The forecast wasn’t too promising for a Corbett walk, but the route description of Meall na h-Aisre in the Monadhliath range didn’t seem too daunting and the total distance would be 14km to 16km, so my friend Ben and I wrapped up a week of walking with this summit from Garva Bridge, near Laggan, Newtonmore.
The history of Garva Bridge is interesting. The stone bridge is part of Scotland’s old military road network and connects Fort Augustus in the west with Laggan, Ruthven and Dalwhinnie in the east.
The bridge was built by General Wade to cross the River Spey as part of his route over the Corryairack Pass.
Walking to Meall na h-Aisre summit, Monadhliath
To start the walk of Meall na h-Aisre, you cross the double-span bridge. It felt like Ben and I had travelled to a very remote place, although it’s not actually that far off the A9.
However, due to a confusing road closure, we ended up covering many more miles than was necessary and the journey from Inverness took a while longer than expected.
Added to this, the rain and mist contrived to leave us with far fewer references to our location than normal, although I did note that we passed the start of another walk, the Munro Geal Chàrn.
Then, as we parked in a parking area off General Wade’s Military Road, a local estate worker drove towards us. He stopped in his vehicle and asked us where we planned to walk. After a pause for thought, he said we would be fine.
What he was considering was the deer stalking that was going on in the local hills and glens that day.
Consulting the map, Ben and I decided to walk an out-and-back route, rather than a circuit as detailed by Walk Highlands. In doing so, we would be able to stay further away from any potential stalking action.
Return route of the Corbett Meall na h-Aisre
The Corbett Meall na h-Aisre is described as a typical Monadhliath hill, with rounded uppermost slopes. From what we could see below the clouds, this certainly seemed to be true.
After crossing Garva Bridge and walking a short way on a tarmac road, we took a sharp right on to a track. The track turned into a wet and boggy trod as we walked northwards, sticking close to the western banks of the Spey before crossing the river on a foot-bridge.
We continued for a short while along the east bank of the river before striking further east. From here, the walk was on rough terrain.
As we climbed towards the 862m summit, Ben and I tramped over thick vegetation, through numerous peat hags and over a lot of very soggy ground before then finding ourselves in thick mist and low cloud.
It wasn’t the most inspiring walk and because we had almost zero views the outing became even less stimulating.
The route undulated on and on as we slowly climbed through the total elevation of some 680m.
If there was a benefit to this walk, it was the opportunity to test our navigational skills. The mist left us disorientated several times and so we needed to check the map, re-address our direction and then follow a bearing to finally reach the summit.
The top of Meall na h-Aisre is marked by a cylindrical trig point. Apparently on a good day the views are extensive and you might even see Ben Nevis in the west.
We returned to the car on a similar route, although absent-mindedly we missed the foot-bridge over the river and needed to retrace our steps a short way.
The rain did eventually stop and the sky brightened a bit but it was not a Corbett I would rate as a favourite!
Route of Meall na h-Aisre
Distance: 16km (although this was an out and back route, plus a number of short diversions due to navigational errors, and it might be shorter to walk the circuit route on Walk Highlands.)
Height gain: 680m
Route details: Strava and OS Maps
Corbetts bagged: 109.