Braes of Mar.

Corbetts ->Section 8->Braesomar

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Section 8 900 Culardoch 895 Creag Mhor 862 Carn Liath 829 Brown Cow Hill 821 Geal Charn 818 Carn na Drochaide 813 Sgor Mor 810 Meall a'Bhuachaille 792 Carn Ealasaid 872 Morven 840 Ben Rinnes 804 Carn Mor 781 Corryhabbie Hill Section 6 Section 7 Section 9 Return to Corbett index Return Home.

Culardoch, from the head of Glen Feardar. Carn na Drochaide 818m  2681'  Bridge Hill Map   Carn Liath 862m  2830'  Grey Hill  Map  Culardoch  900m  2953'  High place at the back.  Map

Carn na Drochaide 818m

Carn na Drochaide from the Braemar-Inverey road.

Braemar's other Corbett Carn na Drochaide presents a broad face to the marshy flats of the River Dee, and a foreground to the distant tops of Beinn a Bhuird and Ben A'an . The hill is spotted with the survivors of a forest that was probably felled by the Canadian Lumber Camp in World War II. Like Creag Bhalg, across the Quoich, the old tree line survives, but the lower forest was not replaced on Mar Lodge land. Invercauld's quarter fared better and is still wooded.

The hill is quite isolated from the main Cairngorm massif by the great glen of Quoich and the slot of the Sluggain. This fine glen is the reputed home of a bothy built in secret and well concealed from the Invercauld keepers. The timbers were all smuggled in, past Keiloch, Alltdourie and the house. I do not know where it is, and if I did, I would not be telling, but I do believe this legend of 1950's mountaineering is feeling its age now. Clandestine building projects aside, Gleann an-t-Slugain is a fine spot and land mark on the long walk in to the climbs on Beinn a Bhuird.

Looking across Gleann an-t-Slugain, to the heathery dome of Carn-an-t-Drochaide.

The Quoich is the final destination of the motor road to Linn of Dee. If travelling on foot or bike, you can cut the crook in the road by crossing the Victoria Bridge to Mar Lodge. This saves 8 miles. There will be no opposition, unlike during the unlamented Kluge regeme. Some people have been known to ford the Dee at Braemar, a useful approach for the carless, but potentially lethal to the careless, The Dee by now is a big river. Linn of Quoich ,reminiscent of Linn of Dee, was an ornamental beauty spot, beloved of the Victorians with pathways and the now decayed tea pavilion. The Quioch of the name derives from a pothole used as a punchbowl at the commencement of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. The pot is now breached.

Linn of Quoich.

 

Beyond the Linn and the tourists is the pine clad glen. An old road makes comfortable progress to the meadows at the head, beneath the south top of Beinn a'Bhuird. From here a brutal bulldozed road was carved through the line of an old pony track up on to the plateau . This track should have been destroyed by now. The new owners , National Trust for Scotland, are pledged to remove the high level bulldozer scars.
If you intend to head up the glen to Glen Gairn, Slugain or Ben A'an be prepared for some heavy going. There is no path across the gap from the Quoich track to the Invercauld Estate's pony paths.

A good short day in this glen is to walk up the Quoich and the pass through the gap on the west wall of the glen into the meltwater gap of Clais Fhearnaig. This has several shallow lochans on its floor, dammed to make trout ponds. The gap delivers the walker on a good path to Glen Lui, a mile and a half down from Derry, by the ruins of the old townships. Return by going straight on at the Black Bridge and a lovely walk through old pines will meet the tar at Mar Lodge, a mile short of the car park at Linn of Quoich.

 

Glen Quoich.

Carn Drochaide is probably most often climbed from Linn of Quoich. There is also a fine approach through Invercauld (parking at Keiloch 188912, bus, Aberdeen-Braemar, to the old Brig o'Dee.) Take the Gleann an-t-Slugain path until clear of the trees, and then take to the heather.

The hill is made of schist, not granite and the extra fertility has led to a profusion of heather. A skilful ascent will make full use of the burnt strips. As always the higher you go the easier it gets, small crags enliven the ascent. If desired, a crossing of the Slugain will allow the addition of Carn Liath and Culardoch. My ascent, after a 12 hour ski tour was a single ticket only, and on foot. A short walk up the east bank track of Glen Quoich and a wade up to the snowline on the south western shoulder soon found the cairn. The view was again rather good. Beinn a Bhuird's corriescape and Deeside were the highlights. To see Braemar a short walk to a cairn on the edge of the summit dome is required, the cairn being built to be seen from the village. Being a 'rest day' I returned down the same ridge, nodoubt scattering the same hares as were around on the way up.

 

Carn Liath 862m

Carn Liath from above Invercauld

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carn Liath and Culardoch flank either side of the Bealach Dearg road from Mar to Tomintoul. They are rounded hills, no fine corrie head walls here but just swellings of schisty hills before the great heights of Ben A'an and Beinn a'Bhuird.

To the north, they are separated from the big boys by Glen Gairn, a long and famously deserted glen. It is well described in literature, featuring in both 'In the Shadow of Lochnagar', Ian Murray and Amy Stuart's 'The hills of Home'. Both books are full of stories from the now empty upper glen. Murray claims to have found evidence of 75 dwellings upstream of Loch Builg. Downstream some farms were worked well into the 20th century, now they are either birch woods or moorland. No one lives upstream of Gairnsheil Lodge today. Glen Gairn is worth a visit for the wildlife and must rival Ben Chonzie for the densest concentration of blue hares.

Another deserted glen, Glen Feardar forms the southern bounds of this hill. 100 years ago this glen had several farms, a church and school with some interesting inhabitants. Beyond its first mile it too is deserted.

The Bealach Dearg is an ancient trade route, It was almost used for the military road, the Lecht being preferred, either way the road would be often be blocked by snow. Today it provides a fine cycle route, only off track past Loch Builg and the now ruined Lodge. A fine cycle route in summer that is, I once met a mountain biker up there in February, he said he was looking for 'South Top' It was more like 'South Park'.

I realised that he meant Beinn a'Bhuird. I do hope that he made it through the drifts and out to civilisation after being so lost, and also that he never takes a bike onto the plateau of Beinn a'Bhuird.

Carn Liath is notorious for having two tops, the same height about 1 km apart. This causes problems for those who wish to tightly define Corbetts. Which one is the top, there is not 500 feet drop between them, are they both Corbetts? The problem is worse when there are two hills the same height but well separated. A current example is Beinn Bhuidhe and Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais in section 10b. J.R. Corbett did not leave any details of the rules, but it is obvious that he employed a strict 500' rule. Except for two tops in the Monadh Liath. These had the same height and were 6 miles apart across the plateau. Unable to distinguish the highest he simply listed them both.

 

Ben A'an from the West top

However as Carn Liath/top of Creag an Dail Beag are the same hill, he listed just the one top. There is uncertainty here, one is the summit, nobody knows which one, there is of course one way to be sure of an ascent. To confuse things even more, there are even more tops at about the same height. Beware mist!

The two tops form the junctions of a 'H' with the south falling in long ridges with a shallow skiable corry between them. To the north the ridges are shorter but enclose a similar corry falling to upper Glen Gairn. Perhaps the finest feature is the broken crags of Creag an Dail Beag and the slot dividing the hill from Ben A'an. This lies below the western top.

My first experience of the hill was passing through this gap whilst crossing from coast to coast. During this walk, after walking up Glen Quoich , we followed the harey Gairn all the way to Ballater. I did not have the energy or time to do the hill on this occasion, but returned ten years later to cross the Bealach Dearg (See Culardoch) Stalking prevented an ascent on this occasion .

Eventually a showery February day of intense cold saw an ascent from Keiloch. Again the Bealach Dearg road was employed, mercifully blown free of snow almost until the stable at the top. Amongst these drifts we encountered the lost biker. The road climbs through well tended forestry to emerge at the head of Glen Feardar. Passing pines it climbs to a stable at the pass. From here amongst the drifted grouse moors I made an easy ascent to the East top. A ruined dyke almost reaches the final outcrops set in a boggy plateau.

Fighting spindrift and with careful attention to my compass needle (I had remembered it this time) I found the west top, breifly getting a view across the gulch to Ben A'an. Happy that I had got to the top, even if ignorant of its true location, I headed off southwards in the hope of following the Meall Glaisail ridge to the Slugain track.

 

 

 

The edge of the woods, Bealach Dearg.

 

This descent was very easy, giving alternatively a whiteout and view of Carn Drochaide. The glen, after a short steepening, was welcome, even if the track was iced up. This problem was soon solved when a fierce squall dumped a couple more inches of snow, giving something for my boots to bite.

The final mile to Keiloch, past Invercauld House was invisible beyond driving snow. Ironically travel in upper Deeside, including the Cairnwell was easy at this time, East of Ballater almost all roads were closed, even in Aberdeen itself.

 

The Summit(Carn Liath East)

 

Culardoch 900m

Culardoch is an easy step from Carn Liath. Simple in shape, a heathery dome rising from miles of grouse moors falling gently to the Dee and the old Sron Ghearraig road from Crathie to Glen Gairn.

Glen Gairn is wider below here and was inhabited until recent times. The last Gaelic speaker in the area lived in this area. When Jean Bain died in 1984, the Braemar dialect died with her. Hopefuly the work of Adam Watson should preserve some of the pronounciation of the place names. Of course new names will develop, but there are few folk in the glen now to do the inventing.

I passed Culardoch on a crossing of the Bealach Dearg, from a camp near Loch Builg. (see Creag Mhor). I was heading for Linn of Dee, via Invercauld and the old road opposite Braemar .Does Builg have the same route as the Welsh Bwlch? The loch occupies a very important 'bwlch'. The lodge was once inhabited by a keeper who was reputed to have shot a 'tink' through the door. Later he disposed of the body in the bogs and shallow pools near Lochan Oir. Who's gold does this name refer to? Back to our trigger happy keeper, he may have got away with murder, but due to a little private enterprise, had to work hard to keep his job, house and lucrative cairngorm mining business from Farquarson of Invercauld. The laird insisted that the whereabouts of his Ben A'an gems be divulged or our keeper was out. Somehow he survived both the hangman and destitution. I have found fine cairngorms up on A'an. Sadly they were stolen from my old flat in Edinburgh(along with loads of maps and Irvine Butterfield's 'High Mountains of Britain'.

Culardoch from Glen Feardar

From the steep northern slopes of the Bealach Dearg , it was but a short stroll up the dome to the trig point. Lochnagar just visible through the haze, this should be a good view on a clear sharp day. To the east, nothing save Morven interrupted the view of the rolling moorlands of Aberdeenshire.

The descent to Invercauld is a long stroll down a gravelly track, a delight in the blooming heather. I got a cheery wave from a stalking party in a landrover. There is no problem on this historic road. Carn Liath was of course beyond reach at this time. The stalking close season need not be a problem. It can be just as enjoyable walking the old roads as bagging Munros, and occasionally a summit is so close to the track that you can get up and down quietly. Like Culardoch, a quiet high place, at the back.

 

 

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A- Revised 22/3/02