Cairngorms Sgor Gaoith
first, I felt rather than saw it. The steam around me seemed too thin in my nostrils; I felt a sudden, almost intangible, warmth. Looking up I saw clouds shredding and a glorious blue sky materialising. Suddenly I was above the clouds, looking down at a vast swathe of Scotland wrapped in a pure white blanket. Nearby the summits of the Cairngorms poked through, golden in the morning sun, and here and there brindled with remnants of last winter’s snow.
Beneath a blazing sun I struck north along the narrow trod that crosses
Carn Ban Mor. The summit of Sgor Gaoith, already busy with walkers, lured me on inexorably.
The summit cairn is perched at the very edge of Sgor
Gaoith’s precipitous east face. Way below was Loch Einich; except the loch wasn’t there! Instead I gazed down at the top of a white, cotton wool-like sea of fog.
Yet even as I stood there I heard gasps of wonder escaping from other walkers standing nearby. As we watched, the sea of fog began to rise and shred; it was like seeing steam evaporating from a boiling kettle. First appeared the northern tip of Loch Einich, the mere hint of a gem; as the fog thinned and rolled up and away the entire loch, a deep blue reflection of the sky above took shape. Nobody could tear their eyes away from this beautiful unfolding scene. I wandered north an easy kilometre to the minor bump of Sgoran Dubh Mor, a Munro once but no more. Still, the views were Munro-worthy!
With the dark plantations of lower Glen Feshie way below
I began the return leg southwestwards. Traversing easy, heather-blessed ground I soon found myself in the shallow defile that gives birth to the Allt a’ Chrom-alltain, a gentle burn that had me drinking my way along the ever-improving path that was to lead me all the way to the woods below.
The trees came sparse at first and offered only slight relief from the heat of a glorious sunny afternoon; once on the track through the final plantation proper, the smell of pine and rich woodland earth made for a cooling, idyllic kilometre.
Arriving at the metalled road I was faced with 3.5km of tramping south to reach the car; even so this was no hardship, more a quiet opportunity to relish in my mind’s eye the walk I’d just enjoyed.
Braeriach from Sgor Gaoith; Loch Einich; Summit crags of Sgor Gaoith
Further information
Maps: OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 36 (Grantown and Aviemore); Harvey 1:40,000 British Mountain Map, Cairngorms
Transport: None to the start
Information: Aviemore iCentre, 01479 810930.
Eller Gill, and follow it up to
Silverband Mine.
Track SE to meet lane at
Knock Ore Gill. Lane
climbing NE to meet Pennine Way,
then Pennine Way NW to Great
Dun Fell.
Pennine Way NW over Little
Dun Fell, dropping to
Crowdundle Head, then climbing
WNW to Cross Fell.
Pennine Way descends N,
then NNW to meet the
Pennine Journey bridleway at
Curricks. Cross W over the broad
ridge and continue W, descending
past disused mine remains, before
turning S, then SW to approach
Kirkland Hall.
Continue S along the
Pennine Journey path
(indistinct at times) across the last
of the moor, then across several
fields to return to the start.