The Herald - The Herald Magazine
The walk The overlooked Geal Charn
Location: Inverness-Shire Grade: Distance: Time:
Across the wind-ruffled waters of Lochan na h-Earba, the darkly intimidating crags of Binnein Shuas rose from heathery skirts. I had taken shelter from the blusters in a deep borrow-pit at the side of the estate road and I was trying to recall the line of one of my earliest rock climbs.
Ardverikie Wall, although not difficult by today’s standards, is a classic rock climb, 500 feet of lean climbing that traces a route up the pale micro-granite of the cliffs. Even though I had difficulty recognising the route of the climb, I could still taste the fear as I remembered gazing up at what appeared to be a completely blank wall. Once the first awkward pitch was climbed, the angle of the wall seemed to lean back a bit. The rock was rough, the holds were obvious and it turned out to be a fairly straightforward climb, but what I remember most about that day was the majestic situation of the crag.
The best of scenery is usually a happy combination of features, in this case mountains, rocky crags, lochs and pines, and Ardverikie has an abundance of all such ingredients. That’s why the star of the BBC TV series Monarch of the Glen isn’t daft Duncan, glum Gollie or even sexy Lexie, but the tumbled, pine-covered landscape that extends from the silver towers of Ardverikie House. Built in 1840, Victoria and Albert were almost persuaded to buy the place but settled for Balmoral instead.
As I emerged from my wind-free borrow-pit I was half tempted to simply follow the track alongside Lochan na h-Earba and then drop down to enjoy Loch Laggan’s wooded shores but the pull of the high tops was too strong. Despite the melancholy mask of grey cloud that loitered in the west, the wind was tearing great strips from the cloud in the sky above me and to my right, beyond the rocky shoulder of Creag Pitridh, the summit of Geal Charn looked to be clear.
Some time ago I made a case for Ardverikie’s Geal Charn to revert to its historical name of Mullach Coire an Iubhair, the peak of the corrie of the yew. There are at least another 15 Geal Charns lurking in the Badenoch area and a succession of guidebook writers have collectively dumped them all into the “dull hill” category. Mullach Coire an Iubhair, the name given in the 1934 Scottish Mountaineering Club guide, is worthy