My friend Cath and I started a two-day adventure with a fairly speedy outing to the summit of the Munro, Meall Chuaich, near Dalwhinnie. We started from a layby on A9, just south of Cuaich.
Note: There is another option from Glen Tromie, which offers a longer bike rode but a short hike to the summit.
The route that Cath and I took started on a wide track that winds eastwards through the glen. We discussed that it would have made a great bike ride, but we were keen to run and so we followed the very gradually ascending track for some 4km.
Just after passing the southern end of small Loch Cuaich (correct spelling!), we could see a trod rising uphill in a north-easterly direction and on much more rugged terrain.
The climb to the summit at 951m was mostly on a rough path, which was often muddy and sometimes boggy at lower altitude, but became drier the higher we ascended.
As we ran and walked briskly uphill, Cath and I chatted about the description of the Munro by a well-known walking routes website. We had read “undistinguished hill” and “a lumpy Munro which lacks many distinctive features”.
We felt this was a rather dispiriting description that might put people off. While it is a relatively short route to reach a Munro summit and the trod can be a bit muddy and mucky, the views are lovely.
The walking website description does say the summit offers a “good viewpoint for upper Badenoch and Strathspey”, although again it reports that a large cairn “makes up for the comparative lack of interest during the ascent by being an excellent viewpoint”.
All this seems so off-putting for prospective walkers. The vista is actually superb and wide-sweeping taking in great moorlands and rounded peaks. So, it might not have the many pointed tops of the west coast landscape, but Cath I found this Munro to be very satisfying for a half day outing.
The cairn is also fantastically large.
After stopping to chat to three walkers on the summit – who agreed it was a much better walk than they had been expecting – Cath and I turned around and followed the same route back to the layby.
We were very lucky with the weather, which had been forecast to be much wetter.
Meall Chuaich, Dalwhinnie route details
Distance: 15km
Total ascent: 605m