Geal Charn and Ben Rinnes. 23 June 2024
Geal Charn
New club member Ged and new prospective member Diana, accompanied by old timer Arthur, drove down to the Spey Dam to climb the most westerly Monadhliath munro - Geal charn - by Glen Markie. The track up the glen gave easy walking, initially past farmed deer - which to our untutored eyes looked like fallow deer. Then through a young mixed woodland before reaching the narrowing of the glen between Beinn Sgiath and Beinn a’ Chràsgain. We crossed the Markie Burn without difficulty, avoiding the need to seek out the unmarked footbridge with is a little further upstream, and followed an wet and indeterminate ATV track up the Piper’s Burn and then onto the drier ridge of Bruach nam Biodag.
I was intrigued to find out how Piper’s Burn got its name. There are plenty of references to it online, but only as a walkers route up Geal Charn. There is a tale of ghostly piper on the Corrieyairack Pass being heard by travellers over the pass, including an army group in the 1950’s. But that is on the other side of the mountain. One possibility is that the route is part of an old coffin road from Whitebridge on the south side of Loch Ness to St Kenneth’s Church at the east end of Loch Laggan. It has been suggested that the cairns at point 875m 2km north of Bruach nam Biodag may have been a resting spot for funeral parties. Would a piper have accompanied the funeral parties on their long treks, so giving the burn its name?
The walk from Bruach nam Biodag to the summit ridge had a great sense of remoteness. Then we breasted the ridge and were faced by the turbines and infrastructure of the Clioche wind farm and Glen Doe hydro scheme. Averting our eyes, we turned to face Creag Meagaidh and the Ardverikie Hills and wandered over the grass and moss slopes to the summit cairn. Our lunchtime sandwiches seemed very attractive to the bumble bees that lazily examined these newcomers.
Not wanting to retrace our steps and not wanting to go as far as Garva Bridge where the Walkhighlands route starts and finishes, we followed another wet ATV track round Beinn Sgiath and along the national park boundary before squelching down to the “motorway” track - built for the construction of new power-line and sub station for the wind farm - back to Crathie and our starting point. We debated whether two heaps of stones that we saw close to where we parked were clearance cairns or had some greater archaeological significance. It turns out that both were correct - one pile was a clearance cairn; the other pile had some burned timber carbon dated to the iron age. And of course we were but a stones throw below the impressive Dùn-da-lamh iron age fort.
Taking Part: Ged, Diana and Arthur Words and Photos: Arthur
Ben Rinnes
Congregating at the foot of Ben Rinnes on a bright sunny day, the three of us were surprised at the cool breeze funneling through the pass. A steady pace of ascent up the main path was accompanied by discussion on the range of our backgrounds from groundwater to rhythmic drumming to marine biology. Upon the granite tors at the summit we admired the views from Cromarty to Lochnagar, Ben Macdui to the North Sea near Aberdeen. A quick early lunch was taken out of the wind behind the tor. Descending northwards to the Scurran of Well we noted the absence of grazers on this hill and the thicker vegetation away from the main eroded paths. The tors at the Scurran of Well were heavily coated in lichen, adding additional form to the already thinly sliced rock layers.
Further down we saw large amounts of Cloudberry with berries starting to show, a few Spotted Heath Orchids and plenty of the insect-eating Butterwort with small blue flowers. Skylarks accompanied our descent as the wind dropped and the temperature rose. Below Baby's Hill we took a leisurely lunch, discussing home cooking and running. Traversing back around the East side of Ben Rinnes on a wide path we were spotting plenty of plants, a stonechat and the only Ewe we saw all day. She wasn't short of food! The wind had dropped so much that the clegs were starting to bother us and we kept the pace up. The 13km circuit of Ben Rinnes took a very pleasant 5h30, returning to the cars for 3pm.
Taking part: Martin, Carol and David Words and Photos: Martin
