No drama, just entertainment, in Drumochter round
Four hills offer a brilliant day out
Part of a tight cluster of four Munros just west of the Drumochter Pass, A’ Mharconaich will be a familiar site to anyone travelling on the A9.
A’ Mharconaich is the most distinct of these mountains, its shapely, rolling outline well seen from the roadside. The Drumochter Munros have a bit of a bad rep among some hillwalkers. They’re often dismissed as “boggy, shapeless lumps”, worthy of climbing only because of their Munro status.
Sure, they’re not dramatic. They don’t have towering, rocky peaks, and their ascents aren’t as exciting as those of certain other hills, but they have their good points. Their proximity to the roadside gives easy access; the height of your likely start point means much of the hard work is already done; it’s a tight-knit group, meaning you can get all four summits in a single trip. Pick the right day and this is a pleasant, high-level moorland yomp with superb views into the Ben Alder range.
A’ Mharconaich is a special hill for me as it was my 141st Munro – the halfway point. I walked the route with my friend Ron Dorn and what made the day even more memorable was that the hill was his 100th Munro – a double celebration!
We walked them in early April, while winter snows still lay and the frozen ground made easy walking of the boggy lower slopes. In very changeable weather, we walked all four Munros, sometimes enjoying superb views, while at other times howling wind and snow showers reduced visibility to almost zero.
En route to A’ Mharconaich, in one of those sudden squally, nasty showers, we met a walker stumbling out of the mist just at the cairn of the lower summit of Beinn Udlamain. We shouted a few words, he took our picture, and then the mist swallowed him once more. We never saw another soul all day.