Meall Chuaich (Munro): Sunday 24th April 2016
Our cottage for this week is “Kintulloch” in the small hamlet of Inveruglas, situated on the edge of the Inshriach Forest, overlooking Strathspey, the Insh Marshes RPSB Reserve and the Monadhliath Mountains.
Today we took the opportunity afforded by a still clear day to make our first Munro ascent. A fairly easy 14km there and back route (7km each way) with 614m of ascent to the summit at 951m. The first part of the route follows a concrete aqueduct to a hydroelectric station, at the southern end of Loch Chuaich, from which the true ascent begins. The path is fairly easy to follow through heather moorland, with some steep sections but little in the way of bog, to a more rocky summit with a large round summit cairn and magnificent mountain views all around. There was a little snow on the ground at the top, but nothing requiring any adjustment to our footwear. We could see that Cairn Gorm and the mountains around it had a good deal of snow still on them – so our crampons may be required if we go there.
This route was good for wildlife with more than 100 Red Grouse seen and heard; Ring Ouzels were singing and flying around in the lower sections; our first Greenshanks and Common Sandpipers for the year were in the stream and around the loch; higher up we found a nice pair of Mountain Hares and on the way down a pair of Ptarmigan were on the path. Click here for video of Mountain Hare and Click here for video of Ptarmigan