The Monadhliath Mountains offer a great challenge and not too far south of the Highland’s city of Inverness. The range of peaks runs northeast to southwest on the western side of Strathspey, to the west of the Cairngorms and to the south east of Loch Ness. I have visited these mountains many times and this route describes an anti-clockwise run-hike over three Munros and taking in three Munro Tops, too. I enjoyed the day with friends Sophie and Geraldine.
Glen Banchor to Munro 1 & 2
The hike starts at a small parking area at the end of the minor road through Glen Banchor, which is reached from Newtonmore. A wide track heads north and uphill. At first, the gradient is fairly runnable and we set a pace of jogging where possible. After a couple of kilometres, there is a junction and we took the north-west path alongside a burn. We were fortunate because there had been a long spell of dry weather but if it’s wet, the ground here will be very boggy.
There are various trods and paths criss-crossing the grassy terrain and we followed a few before chancing upon a more obvious path heading uphill. These are popular Munros, so there are well-worn trods if you keep an eye out for these.
In any case, the summit of A’ Chailleach is obvious on a clear view day and we were soon at the 929m top. After a quick bite to eat, we set off at a trot downhill to the north. The next rise to Carn Sgulain, the second Munro at 920m, seemed to come swiftly and before long we had two Munros under our belt.
Munro Tops and the final Munro – then a bonus MT
We could see the rest of the undulating route laid out before us in a westerly direction. The final Munro could be seen in the far distance but there was still many summits to go over. There are two Munro Tops between Munros 2 and 3 but at the time it was trickty to know which was which.
In the end we collected both Munro Tops, Carn Ballach (SW Top) at 920m and Carn Ban at 942m.
The Munro Carn Dearg sits atop steep crags that fall away to the east. The summit is 946m, which was the highest point of the whole day and offered wonderful views looking back at where we had already been and also to the winder peaks of the Monadhliath and the Cairngorms.
There was a final Munro Top to collect and while we were pushed for time (Sophie needed to get home for her dog), we decided it would be, at most, an extra 10 minutes. To reach Carn Dearg SE Top at 924m to less than five minutes and we were soon back on the Munro Carn Dearg.
Return via Gleann Ballach
We tracked back a short way on the route we had followed to get to the final Munro, before picking up a trod east and downhill through Gleann Ballach. It was steep at times and a bit boggy but nothing too difficult.
Checking the map, we knew we were aiming for a wide track further down the corrie and after joining this, we then headed over a solid footbridge (there is an old and broken footbridge further donwstream) and on to a wide track. Running donwhill was a joy and we were all able to stretch out our legs.
The track runs alongside a burn and finally comes to a conclusion at a gate. After the gate, we came to a large, flat field and followed a trod diagonally across this towards woodland.
Glenbanchor is home to a small assortment of buildings, which we ran around and then on to another wide track. We continued to jog along east and finally returned to the car park.
It has been a great day of warm sunshine, good views and in excellent company.
Route details: Monadhliath Munros
Date: May 21, 2025
Distance: 26km
Total elevation: 1130m