Glen Livet.

Corbetts ->Section 8->Glen Livet

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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.

The Ladder Hills from Glen Livet Ben Rinnes  872m 2755'  Rinneis, Headland  Map Corryhabbie Hill  829m 2561'    Map  Carn Mor  804m 2639'  Big Hill  Map

To Morayland quair all men taks their prey. Allan Camerone of Locheil 1645.

Ben Rinnes 840m

Ben Rinnes from Tulchan. Tormore Distillery middle right.

Ben Rinnes is a surprise. Away down the Spey in a land where one does not expect to find big hills. Many have looked north from the Cairngorms and been puzzled by the mirror image Schiehallion before the woods and barley fields of the Laich of Moray. It is so easily forgotten, it even has an OS map to itself (1:50000 sheet 28). If you ever venture on the moors above Grantown, its there, a cone where no hill is expected, rising above green fields and a wandering Spey.

When climbed, the hill amazes again. It is so easy to get up, and when there the huge tors are quite unexpected. This hill is a Monadh Ruadh outlier, a final thrust of the red granite, standing guard over the distilleries.

Whisky and Ben Rinnes have a long history. There is now little peat on the moors as the distilleries have cut most of it. Many use the water from the hill burns, its pure granite water, yet the marketing people never mention the hill in their waffle. Of course bagging Ben Rinnes provides a perfect excuse for visiting a distillery or two, the hill need not take too long.

The hill rises from a large moor, with some of the most virulent heather imaginable.This probably hid a still or two once. Peat cutters tracks allow easy access to the hill from all sides and provide opportunities for a traverse (still to still?). The conical structure breaks down to the east where a ridge curves round to Dufftown over the Convals. Between Rinnes and the Meikle Conval a minor road cuts the ridge and provides the usual starting point.

During a stormy and wild club meet at the LSCC Milehouse hut four of us headed north for Rinnes. None of my passengers were used to obscure Corbetts and had never visited this corner before. They were amazed to see so many familiar names as we passed the distilleries, or road signs to Glenfiddich. On a black and stormy morning, too mild and wet for any climbing we struggled up the first steeps of Round Hill only to stroll up th eeroded and mist shrouded track above. This is a popular hill, and the wide scar shows it. All too soon the tors started to loom out of the mist. Small ones at first, but soon after passing the summit, Scurran of Lochterlandoch (Scurran= Sgoran) they grew in stature. By now the mist had gone, although sleet still fell. We enjoyed scrambling up them or walking between them through tight passageways.

I had heard that there was climbing on some of them, but until the mist fell away I saw nothing big enough. Then we came up against a 50m high tor at 247366. Easily accessible from above, the roots were exposed by the decay of granite to show some promising lines. This is easily one of the greatest tors in Scotland and well worth a visit. The penalty was the mile of hellheather that had to be negotiated to gain a track, crudely cut back to the carpark. The day finished in sunshine.

The following day was worse. While reluctantly gearing up at the Coire Cas carpark, the windows of the car next to mine exploded. The pressure outside dropped in the gale and the windows blew out. We retreated to the quiet of Abernethy Forest.

 

More on Ben Rinnes: The Freinds of Ben Rinnes

 

Corryhabbie Hill 781m

Corryhabbie Hill above Glen Suie.

'Definitely one for the skis' was once on this page, however when I finaly came to do this hill, it was early February with no snow, no ice anywhere. Instead of trying to find a winter route on Lochnagar, I set out for Glen Livet for a heatwave day on the very black Corryhabbie, a long ridge flanking Glen Rinnes and the head waters of the somehow familiarly named Glen Fiddich and Glen Livet.

I chose the longer Glen Livet approach, so as to explore the glen, and get in Cook's Cairn as well. The track in leaves the Dufftown/Tomintoul road jut past the Tamnavuillin distillery, passing a church, Catholic, as is common in highland Banffshire, and some attractive birch woods to a parking place at Allanreid. Then there was a surprise. Despite the height, the heathery and forested hills were replaced by an open plain of living farmland backed by the Ladder skyline. Obviously an outbreak of basic rocks.

The chosen route used the forest road around Cairn Muldonich , I was hoping to breakout onto the moor where the road passes the edge of the forest. The road was a signposted bike trail as is usual in the visitor friendly Glenlivet estate. I had started by a well appointed carpark with an informative, not nannying , information board.

Muldonich and Glen Livet farmland.

The forest was easy going, in this area there is little mass blanket forestry, but instead there is a patchwork of forest blocks, farms and moorland. Lots of boundaries and a rich habitat as well as being pleasing on the eye. Escape from plantations can be troublesome. Here a ride led to the edge , inhabited by blackcock, but the fence was awkward. Guarded by a stile of irritating awkwardness, it involved a climbers balance to get over . Other than a small patch of bog , that was as near to an obstacle as could be found on the hill. Avoidance is possible by following a track up from the farm at Whitefolds, this runs past the stile to an active peatbank, from here it is a short bogtrot to firm tundra at the Cadha Dubh. Another route from Allanreid is to head up Glenlivet and striking up to Carn an-t-Suidhe to enjoy a three mile level ridge of moss on fine quartzite scree, to the summit.

The ridge is the easiest going, only a little bog just before the summit harbouring the last snow fields. Here the commonest route, from the SMC guide, comes in from Glen Rinnes. This is a track that makes easy progress from a minor road at Achmore. The Muldonich route is scarcely longer.
Peat bog above Whitefolds.

The summit is a landing strip. A huge flat mossy meadow with a shelter cairn and trig point positioned arbitrarily at the northeastern end, the summit could be anywhere. Curiously a pyramidal lump of cast iron caps the trig point. I have never seen such a thing, and it is just the sort of thing that could end up in an Angry Corrie quiz. It is interesting to note that Corriehabbie was a principal triangulation point.

The summit and Ben Rinnes. Right, The trig point, and lid.

The plateau was inhabited for some weeks during the summer of 1850. The fact that this was a major survey site speaks highly as a viewpoint, and much of the northeast ,so unfamiliar to most hillgoers, is spread out. The Monadh Ruadh puts on a fine display to the south, and Ben Rinnes looms large across it's glen . Quite close, it is quite possible to do the two hills in one walk. Unusually for a Corbett there were grouse about. Far too kind for tarmachan.

Once there was a shooting tenant of Glen Fiddich called Morton. He built a road. Today Morton's road snakes up almost to the summit of Corryhabbie and then runs down the north east ridge to Glenfiddich lodge. I followed this strange road down to the watershed between Fiddich and Livet, A bit like been stuck on a bar room shelf this. No bulldozed horror, it was well built and surfaced, at first. The bends were all washed out, an attempt being made to bind the stones with bitumen. Lower down it was gullied beyond use. If you are considering cycling this hill, I sugggest you use the zig-zags as the ascent route. Walking, you are better off zig zagging down the heather.

Corryhabbie Hill from Cooks Cairn.

On the other side of the pass, with a steep hard heather climb past well built butts, is a solitary lump, Cook's Cairn. I would love to find out who Cook was, but his cairn is not too large, it is well bedecked with lichen however, showing how demotion from Corbett's tables has knocked the hill off everyone's hit list. Few backs lean against this old pile of stones nowadays.

Why the demotion? The OS 1" map shows the summit correctly, but has thrown in a spurious spot height at the edge of the plateau. If this were true, there would be a large tor or pinnacle up here. Its not, the mistake was unnoticed by the handful of pre 1980 Corbett baggers and was only shown up in the 1984 Munro's tables. The hill is still a fine viewpoint for the Cabrach in the east. Rinnes pokes up over the shoulder of Corryhabbie with the mysterious looking Ladder hills closing off the south east.

Running over the south ridge of Cook's Cairn is a track, this is the Steplar an old Month road, frequented by drovers and whisky smugglers, and now a good trip for the cyclist. A crude landrover track runs up from the pass to the summit moss of the Cairn, a hideous scar betraying lazy convenience. An early piping from a pair of golden plovers proclaim the real ownership of these heights.

Cooks Cairn and the Steplar track.

Back in Glen Livet, the higher farms are now abandoned, some ruined, some holiday cottages, but the land is still under cultivation from the bigger farms. Not only has the basic rock helped preserve habitation in the glen, but income from work in the distilleries and cheap drass for cattle feed must have affected the economics of survival up here. The barley would have come up from the Laigh of Moray

One tricky burn the Kymah, coming from a deep ravine in the Ladder Hills will hold up progress when leaving. A good grassy path turning into a track soon returns to Allanreid. Twites and a large flock of jackdaws enliveded the walkout, as did listening to Italy's debut in the Six Nations Rugby tournament. The commentators managed 'lost chickens', 'schoolboys' and 'haddocks' to describe Scotland's performance.

Energetic folk could nip up the Bochel to finish of the day, but with sore ankles from my boots I called it a day.

The two hills could easily be done together from Glen Fiddich, Coirryhabbie's ridge almost reaching Dufftown. A Fiddich-Livet traverse could be done (and repeated in the bar later) . Best of all get the skis out. Here's to the snow. Slainte!

Cooks Cairn and Carn na Bruar from Glen Livet. The Steplar passes between these hills on the way over to the Cabrach. The foot of Corryhabbie Hill butts in on the left.

Carn Mor 804m

The Lecht ski centre

It was, I suppose a wasted day. After a winter of freeze thaw, with the emphasis firmly on the thaw, Lochnagar was in good nick, and we had a club meet at Inverey. The Saturday was forecast fine, and six folk left the hut at 6 am to have a go at Parallel A and Raeburn's. They left behind a seventh member of the Party, myself and their maps. That night only four returned. The other two although safe and unharmed, encountered a little difficulty in night navigation with a climbing guide, and met the Braemar MRT the following morning as a storm arrived. Meanwhile a very frustrated odd man out headed northward knowing that as far as climbing was concerned, the winter was over, wasted.

I chose a long walk, and visited what I thought was the quieter side of Carn Mor, my last remaining Corbett east of the A9. The hill can be climbed quite easily and quickly from the old iron ore mines at Well of the Lecht on the A939 just east of Tomintoul, but a longer approach is possible through Glen Nochty and Glen Buchart just off Strathdon.

I tried to park at the end of the 'yellow' road in Glen Nochty, oblivious of the fact that you can drive in a further three kilometers in towards the hill, to just past the Lost Gallery at Aldachuie. There was snow on the ground and mindful of getting stuck, I got out and prospected the parking area for soft stuff beneath the snow. Satisfied I got back in and was about to reverse into my chosen spot when another car drove straight in to 'my' space. I hoped I had missed a particularly nasty iced rut, but they got away with it. I was surprised at someone else being here, but whilst getting ready several other cars turned up and it soon became obvious that this was going to be no ordinary Corbett day. This was going to be like Munro bagging in Perthshire.

The Walled Garden, newly liberated from the forest.

I soon got into the game of timing my departure to avoid being caught up in a crocodile, but still had time to appreciate the rather strange forest that covered Glen Nochty. Long before finding the lost gallery I passed the remains of a walled garden complete with clock tower, recently exhumed from the trees. The forestry planted the whole site, and an entire big house and outbuildings were lost beneath the sitka. Now it appears that Auchternach is being restored.

The most famous house in these parts was not lost to the trees. Here at the forest edge and at the foot of the climb of the ladder is the remains of Duffdefiance, once an answer to an easy question in the Angry Corrie quiz. The building is famed for an act of nerve when Lucky Thain sneaked over from Glen Livet and got his roof up and lum reeking before detection by the agents of the Laird, Duff. There are no squatters now, and the ruin is a popular rest spot before the modest climb of the Ladder Road. This mounth road is not so modest on the Livet side, here the ascent is steep and Thain and his beasts would have laboured hard to gain the boggy plateau. Myself, I passed on any climbing and made a quiet trip along the river valley to the west before ploughing up snowy heather to join the main route. Old maps show a track up this glen, its still there but the OS have lost it. Its one of those annoying tracks that keeps crossing the burn, but it was possible to stay on the right bank.

Duffdefiance

The summit area is either fast going over reindeer moss or purgatorial heather, and I seemed to be finding the latter. At least the snow was mostly firm and I was able to walk over the worst. Soon these bogs will be full of squeaking plovers.

I was still alone when I reached the bare summit, marked only by a trig point. Where there is a trig there is a view, and this hill rivals Carn Bhac as a Monadh Ruadh viewpoint. From here I could see all the way into the Shelterstone crag as well as Garbh Choire of Benin a'Bhuird. MacDui was particularly striking, this is another place from where this retiring giant stands out. To the south a heavily snowed up Lochnagar reminded me of what I was missing. Nearby I could see snow covered Carn Ealasid with no sign of Lecht road or ski area in between yet in contrast nearby hills such as The Buck were black. Other Corbett highlights was a very fine cone of Ben Rinnes above sprawling Corriehabbie.

The summit, the back ground hill is The Buck.

A short walk was required to see Glen Livet, the confiscated estate a patchwork of woods and living farms, a pleasant change from the usual devastation and dereliction. Below were two other starting points, the Well of the Lecht with its old iron workings and Sculan the old seminary of Catholic Glen Livet, was this the reason the estate was retained by the Crown?

Carn Mor from the Allt na Cailleach, upstream from Duffdefiance.

Do you remember Alan Bleasedale's "The Monocled Mutineer" a television series that upset a few Tories. Well the real life Percy Topliss ended up here on the run after killing a man in Hampshire. He ended up squatting on the sloped of the hill on the Lecht-Tomintoul road. All was well for him until he took to bothy vandalism. The Tomintoul policeman backed up by local muscle went up to investigate and were lucky to escape with gunshot wounds. Topliss fled south, to die in a shootout on the road in Cumberland. A far cry from the television hero.

Rather than return down the Ladder I decided visit a few of the straggling tops to the north. None of the other parties came this way and trailblazing was required.The very flat north Letterach top of Carn Mor was a boggy hell. And worse was to come on the descent towards the next top of Geal Charn. Here the groughs were many metres deep and heavy going. The good snow ribbons would force me towards unsean traps involving laborious climbs out of peaty ravines. I was tiring fast. When I reached the path shown on the OS map going over Geal Charn, I found it barely existed on the ground, and was probably the Glen Buchat branch of the Ladder, now lost beneath the moss. Easier going now, to the final hill, justly named Moss Hill accessed by a contouring bulldozed road above Duffdefiance, a road washed away at the culverts and useless. The OS have left it off their latest maps, but its only too visible on the ground. Even this small hill was a big effort, I was not feeling too well by now.

Carn Mor from the North Top(Letterach).

I was glad to descend. I was not fully fit and the cold wind was proving tiresome. There was a path down on my map, but no sign of it on the hill. A forested descent was worrying. There was to be no problem, the old track to Rhinstock still intact and I was soon admiring the buzzards and Ladylea Hill from by the old house. I was too tired for even the easiest Graham, so I chose to return to the hut, the MRT call out, and the rather unfriendly other club with whom we were sharing the booking, henceforth known as "The You Will Have Had Your Tea MC". That was my lot, the next day dawned stormy with a big snowfall, roads were closed and the gullys choked with snow. It was to be my last day of the winter.

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