Munros + Corbetts - 2009

03 April 2009 ......... Garn Chuilinn

This is a corbett to the west of the Monadhliath, and to the east of Fort Augustus in the Great Glen. It is relatively easy to access from Fort Augustus, but for me, that is a long drive up from Dundee, so I decided to try and do it from the Laggan side, by cycling up the General Wade road that runs from the Spey valley up and over the Corrieyairack Pass, and down to Fort Augustus.

The plan was to cycle over the pass, round the side of Meallan Odhar, to somewhere around NH 393 004. Then contour round Meallan Odhar, drop down into Glen Tarff, then walk up the SW side of Garn Chuilinn.

This road has a long history, it was a drove road since way back in time, and in the early 1700`s, as part of the road network set up by General Wade, it was upgraded. It was a key route for General Wade, as it connected the strategically important site at Fort Augustus with the main Perth to Inverness route, and the Ruthven Barracks at Kingussie. The public road running west from Laggan and Spey Dam still goes over Garve Bridge, which was one of the bridges built by General Wade.

Well I`m afraid to say that General Wade would be turning in his grave if he knew what man has done to his road in the last few years.

I discovered to my cost that it is virtually uncyclable for most of the way from the end of the tarmac just before Melgarve, right up to the top of Corrieyairack Pass. For much of its length, there is no sign of a surface, it is just boulders. In other places the foundations of the road have been ripped up, and nothing is left but even bigger boulders. From the internet, I gather that the whole road is in the care of Historic Scotland. I don`t know when they took over responsibiity for the road. There are long sections of the climb up where it is obvious that the road is used as a river when it is wet, yet no attempts have been made to divert the water off the road. Even though it was a dry spell when I was there, there was still water running down the hairpins. At the bottom of the hairpins, the river has at some point in time flooded onto the road and not only washed away the road, it has left a gouge nearly 2 metres deep for quite a distance - and that didn`t happen overnight. So it looks as if there is a fair history of neglect.

The net result of all this was that I pushed my bike for a substantial part of the 4km`s or so up from Melgarve, until I eventually abandoned it near the bottom of the hairpins. So that used up quite a lot of extra time.

When I abandoned it, I also unloaded some bits and pieces I didn`t need up the hill, and hid them in the heather, just beside a small patch of snow, so I could find them again.

Walking up the hairpins doesn`t take too long, and as soon as I got to the top of the pass, the track was in perfect condition, and I could have cycled quite easily from then on !

Apart from the snow drifts, that is, of which there were quite a lot.

However that didn`t matter, as I had decided on a change of route - instead of continuing down to NH 393 004, I changed the master plan so that I would climb to the top of the pass, then contour round the west side of Corrieyairack Hill, drop down to Glen Tarff, and up the SE side of Garn Chuilinn. Well I did the rather tedious contour, then started the descent - and it was a very long way down. Then I had considerable difficulty getting across the river, and ended up with a rather wet foot, after I slipped off one of the boulders.

Grrr!

The climb up again seemed endless, but eventually it flattened out - and the summit was just in front of me.

Except I couldn`t get to it - there was a long thin loch between me and the summit. So I wasted a whole lot of time walking all the way round this loch, over the 708 metre summit, and then up to the summit of Garn Chuilinn. At last !

Now I had a choice - should I go back the same way, fight with the river, and have the long climb back up onto Corrieyairack Hill. or should I head eastwards, round the deep part of Glen Tarff, cross the river up at the head of the valley, then swing SW back on to Corrieyairack Hill. It is a much longer walk, but there would be much less of a drop and subsequent climb.

Eventually I decided to do the second option, so set off northeastwards, down to the loch, found a narrows where I could cross the loch, zigzagged round the SW end of the next loch, along the ridge above the steep drop down to Glen Tarff and headed toward the head of the valley.

I was about half way along the ridge when I saw in front of me - a huge dam and a resevoir. Where did they come from - they are not on my map. The whole of the flat area around NH 460 030 is now underwater. The dam goes right across the head of the glen, just above where the glen splits into two.

Eventually I decided that they would be connected with the new hydro generating station at Glen Doe. The dam is still getting built, but I gather it is already generating electricity. I believe that the Glen Doe hydro station is the last possible large capacity hydro generation site that can be built in Scotland - there are no more suitable places in Scotland suitable for building large capacity hydro generators.

One of the side effects of this development is that Scottich and Southern have built a new road - I think it probably uses the original route up Glen Doe, but it has now been extended. and curves around to the NE of Garn Chuilinn, right up to, and across the dam. So once the construction has finished, you will be able to cycle from Fort Augustus right up to the NE flank of Corrieyairack Hill. So that will be a good run.

Anyway, I carried on along the ridge, dropped down to the dam, and walked across it. So it actually saved me quite a bit of time, though the dam is surprisingly long, and takes a long time to walk along. After the dam, the new road carries on in a south-westerly direction for maybe about 500 metres or so, until a dam in the river Uisg a Chaime, which dissappears into a pipe, and runs into the resevoir, instead of into the River Tarff.

From there it isn`t too bad a trek up the ridge, then across and up to Corrieyairack Hill, and down to the pass. So back to pick up my bike.

Now you remember those bits and pieces that I hid in the heather beside the patch of snow ?

Well the snow had melted - not a sign of it. So I had one heck of a job finding my bits and pieces.

It would be nice to say that I had a nice cycle run back down - but I can`t. The road is so rough you can`t even cycle down a lot of it. So it was back to pushing.

It was a good job the clocks had changed a few days before, and also that there was a moon, otherwise it would have been pitch black by the time I got back to my van.

I don`t know where the public road actually stops - I cycled up from Garve Bridge, but the tarmac goes almost to Melgarve. So I don`t know if the section from Garve Bridge to Melgarve is public road or not.

You can see a very small section of General Wade`s original handiwork a few hundred metres up from Melgarve - you can see the boulder edging, and the laid stone in-fill. However don`t blink or you will miss it, it is only a few metres in length.

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