A 3 part circular walk - the first part was all ‘up’ on good paths. The second part was navigating a steep drop-off from the summit area across thick heather through deep and boggy peat terrain.
The third part was a bit of a slog on stone track (used for grouse shoots) back to the vehicle.
We had some amazing opportunities to see the rock weathering at height, plus see the local impact of grouse shooting on the land.
Wind at the top was near gale force, but we were protected from this wind by the mountain on the return leg. This all was completed using only the viewranger app - we had no map of the area bar the one framed on the wall at our cottage. So a long time was spent observing this and memorising significant points the night before. The phone app was great as usual - I have a lot of trust in it and battery life was fine as usual. Taking all this into account I felt very prepared and happy to walk it.
Area :
Tomintoul to Banff (Morven)
East of Grantown-on-Spey and northeast of the A939 Old Military Road through Tomintoul sit a number of peaks above 600m. Some of the hills are part of the Cairngorms Nation Park and others lie outside its northeast border. Unfortunately none of them qualify for Munro status and the biggest stands at 871m (Morven) in the far southeast of the area.
