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Glas Tulaichean Carn an Righ Beinn Iutharn Mhor Map I needed to be back fairly early from this outing, to go out for a meal and to the theatre at Pitlochry with Trisha, so I made a prompt start, drove the 25 miles to Spittal of Glenshee and set off on the bike at 7.55. The ride-in took me 50 minutes - pretty slow but that was partly due to the nature of the track. There were several gates near the start where I had to stop and dismount - one had a 'Beware of the Bull' sign posted up beside it. Also the track had some stretches paved with rough, loose stones - bone-shaking and slow riding over them - plus some streams crossing it and various bumps and puddles. The weather wasn't too bad, clouds clear of the tops and bright patches coming and going - but it was cold at the top with a couple of brief hail showers, not enough to bother about though.
I rode the bike along the green Glen Taitneach, all the way to the foot of the crags facing Glas Choire Mhor, which is the eastern corrie of Glas Tulaichean. I left the bike there and after fording the river had an easy enough haul up the grassy hillside onto Glas Tulaichean's SE ridge where I found a path to take me all the way to the summit. Glas Tulaichean appeared as the highest point on a snow-lined wall of cliffs at the head of the valley and this path led along the crest of the spur towards it. Not much snow underfoot though.
The ground got stonier as it progressed along the top of the cliffs and it seemed to take an age to actually get to the top, despite the gradient being very gentle. I finally reached the summit at 10.00. From there I carried on round the rim of the corrie for a few hundred yards then made my way downhill through the heather, NW towards the path I could see running from east to west across the base of Mam nan Carn. Once I was on this it was an easy track angling slowly upwards towards the next hill, Carn an Righ. Once again this was a rounded, heathery hill with no difficulties or dangers and the stony path showed up as a very distinct line up the hillside. Nearer the top the land became stonier and I arrived at the summit at 11.20.
I made my way back to the base of Carn an Righ and then continued up a slanting path to the bealach between Beinn Iutharn Mhor and its southern top, Mam nan Carn.
Once at the bealach , a broad, stone-littered place, I decided just to nip up to the top of Mam nan Carn first as it didn't look too demanding - just in case the archfiends at the Scottish Mountaineering Club someday decide to redo the tables and re-classify Mam nan Carn as a Munro. It didn't take long to reach the summit (12.35) - a small cairn and not much else - and I was soon back at the bealach. Then another easy walk up Beinn Iutharn Mhor, another rounded hill whose grey, stony upper reaches took me to a broad summit plateau topped with a large cairn (1.05). While I was sitting by the cairn eating my cheese and biscuits 3 men, a woman and a dog arrived, coming not via my route but from the NE - I took their picture for them and they took this one of me.
I returned to the bealach then headed east to the col between Mam nan Carn and Beinn Iutharn Bheag. At that col I was able to look down on the impressive lochan, Loch nan Eun, which sits high up above the head of Glen Taitneach. I descended through heather and grass and stony patches to the boggy area surrounding the lochan, and walked round it to the outflow at its SE corner where the water trickles over into the glen and ultimately becomes the river by which my bike was parked.
It was a steepish descent by the side of this stream down to the floor of the glen then a simple walk along the grassy valley back to the bike (2.55). It was a much faster return bike ride, quite good fun splashing straight through the water bits and bouncing pell-mell over the loose stones. Back at the car by 3.32. | |||||||||
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