Carn an Fhreiceadain

A group of seven met at the public car park in Kingussie for our first day meet of the new year. We planned a modest circuit of the estate tracks which ascend Carn an Fhreiceadain, a Corbett in the Monadhliaths. Our numbers had increased unexpectedly when Wendell and Martyn turned up at the meeting point having decided to abandon their plan to traverse three of the nearby Monadhliath Munros from Glen Banchor on the strength of the weather forecast.

The weather forecast promised very high winds on the tops, the freezing level at around 800m, snow showers and poor visibility.   As it turned out, the forecast was partially correct - the tops were very windy and icy but with no showers and good visibility.

Emma and May set a brisk pace up to Pitmain Lodge.  The 9500 hectare Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estate brings together two previous estates of these names. The estate is an active shooting estate and as we walked up the track we spotted Larsen traps to capture crows and spring traps on logs across burns to capture stoats both of which predate on grouse chicks and eggs.  These raised a bit of discussion.  Would water voles be vulnerable to these spring traps Matt wondered?  Indeed, are there water voles at this altitude in the Highlands? (It appears that although the water vole population in Scotland  is patchy and most are below 50m altitude, colonies have been seen near burns over 900m high in the Cairngorms.)

Above the snow line we were grateful for the banking at the edge of the track to avoid soft snow and as we climbed out of the sheltered defile of the Allt Mor we started to catch the wind.  There was promise of shelter at the summit cairn of Carn an Fhreiceadain and a rock shelter built into the rock just to the north. Alas and alack, they were both full of hard windblown snow, immune to the best efforts of my ice axe.  So there was a bit of scrabbling about to get extra layers, snow goggles and crampons on while trying to stay upright in the wind. We hurried off downwind to Beinn Bhreac and then downhill to the lee of a shooting hut at about 550m for a late lunch.

The walk back down the road to Kingussie along the wooded River Gynack past the local golf course was very pleasant.  The river turns into an impressive gorge as it approaches Kingussie and houses a small run of the river community hydro scheme on the site of an original hydro scheme built in the 1920’s. There are also two other estate run hydro schemes on the Gynack and Allt Mor

Subsequently, I discovered that the estate had a proposal to erect a 6m high radio was on the summit of Carn an Fhreiceadain.  The planning application for this was withdrawn in February 2022. There is also a controversial estate proposal to create a track from Pitmain Lodge to Glen Banchor and there are peatland and woodland restoration projects underway in Glen Banchor.  Dave Morris in parkswatchscotland (https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk) keeps a watchful (and critical) eye on what is happening in our National Parks and has written about these projects.

Taking part: Emma, May, Matt, Richard, Wendell, Arthur and prospective member Martyn

Words: Arthur

Photos: Arthur