Area: Cairngorms, Scotland
Braemar's home mountain, quite unusual for Scotland in that it is an obvious ascent from the centre of a village. I was in two minds this morning: tired after two big days, and the weather was on the change, but I wondered whether I should max out the trip with a longer outing up Beinn Iutharn Mor and its neighbours. Some light drizzle and lowering cloud as I had my morning coffee made the decision for me: I reverted to 'plan b', which was a proper mountain run up Morrone. I could see the mast on the top from behind my camping place, so went from the van rather than the village - up through steep woods to a pond and then a superb contouring path through Morrone Birkwood, a very special habitat apparently, of 'downy' birch and juniper woodland. On emerging, the main hill gate and path up Morrone begins - clearly very popular (I think there is a race up it attached to the Highland Games). I was a bit tired, and it was a bit of a slog, but I made the summit in 27 minutes from the base of the path. At times, the sun peeked through and it then got pretty hot. On the whole though, I felt my decision was the right one, with mist down over the Cairngorms and only Lochnagar clear. I had a rest on the top, then took the obvious track to the north which then descends towards the Glenshee road after a mile or so. This descent was quite lengthy with lots of switchbacks, but led to a quiet tarmac road back to Braemar via the golf course. Unwisely, I then cut inland following my nose through a series of complex paths which never quite went where I expected them to! I ended up covering 17k with 2000ft of climbing, taking two hours, so a longer and more tiring outing than I had intended.
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