Always take a compass

Around 10am, after Donna's parents had set off on their drive back to Yorkshire, we headed out on the Glen Road from Newtonmore with my parents aiming to take Isabelle and Monty for a walk along the well graded track running first to the township then on into the valley below Creag Liath which we'd walked on the previous day.

We only really had a "there and back" walk in mind, planning on turning back before the track started to gain height, but on reaching the township I commented that the craggy sides of Creag nan Abhag looked inviting and that I'd like to walk over up to the summit at some point.... which lead to Donna and I setting off with Monty towards the craggy South face of Creag nan Abhag while my parents took the return path back to the car with Isabelle sleeping in the buggy (it's a hard life!).

Walk stats
Date - 20th June 2015
Distance - 3 miles
Time - 1hr 32mins
Height Gain - 214m
OS map used - OS Explorer 402 (this has now been replaced by OL56) and…

After the success and enjoyment of the previous walk to Creag Dubh (here) we decided to go for another early morning walk, starting from the same point at the end of the Glen road in Newtonmore as we had on our walk to A'Chailleach (here) but heading off SW along the river Calder and then NW along the Allt Fionndrigh on a 7 mile walk aiming for the summit of Creag Liath (743m).  The day of our walk, the 19th of June was my birthday so that, coupled with a test of my new boots, was a double bonus!

So, after a nip of birthday whiskey (well it would be rude not to eh!) we arrived at the car park/pull-in at the top of the Glen Road slightly later than planned thanks to our 15 month old daughter, Isabelle, sleeping in (normally not a bad thing) with Monty, our Springer Spaniel in tow, and headed off across the bridge towards the abandoned township of Glenballoch, following a good track along the course of the River Calder.

The walk we'd loaded onto ViewRanger was from the the &quo…

I'd planned a short, quick, walk for this morning so we could get out early and then back in time to do some holiday things with the family.  The walk was up to the summit of Creag Dubh, close to Newtonmore, and a short walk of only 3 miles (5km) - however, according to the original route description on Walking Highlands (here) the suggested duration was 3-4 hours due to the ascent and some scrambling that would be required.

Packing up the night before we headed off just after 7am, arriving at the small pull-in off the A86 near Lochain Uvie for 7:30am - a cold and drizzly morning so we didn't waste time in heading off into the forested area below the crags.

Walk stats
Date - 18th June 2015
Distance - 3.13 miles
Time - 1hr 57mins
Avg Speed - 1.59mph
Height Gain - 1656ft
OS map used - OS Explorer 402 (this has now been replaced by OL56) and OS 1:25k maps on ViewRanger Android app


Straight from the car the going was fairly steep, which helped to warm us both up, and it wasn't long …

Our first walk of the holiday was to be a local one, starting only a few miles outside of Newtonmore itself in an area called "the Glens" and accessed via the single track 'glen road' which runs from the centre of Newtonmore and ends in a small car park which was to be out start point.

The walk I'd planned (with help from the Munro book by SMC and Walk Highlands website) was 8 miles and took in 5 tops; 4 of them being over 800m and one Munro, A'Chailleach, at 930m.  Not quite a circular route as the "there and back" section was along the same river valley track but the path between the mountains was circular to avoid re-tracing our steps where possible.

Walk stats
Date - 16th June 2015
Distance - 8.08 miles
Time - 4hrs 33mins
Avg Speed - 1.77mph
Height Gain - 2332ft
OS map used - OS Explorer 402 (this has now been replaced by OL56) and OS 1:25k maps on ViewRanger Android app

We parked up in the small car park and, with bags packed, we headed off on the sm…