe laid down taking a snap at Tirai. They were definitely tucked into the rucksack straps coming off the summit.. but too far and too late to go back now. If anybody finds a set of karrimor carbon poles let me know :-/