Day 17(11) : Faskally to Gleann Fearnach

Monday 21st May 26km 1550m ascent 2 Corbetts

A calm bright morning and after a discussion on wildlife, birds in particular, with a chef from Newcastle who was pitched beside me, I started the day without a jacket on the riverside path to Killiecrankie.

It is easy to see why this area is such a tourist attraction with the beautiful scenery and riverside walks that you don’t realise are there as you speed through on the A9.

A steep path up to Meall na h-Aodainn Moire leads to a variety of routes to Loch a Choire then a very steep engineered path to Ben Vrackie where the Jacket had to go on due to the strong wind.

The indicator on the summit was actually useful as visibility was good enough to identify most of the points.

The route to Ben Vuirich involved picking my way through lumpy, pathless tracts of deep heather,rather tiring and I spent some time sitting in the heather watching a large herd of deer (150-200) and a Golden Eagle, that came close enough to be positively identified, before circling Crungie Clach (what a wonderful name!) and vanishing towards Ben Vuirich.

There had obviously been considerably less rain this side of the A9 and the ground was relatively dry. A short walk down the glen and I turned up to find a pitch near Loch Crannach with curlews bubbling and snipe drumming in the dusk.