Brown Cow Hill and the neighbour Càrn Ealasaid had been on my to-do list for a while but I had been waiting for the right conditions. So many people had warned me of bog and peat hags on the route to the summit of Brown Cow Hill that I confess I was not looking forward to the outing. I decided that the optimum conditions would be snow, so I could ski the mountain, or frozen ground to limit the amount of squelch.
It is entirely possible to complete an out-and-back hike off Brown Cow Hill, or a circuit route, also taking in other summits, Cairn Sawvie, Meikle Meal Charn , Little Real Charn and Cairn Culchavie as detailed on Walk Highlands.
A separate outing to Càrn Ealasaid is usually approached from the north. However, my friend David came up with what looked like a great, but long, circuit to reach both summits in one day.
We invited another friend Rachel and warned her of the potential bog and hag bashing.
In the end, Brown Cow Hill turned out to be the easiest section of the 26.5km run. The route between Brown Cow Hill and Càrn Ealasaid was extremely testing. After that, there was a great downhill track.
Route to Brown Cow Hill
We started near Cockbridge, Aberdeenshire, on the A939. There is parking near Corgarff Castle. We set off, running a short path towards the castle and then headed over a fence and joined a wide Landrover track that wound uphill and in a southerly direction.
We ran-jogged uphill, with short sections of fast hiking. When the incline steepened, I tended to stride out with a brisk hike, while Rachel and David prefered to jog with shorter steps. We travelled at about the same speed so it mattered not what our style of ascent was.
The track was rough but runnable and continued to our first high point at 704m on Carn Oighreag . From here, we continued on rough ground although there was a trod to follow in places. This is where we became grateful for for a spell of dry and cold weather over the previous week.
The ground had the potential to be extremely wet, boggy and spongey yet it felt quite firm underfoot. There was little evidence of ice, rather the ground was quite hard-packed.
We did need to navigate the promised peat hags but, again, the frozen ground made them so much more pleasant. Peat hags force you to wiggle through their formation going up and down, as well as side to side. We made as quick work of these as we could and discussed gleefully how much better it all was without the normally soft, shoe grabbing peat.
The forecast had been for sunshine and while it was dry and not too windy, clouds lingered.
I can’t recall much more about this section. It seemed to fly by and apart from stopping a few times to check our navigation, we seemed to make fairly light work of the ascent.
We took in Brown Cow Hill at 839m elevation, before swinging west towards Cairn Sawvie at 820m height. After a bit of descent and more ascent, we reached Meikle Goal Charn at 802m.
We had been planning to use a fence line, marked on the OS map, as guidance but there was a series of new fences and these didn’t tally so well with route finding. The new fences were electric and we needed to cross them carefully at various marked locations.
Thankfully, visibility was good and we could see ahead to our route taking in many more ups and downs.
Rougher going en route to Càrn Ealasaid
The ground towards Càrn Ealasaid was much rougher and more challenging than any of us expected. The terrain comprised thick heather – I really wouldn’t fancy this in summer when the heather is taller – deep grass, grassy tussocks and plenty of peat hags.
Did you know?: The source of the River Don can be found on the north side of Brown Cow Hill?
We were fortunate in places that wild animals had created narrow trods through the vegetation but, mostly, it was a battle both physically and mentally. We ran and jogged where we could, then walked briskly. I am used to this sort of terrain on Corbetts but the many kilometres caused me to lose my sense of humour for a short while!
There was a great advantage to the visibility – being able to see our clear route ahead – yet it also meant that we knew we had a long way to go and many ups and downs to reach the summit of Càrn Ealasaid.
From there, we kept reminding ourselves, there would be a great Landrover track back to the road and then the car.
I was really grateful to my friends for maintaining an up-beat outlook during this stage of the outing. We were all finding it tough but we still managed to find positivity and continued to chat about some good topics. I love being outdoors in remote places and with friends, even when the route is challenging.
Bit by bit we progressed reaching the high point of Craig Veann at 711m, then descending to Shepherds’ Cairns, then up again to Tolm Buirich at 693m elevation, then downwards, then up to Càrn Ealasaid, finally, at 792m height.
The views were wonderful, especially as the sun had now decided to come out.
Looking down to the southeast we were relieved to spot the promised track which mostly descended – with a few bits of short uphill – over 4.5km to return to the castle car park.
We all had tired legs – the total ascent was close to 1200m – which meant we ran downhill at a gentle pace. There were some steeper, rougher sections that tested our tired bodies and minds.
I was thrilled to tick off two new Corbetts. The last new Corbetts were in August last year, Cruach Innse and Sgùrr Innse.
Corbets bagged: 162 and 163.