Walking Highland Perthshire. Ronald Turnbull

Long Leachas from Culra Bothy

       57 Short Leachas from Culra Bothy

       58 Ben Alder to Bealach Breabag (descent)

       PART 8: RANNOCH MOOR

       59 The Road to the Isles

       60 Two Munros and Beinn Pharlagain

       61 Meall Buidhe and Cam Chreag

       62 Tracks to the Foxes Bog

       63 Leagag

       PART 9: PITLOCHRY AND BLAIR ATHOLL

       64 Pitlochry and its loch

       65 Ben Vrackie and River Garry

       66 Blair Castle to Glen Tilt

       67 Glen Tilt and Carn a’ Chlamain

       68 Old Bridge of Tilt to Dearg, Mheadhonach

       69 Bruar Falls and Glen Banvie

       70 Bruar Falls and Blair

       Summit summary: Beinn a’ Ghlo

       71 Around Beinn a’ Ghlo (with optional ascent of Ben Vuirich)

       72 Beinn a’ Ghlo from Loch Moraig

       73 Carn nan Gabhar north ridge to Glen Tilt (descent)

       74 Glen Tilt to Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain by Carn Torcaidh

       PART 10: DRUMOCHTER

       The Atholl Passes

       75 Glen Tilt

       76 Minigaig Pass to Glen Feshie

       77 Minigaig Pass the ancient way

       78 Gaick Pass

       79 A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag by the Crooked Corrie

       80 Udlamains and the Sow

       Appendix A Route summary table

       Appendix B Access (especially in the stalking season)

       Appendix C Shops, accommodation and transport

      INTRODUCTION

      Meall Garbh summit ridge, the Tarmachans (Route 12)

      For the Atholl highlander of 400 years ago there were two ways of treating any passing hillwalker. Arrive at teatime, and it would be a stool in front of the peat fire, eggs still warm from the midden, a glass of heather ale and a wee skirl on the pipes. That tradition continues in the main street of Pitlochry, perhaps the world capital of the nice cup of tea and slab of shortbread.

      But meet him on a winter night, in his filthy old kilt and a thieving chill in his eye – you’re about to lose all your livestock and maybe also your life.

      So if you think of Perthshire as little tea-shop towns like Crieff and Aberfeldy, think again. At the back of Blair Atholl you can walk over the tops for four or five days, and when your feet next touch tarmac you’re somewhere north of Aberdeen. In the wilds of Rannoch Moor, your only foothold is a bleached limb of pine, bog-preserved over tens of centuries. No longer ago than 1980, a Mr J C Donaldson discovered in an old guidebook an unlisted and unrecorded Munro. It was called Ben Feskineth. At 3530ft, this secret summit was by no means a marginal Munro. And where was it? Ben Feskineth lay undiscovered in deepest, peatiest Perthshire.

Jolly green giants

      In the event, Feskineth turned out to be a misspelling of Beinn Heasgarnich (now, amusingly, respelled again on the Explorer map as Sheasgarnaich). Heasgarnich’s high grassy sides are steep, but not unpleasantly so, and hold snow even in unpromising winters. Perthshire’s grassy, pebbly plateaux and rounded ridges are places to relax after the rigours of Scotland’s rocky north and west. But relaxation is relative, when Scottish hills are concerned. Perthshire’s mountains may be soft edged, and noted for their wild flowers. But easy they aren’t.

      Schiehallion across Dunalastair Water (Route 46)

      Jolly green giants: those are the hills of Perthshire. And from Schiehallion to Atholl, from Rannoch to Ben Vrackie, there are a lot of them. Soggy grass slopes drop to peaty cols. Cross five or six brown streams, hop in and out of a hag, and get back to grips with another of the long grass slopes. In March and April that grass becomes crisp snow, ready for the kick of a stiff four-season boot or the snick of a crampon. The boggy cols freeze over, the lonely curlew comes back from the seaside, and Ben Lawers and Meall nan Tarmachan look all alpine against the sky.

      If Perthshire’s slogan is ‘the Perfect Centre’, then the centre of Perthshire is Schiehallion. Standing atop its tall tent shape of off-white quartzite, you look west along Loch Rannoch to Rannoch Moor, Argyll and Ben Nevis. Northwest, Ben Alder bulges big and serious, but is just 66m too low to be the highpoint of Perthshire. It’s also a couple of miles outside the boundary – but included in this book anyway for its approaches from Loch Rannoch.

      Northwards lie the heather humps of Drumochter. Northeast is Atholl, and the dinosaur ridgeback of Beinn a’ Ghlo – with the Cairngorms a snowy white line behind.

      Eastwards, though, it’s Loch Tummel of the bright birches and the red rowan. It’s Ben Vrackie, a quick up and back from Pitlochry in time for a nice cup of tea and some shortbread. Ben Chonzie rises green and yellow like a ripening avocado. To the south, beyond Ben Lawers, Loch Tay lies grey in its long hollow. Hidden within the green moorland are the ancient shielings (summer sheep pastures),