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Of Bothies and “Bagging”

A plan to climb some remote Munros

by Tish Woulds

There are two large, very remote hills lying in an isolated area of the highlands between Atholl Forest and the Cairngorms. They are a long way from any starting point, and they represented the biggest ‘unsolved problem’ to the completion of my ‘Munro Round’. The plan was to tackle An Sgarsoch and Carn an Fhidhleir and the Beinn a’Ghlo massif with the one walk in, ambitious, but realistic, given reasonable weather. I had attempted Beinn a’Ghlo before but had been thwarted by snow and high winds. Now on this second attempt we would walk up Glen Tilt with food for three days, pitch a tent at the second bridge, allowing us access to Beinn a’Ghlo, and then walk on to the bothy. From this base we could climb An Sgarsoch and Carn an Fhidhleir.

It was overcast and grey on the first day and it took three hours with big loads to walk to the bridge past Forest Lodge. With the tent pitched we went on past Dun Mor beside the Tarf Water to the bothy or so called “Tarf Hotel”, due to the AA sign on the door. We found it clean and comfortable and as we had no wet gear, we were off to a good start! The bothy is situated in the wide valley of the Tarf, alongside the Feith Uaine Mhor stream that gives it its name. Next day we navigated in poor visibility up the Sron na Macraneich and onto An Sgarsoch where the sun started to burn through the mist. With improving views we traversed to Carn an Fhidhleir and back down to the bothy, both Munros ticked in three and a half hours. We packed and returned to the tent where the evening was clear, chilly and moonlit.

We woke to a thick frost that gave a very cold start but we soon warmed up as we walked u p the Tilt and climbed onto Meall a’Mhuirich to begin our traverse of the three Beinn a’Ghlo summits. The weather improved steadily and we had great views of the whole massif as well as the Cairnwell hills, southern Cairngorms and Lairig Ghru. A good descent from Carn Liath found us back at the tent in nine hours ten minutes, a very good day.

Another icy and frosty morning, another cold start and after packing we walked down Glen Tilt to Forest Lodge, dumped our packs and sped up Carn a’Chlamain in bright sunshine. From the top we could see our routes and hills of the previous three days. It was most satisfying! Then it was the long walk out which was tiring but helped along by beautiful views up and down the Glen and by the striking autumn colours, most especially of the beeches. A well thought out plan for these hills gave us an excellent mountaineering experience and me some useful ‘ticks’!

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Last updated: 20 March 2008