A bus trip to Keiloch for some exploration, no big hills today just a wander around a few nooks and crannies on the edge of familiar places. Despite being past Craig Leek many times, I’d never been over it. First I took the cliff path around a bit before climbing the side. An unusual bird call echoed around the crags, couldn’t see what it was and didn’t remember to use the ‘bird.net’ identification app .. ach.

I wasn’t really expecting much snow today, I’d not be heading to munro height but could see there’d been some snow showers filling up the tops

Once out of the main treeline, there was a carpet of smaller regeneration. I presumed there must be fencing somewhere to allow this, on this side guarded by the steeps and crags

I found an old wall and followed it along before finding the small cairn at the top

On the north side there’s a path not on the map which converges and then disappears at the wall

There’s quite a lot of new fencing lower down by the main track and associated gates, and wide tracks, but today I wasn’t taking the easy option to Carn Liath

The snow was lying a bit deeper here, but I gained the big wall which I was going to follow all the way to the top and beside it looked ok

Heading up Creag a Chait there’s a flat nook sheltered by a small crag that would make a nice camp spot

The wall in places winds and arches through steep and tussocky ground and I’d occasionally diverge along deer paths to find easier going

In places the wall had sheltered andsculpted substantial drifts

As I climbed higher there were now some more substantial drifts to negotiate.

The wall terminates in a small shelter. It must have took some amount of graft building the wall across about 5k from here back to Craig Leek

I’m never quite sure where the exact top of Carn Liath is: OS has both 861, 863 and 857 tops, but there was a survey in recent times that decided something-or-other and that there is a separate hill, Creag na Dail Bheag which is the high point, although OS maps and SMC hill lists don’t seem to have got the message. It reinforces to me the futility of list-ticking ’rounds’, there are many great places yet on no lists because of the tyranny of numbers and gatekeepers of lists. The only numbers that matter to me are 1x great view, 1x interesting route, 1 or many of fine crags, waterfalls, trees and streams.

Nonetheless I headed over to “Creag na Dail Bheag” primarily because it has a closer view of Ben Avon still in wintery garb, not because it is 1m higher. I’d taken the last of my winter’s snow beers up with me (Burnside Brewery “Snowed In” and had a seat for lunch and cracked it open.

Fortified by this strong ale, the heather glided under me and I decided to take in a ridge of small hillocks rather than heading to Meikle Elrick as per my original plan

Lower down in this unlikely rarely visited location, I happened across a family who had wandered up from an Invercauld estate jeep. The chap seemed keen to see eagles and wildlife, and being an “english posho” I suspected unlikely to enjoy me bursting his bubble with regards to Victorian land management, and what that means to nature. A missed opportunity perhaps to shine some light on the reality: that his hosts at Invercauld are renowned for brutality to raptors (a poisoned one having been found not that far away).

I headed down to Glas Allt Beag but the recent conversation had put me at risk of missing bus, so Little Elrick was also thwarted and I followed Slugain glen downstream,

I followed the burn further off track through glades and copses

Curiosity dragged my west to a ruin: Balnagower cottage. A very scenic location, and such a waste to be let go to ruin.

The watch had swung too far in a wistful moment and I had to slap tired feet on the hard Keiloch track march to make the bus.