There are a number of considerations when choosing where to go for a walk or run of a Munro or Corbett – and, these days, it’s the weather that plays a major part in the decision-making. So, it does seem rather ironic that I ended up on a run-hike of the Corbett, Càrn Mòr, in the Ladder Hills, in the rain and cloud on Monday.
Living near Inverness, it’s possible to choose whether to travel in all directions of the compass and, after checking the weather forecast, it looked like east would be better than west.
My friend Nat was happy to join whatever route I chose and although she’d had an epic weekend of exercise – cycling Inverness to Fort William on Saturday and then finishing second female in the Glen Coe Skyline Race on Sunday, she told me she was still up for a mountain run.
I wasn’t keen to drive more than 1.5 hours and I wanted a route that would offer a mix of running and walking. Càrn Mòr, the highest summit in Ladder Hills above the Braes of Glenlivet, appeared to tick all the boxes.
Circuit route to Càrn Mòr
A circuit from Chapeltown of Glenlivet would be around 14km with some 500m of ascent. The summit of Càrn Mòr is 804m.
The area is closely connected to a whisky smuggling past and the hills take their name from the Ladder, which is an ancient pass from Glenlivet to Strathdon.
At first we climbed on a gently ascending track heading east of a car park. After around 3km, we left the track behind and joined a hill path. We lost the path for a while and ended up trampling over thick heather. This sort of terrain is never the best and I can only imagine how Nat felt on tired legs!
Spotting more of an obvious path in the distance, we made a bee-line over the thick vegetation. The route then climbed more steeply south and then south-westerly.
By now we were surrounded by cloud and it has started to rain. This was not what I was expecting but it did give us an opportunity to make good use of our navigational skills.
We were keen to find the line of a fence, which we could see on the map. Brilliantly, a sudden clearing in clouds made the way ahead much easier to find. We saw a single fence post – and then a few more in a line up the hill slope.
A trod came and went and we needed to negotiate numerous peat bogs but the rain had relented a bit and the clouds were more swirly than thick, which afforded us easier navigation.
It seemed to me that the trig pillar on Càrn Mòr came all of a sudden. The views were non-existent!
Continuing south-west from the trig, we began the descent of Càrn Mòr. Every so often we enjoyed a vista of the lovely rolling countryside but mostly we ran and walked in the clag.
We came across another couple of walkers and their dog lower down the slope. It turned out they lived not far from my home on the Black Isle and we stopped for a short chat.
The lower slopes offered easier navigation. While there appeared to a complex network of paths and trods to potentially confuse us, we were now below the cloud line and we could make out the route ahead of us.
We ran where the paths allowed and walked briskly where the vegetation was too thick for speedier progress.
The circuit headed north-west, then west, then north, then north-east and then generally north to regain the car park. I had uploaded directions to my Garmin Enduro watch, which proved to be very useful.
On the lower slopes, we joined a farm track and then exited on to a narrow tarmac road for the final few hundred metres.
Although the weather had been a lot wetter than I’d hoped for, it was a great circuit to bag my 103rd Corbett – and I greatly enjoyed the company and chat of Nat.
See my Strava route.
Corbetts bagged: 103.