Delighted to see that Donald Trump’s controversial development on the Aberdeenshire coast has been awarded a national Carbuncle Award in the category of “Worst Planning Decision of the Year” by a panel of respected architects. 

Gordon Young, editor of Prospect Magazine and www.architecturescotland.co.uk, said:

“We fully appreciate the economic arguments of allowing this scheme to go ahead – and we note some good architects are now on board to ensure a reasonable standard of design. However, our built environment seems to be getting increasingly influenced by purely commercial thinking. Glasgow Harbour, Leith Docks – and now this beautiful stretch of coastline – have apparently all been surrendered by public bodies to hard-nosed developers; a trend which is having a negative effect on the built environment.

 “What is the point of establishing planning principles and designating areas, like the location of Trump’s development, as a Site of Special Scientific Interest if the rules are simply ripped up every time somebody gets their cheque book out?”

It’s unlikely that this award will stop, or even have much effect on the development at the Menie Estate, but it may make Alex Salmond and his political pals think twice before pulling the rug out from beneath the democratic planning process in the future. 

Like thousands of others I was very disappointed (but hardly surprised) at the way Donald Trump gained planning permission for his Menie Estate golf development. The cow-towing of politicians and business folk was embarassing and put a shame on the SNP government. If, like me, you’d like to give Donald trump an award - the worst planning decision of the year - in the 2009 Carbuncle Awards go to http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/ and enter Donald and his couterie of pandering politicians and councillors for the Pock-Mark Award. Do we need more unspoiled sand dunes in Scotland? I think we do. Do we need more top class golf courses in Scotland? Certainly not. Do we need a planning process that is truly democratic and safe from the intervention of politicians? Up till now I thought we had one!

When I left home in Badenoch it was minus ten and it looked set for a glorious day of frigid cold and crisp sunshine. By Inverness the cloud was down to sea level and by the time I passed the Glascarnoch Dam the hill tops were clear but the world had managed to filter out all traces of colour and had turned to monchrome.

The waters of Loch Glascarnoch were frozen, set to the consistency and colour of concrete. The green foliage of the pines had turned to white, and each blade of grass carried its own frosted pattern. There wasn’t a breath of wind and when I turned off the car engine and stepped out the silence was overwhelming. The world was frozen solid – the murmur and mutter of every stream and burn had been choked to silenced by the weather’s iron gauntlet. I was delighted – this was exactly what I had hoped for.

Am Faochagach, 3130 ft/954m is the high point of a great tangle of hills that lie between Loch Glascarnoch and Strath Vaich. Like its neighbours, Am Faochagach, 3130 ft/954m is a big, bluff, rounded hill but does have the advantage of offering tempting glimpses into the secretive and rocky Coire Ghranda that lies between Beinn Dearg and Cona’ Mheall, and of the northern tops of Alladale and Corriemulzie.

There are only two types of weather conditions that make climbing Am Faochagach feasible. During a long, dry spell or a day like this when the boggy, waterlogged approach from the A835 has been frozen solid. You can climb this Munro via long walk-ins from the Glascarnoch Dam or from Strath Vaich in the east, but the obvious approach, from the A835 at the bridge over the Abhainnan an Torrain Dubh is both pathless and exceedingly wet. The crossing of the Abhainn a’ Gharbhrain, which drains Loch a’Gharbhrain and connects with Loch Glascarnoch can often be impossible in wet weather – at other times it usually requires you to get your feet wet by wading! In such conditions it’s worth trying to cross above Loch a’ Gharbhrain, but bear in mind that you’ll have two burns to cross - the Allt a’ Gharbhrain and the outflow from Loch Coire Lair. This hill is best kept for a period of dry weather or very cold winter weather when the ground is hard and the rivers are frozen over.

Some walkers had obviously set off before me – I followed their tracks through the white frosted grass of the moors that led to the Abhainn a’ Gharbhrain which, while still running, took some careful rock-hopping to negotiate. The river was considerably easier to cross than normal, although two of the walkers who had left before me were obviously experiencing some difficulty slightly further upstream.

Once over the waterways the ascent is fairly straightforward. A north easterly line climbs steep heather covered slopes on the south bank of the Allt na h-Uidhe and then a more easterly direction climbs steeper slopes to the spine of the hill’s elongated ridge. With clouds swirling over the summit it was easy to understand why several folk I know had reached a cairn that lies on this ridge and thought it was the summit. The top is still a good half hour away!

Am Faochagach, other than the views I’ve mentioned and good views back across to the Fannichs, doesn’t have any great outstanding feature other than exhibiting the effects of solifluction on its wide summit slopes. The effects of what, you may ask?

Under the conditions in which I climbed Am Faochagach, solifluction is very pertinent. In the freezing cold regions of the Arctic this kind of soil creep is quite commonplace and it’s caused by waterlogged earth moving down the slope over frozen ground. In the Arctic regions of course the top layers of earth can be waterlogged due to melt and slide downhill over the permafrost but here in Scotland we don’t have a permafrost, at least not nowadays. Could these effects of solifluction on Am Faochagach date back to those distant days when Scotland had glaciers, or at least a permafrost? Could be, but for the moment what it means is that every so often, on the final summit slopes of the hill, you have to step up a series of little embankments. Come to think of it I’ve seen a similar thing on A’Cailleach in the Monadh Liath!

Unfortunately cloud obscured any views from the summit cairn, but I was delighted to have climbed the hill again. I had been waiting for the right conditions and now I could tick the hill off – one of the few remaining Munros for my third round!

Map: OS Sheet 20

Distance: 9miles

Approx Time: 4-6 hours

Access Point: A835 NW end of Loch Glascarnoch

Translation: place of the shells

Pronunciation: am foechakach

Route: Start at the bridge over the Abhainnan an Torrain Dubh. Cross the moorland in an easterly direction passing between Loch Glascarnoch and Loch a’ Gharbhrain. The crossing of the Abhainn a’ Gharbhrain will entail wading to a greater or lesser degree depending on the weather conditions. Once across the river turn NE and climb the steep heather slopes to reach the main ridge just south of the summit. From there the going is easy along a broad and obvious ridge.

It looked like being a day in a million and, would you believe it, I only had a few hours at my disposal. How could I make the most of 4 hours on a day when unusually high pressure had brought freezing cold temperatures, stunningly blue skies and no wind?

I wanted to get up high but with a minimum of effort so I went to Cairn Gorm. No, I didn’t go up the hill on the funicular train; that’s against my conservationst convictions, so I left the upper car park in temperatures of minus seven and quickly warmed myself up with a steep climb up Cairngorm’s Sron an Aonaich ridge.

No sooner had I started than a couple of young lads started up the path behind me. In no time they had overtaken me but stopped for a breather about 50 metres ahead. I overtook them, then they passed me again as though all the hounds of hell were chasing them. A little further on they stopped again and I plodded past. One of them glanced up, smiled and made a remark about hares and tortoises. That made me feel good…

Cairn Gorm’s Sron an Aonaich ridge might be steep but it gets you up the hill quickly and I was keen to pass the ski paraphernalia as quickly as possible. The Ptarmigan station, with a tantalising aroma of frying bacon coming from it, came and went and at last I found myself free of the fences and ironmongery. Now I was walking up crisp neve snow towards the summit weather station and a surprise. Despite the incredibly beautiful weather behind me everything to the south, beyond the deep trench that cradles Loch Avon, was covered in a sea of cloud with the mountain tops appearing like islands. It was the most impressive temperature inversion I’ve ever seen.

This phenomenon occurs when the air is colder in the glens than it is on the summits and the cloud sinks, leaving the tops cloud-free. Beinn Mheadhoin, Beinn a-Bhuird and Ben Avon, Derry Cairngorm, Ben Macdui, Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochan Uaine and Braeriach all thrust their rounded tops up through the fluffy sea, as they were all floating on an ocean of white candy floss.

My chosen route was ideal for the conditions, a cloud-free roller-coaster over the tops of the northern corries – over Cairn Gorm itself, then over the cliffs of Coire an t-Sneachda and Cairn Lochain. In summer this is a bit of a tourist route, skirting the broad expanse of the Cairngorm plateau, but in winter conditions it’s a short but rewarding outing offering full frontal views of the corniced, ice-bound cliffs of the two corries.

I stopped outside the stone-built weather station to drink my coffee and savour the unexpected warmth of the sun. The views were extensive, out over the Haughs of Abernethy and Cromdale towards the waters of the Moray Firth. Closer at hand the granite tors on the great whaleback ridges of Beinn Avon and Beinn Mheadhoin stood black against the sea of cloud and once I left the relative comfort of my shelter the great flanks of the Cairngorm Plateau dazzled white in the sun.

Descending from Cairn Gorm the snow was concrete hard and great sheets of ice tempted the unwary. The cliffs of Coire an t-Sneachda were loud with the shouts and calls of snow and ice climbers and by the time I reached the top of Cairn Lochain I could stand by the cairn and gaze down on hardy climbers negotiating the deep-freeze delights of the gullies and ridges.

Easy slopes drop down from Cairn Lochan to the flats of Lurcher’s Meadow but first I wanted to have a look into the deep trench of the Lairig Ghru. It was as I’ve never seen it in over thirty years of living in the shadow of these hills. It was as though someone had stuffed the defile, the pass that runs through the Cairngorms between Aviemore and Braemar, with cotton wool. Only the top couple of hundred feet of Braeriach, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul could be seen. It was a remarkable sight.

Even more remarkable was that immediately below me, in the depths between the Sron na Lairige ridge of Braeriach and Lurcher’s Meadow, the cloud was moving, in a south-north direction, filling up the pass, bubbling and foaming like a river of floss, a swiftly moving cascade of cloud. And overhead the sun continued to shine from a deep blue sky and where I sat, overwhelmed by it all, there wasn’t even a breath of wind.

Map: OS Sheet 36

Distance: 4 hours

Approx Time: 8 mls

Start/Finish: Cairn Gorm car park

Route: From the car park in Cairn Gorm climb S to the Ptarmigan Bowl then to the summit of Cairn Gorm. Descend in a a W direction to just below the top of the Fiacaill a’ Choire Cas from where a footpath runs over the summit rocks above the cliffs of Coire an t-Sneachda. Descend to the head of Coire Domhain and then climb to the top of Coire an Lochain. Taking care the avoid the cliffs and the cornices descend in an ESE direction then veer N to gain the broad ridge that bounds the Lurcher’s Gully. Descend the ridge, cross the Allt  Coire an t-Sneachda and follow the path back to the car park.

TGO’s Emily Rodway talks to Graham Forbes, author of the book Rock and Roll Mountains

 

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Climbing the highest mountain in the Southern Highlands, in fantastic winter conditions

 

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I’m delighted to say I’ve been asked to deliver the Annual Lecture of the Munro Society on Saturday April 18 at the Birnam Institute, Birnam, Perthshire.
I’ll be talking about Wild Scotland – A Spirit of Place, and will self-indulgently concentrate on those areas that have formed the bedrock of my outdoors career, the hill and mountains of the Scottish highlands and islands. With Scotland being able to boast some of the finest access legislation in the world, I’ll discuss the opportunities that are available for climbers, hill-walkers, Munro-baggers and backpackers, including some footage from my recent BBC television programme on the Sutherland Trail. However, the underlying theme will beone of protection and conservation and why it is the responsibility of outdoor folk to care for the wild places of Scotland..
The Munro Society was founded in 2002 and is open to anyone was has completed a “round” of the Munros. Much of the thinking behind the Society’s formation was to “give something back to the mountains”, a concept that strikes a chord among many hill-goers and a theme that I’ve discussed often enough on this website.

Among the initiatives undertaken so far by the Society are the following:
1) Establishing an Archive dedicated to preserving material relating to Munros and Munroists.
2) Monitoring the condition of Munros and Furths in terms of erosion and other man-made intrusions (the Mountain Quality Indicators, or MQIs for short). This is an ongoing process and a central database has been established.
3) The Society has organised the re-measuring of those mountains just above and below 3,000 ft with the latest measuring equipment, completing this task for Foinaven and Beinn Dearg (Torridon) in 2007.
4) The Society has actively supported campaigns such as that to extend the Cairngorm National Park and that against the Beauly to Denny power line

The Munro Society encourages new members from the ranks of Munroists and an application form can be downloaded from the Society’s website at www.themunrosociety.com. There is an active social side with an Annual Dinner and several weekends throughout the year spent among the hills.

Following the television programme “Sutherland - The Empty Lands?” I’ve had quite a number of people contact me asking me for more details of the actual route. I should point out that the route is one that I made up myself, following various tracks and footpaths. It is not an “official” trail with signposts etc. Having said that it is fairly easy to follow with one section of off-trail walking (over the shoulder of Canisp) and a little bit of road walking, including one section down to Kylescu which can be relatively busy (for the NW Highlands that is…).

I hope the following is of help to prospective Sutherland Trail hikers…

Maps: OS 1:50,000 Sheet 15 (Loch Assynt); OS 1:50,000 Sheet 9 (Cape Wrath); OS 1:50,000 Sheet 10 (Strath Naver).

Distance: 70-90 miles, depending which hills you climb en route.

Start: Lochinver

Finish: Tongue

Time: 5-8 days

Route: From Lochinver take the road to Glencanisp Lodge then follow the argo track beyond, past Suileag and Suilven, (option to climb Suilven) past Loch na Gainimh and Lochan Fada to Loch a’ Chroisg. Leave the track here and climb in a NNE direction, over the shoulder of Canisp and down to the River Loanan which is followed to Inchnadamph.

From Inchnadaph pass the private hostel and, opposite a footbridge on the river, take a subsidiary stalkers’ path up into Coire Fleodach and over the Bealach na h-Uidhe. Follow the winding path to the Eas a’ Chual Aluinn waterfall then continue downhill to Loch na Gainmhich. Follow the roadside to Kylesku. Cross the bridge, follow the road to Kylestrome then take the estate road through the Reay Estate above Loch an Leathiad Bhuain. Cross the Bealach nam Fiann and descend to Achfart and Lochmore Lodge. Follow the road NW past Achfary and cross the river to a track which runs past the keeper’s house by Loch Stack to the locked bothy at Lone. Continue to Foinaven or head E into Strath Luib na Seilich and over the Bealach na Feithe. Descend to Gobernuisgach Lodge, follow the estate road NE to a distinct bend in the road. From here follow the fisherman’s track N beside the Strathmore Riveer to Dun Dornagill. Follow the minor road N from here to the start of the Moine Path which is then followed to Kinloch Lodge and the remaining miles on the quiet minor road to Tongue with the option of finishing on Ben Loyal.

Hotels: Inchnadamph Hotel: 01571 822202. Friendly staff, basic accommodation, local ales. Popular hotel with fishermen. Kylesku Hotel: 01971 502231. Reasonably priced, friendly staff, fabulous food, local ales, sensational location. Highly recommended. Tongue Hotel: 01847 611206. Excellent local staff, upmarket so slightly more expensive than the other two, fabulous food and wine, not such a good selection of beers. A welcoming, luxurious hotel for the end of a long walk

Transport: There is a railway service to Lairg and from Lairg there is a daily postbus service to Lochinver. Alternatively you can access Lochinver via Tim Dearman Coaches from Inverness. There is also a postbus from Tongue to Lairg, alternatively take a taxi from Tongue to Durness where you can pick up the Tim Dearnan Coach back to Inverness (or Lochinver if you’ve left a car there)

www.timdearmancoaches.co.uk (044[0] 1349 883585

www.traveline.org.uk (0871 200 2233

Great plumes of spray were being blown over the Loch Loyne Dam and the white horses on the loch’s surface wouldn’t have disgraced the Corrievrecken whirpool. I pulled in, killed the car engine and felt the wind buffet the vehicle from side to side. A splatter of rain hit the windscreen and I seriously considered doing a three-point turn to head back home again.

With daylight hours in short supply and a weather forecast that warned of “extreme buffeting” on the high tops, I thought I had chosen my hill quite carefully. Meall Dubh is the highest point in a vast expanse of high moorland that’s wedged between Loch Garry and Glen Moriston, a Corbett that I previously climbed on a sunny morning en route to Skye. It’s that kind of hill – relatively diminutive, easily climbed but with the big advantage of being a great viewpoint. Or at least it used to be. A 17-turbine wind farm now graces the summit slopes, but more of that later.

Bearing in mind Meall Dubh’s relative ease of ascent I thought it would be an ideal leg-stretch to ease out the old year, an opportunity to drift uphill without too much effort and mentally re-charge myself for the year ahead. No pressure, no risks, no fight against the short daylight hours. A Sunday stroll, with good views from the top.

It took a fair bit of mental discipline to propel me out of the car and into Gore-Tex. A complete head to foot covering. The big plus was that it was mild – the big minus was that being encased in waterproofs I’d soon overheat, but I guess I’d rather be too warm than wet.

The Allt Garbh-Dhoire, normally a pleasant little burn, was in full spate and I had to follow it high into the spacious bowels of Coire nam Brach before I could cross it. Even its minor tributaries were white with swollen meltwater.

By now, fairly high on the hill, I was being buffeted about by a mischevious, rather than a deadly, wind. Every ten minutes, as regular as clockwork, a rain shower would sweep across the moors in full drenching mode but each shower had the good grace to signal its approach by a sudden darkening of the sky behind me.

By now I had realised I had scored a tactical, if unintentional, point. All the way uphill beside the burn I had been squelching over sodden wet ground, but by being forced high into the corrie I had come close to the broad ridge that runs north from an undistinguished top called Carn Ban to the rocky top of Clach Criche. And compared to the slopes below it the ridge was relatively dry underfoot. I also now had the advantage of a following wind that pushed and shoved me along the undulations with great enthusiasm. And still, every ten minutes, the showers would sweep across the hillside, darkening and soaking, all before it.

Between Clach Criche and the descent before the final climb to the Corbett, a rosary-chain of high level-lochans, still frozen, filled the hollows between each undulation. The gusty wind was blowing the water that lay on top of the ice into mini-spumes, swirling and blowing like geysers, a sight that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before on the Scottish hills.

As I climbed the final slopes to Meall Dubh, with the wind now becoming a little more menacing than mischevious, I knew that the views I had hoped for had become greatly diluted by the cloud and rain. Away to the north the dim outline of the Glen Shiel hills were enhanced a little by snow streaks and behind me, with the waters of Loch Loyne lapping at their skirts, the big hills of Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach were barely discernable. One view I didn’t expect, spoiling any hint of a panorama to the south over Loch Garry, was the view of 17 wind turbines, barely a few hundred metres from the summit cairn. What crass, insensitive planner allowed permission for such a siting of these hideous windmills?

People keep telling me we need these things to meet various (and notional?) renewable targets but surely, as a nation that’s proud of its glorious landscapes, a nation that relies on tourism, such industrialisation should be kept to brownfield sites, or at least close to the centres of population that requires the energy?

Despite the weather I had been enjoying myself, so rather than spoil the day with a rant I simply crammed a sandwich into my mouth, had a drink of coffee in the shelter of the huge cairn (the summit cairn is marked by a small pile of stones close to the big cairn), and hightailed it back downhill again, taking a direct line back to the Allt Garbh-Dhoire. By the time I reached the car I was bone dry beneath my waterproofs, which just proves there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!

Map: OS Sheet 34

Distance: About 6 miles

Approx Time: 3-5 hours

Start/Finish: A87 at Loch Loyne Dam

Route: Leave the A87 opposite the road to Loch Loyne Dam. Immediately across the road a track runs up to a small hydro dam. To the right of the dam a very faint track follows the W bank of the Allt Garbh-Dhoire. Follow ythe stream until you can cross it (difficult in spate) then head due E to Clach Criche. From here an undulating ridge runs in a rough ENE direction with a number of lochans lying in the hollows. At the end of the ridge descend into a large corrie before climbing heather slopes to the summit of Meall Dubh. A large conical cairn sits close to the summit but the top itsel;f is marked by a very small cairn. Return the same way or take a direct line of descent from the summit, skirting N of the Clach Criche ridge, back to the Allt Garbh-Dhoire

www.cameronmcneish.co.uk