Winter begins in the Highlands

Posted by John Chivall on Sun 08/11/2009
Filed under: Play Walking
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Emily and I got out in the beautiful weather today to enjoy the first wintry conditions of the season on Cruach Ardrain, Dragging ourselves from our beds we made a getaway from Glasgow at 9.30 to be in Crianlariach by 11 - not too bad for a Sunday! There was a definite frost in the ground with puddles frozen in the village and a dusting of hoar on the grass and trees as we headed up through the forest to Grey Heights. The snow didn't really start until we were at about 850m on the slopes of Cruach Ardrain itself, but there was plenty on the summit area, well-tracked by the folk we'd seen heading down as we sauntered casually up, stopping frequently for photography. One lady warned us that "it gets dark at 4.30 and it's still 40 minutes to the top" and still looked concerned despite our assurances that we did actually know what we were doing. She may have thought we were with the group of 7 or 8 teenagers accompanied by their teachers that we encountered 20 minutes later as we came over the first, lower top.

The air was incredibly clear, and from the summit we could see almost the whole of southern Scotland, even the Cheviot hills on the horizon behind the Firth of Forth, and the Galloway hills to their west. The magical isle of Arran rose as insubstantial as vapour behind pale rows of hills, and Ben Lui's noble form, head and shoulders over its siblings Oss and Dubhcraig, dominated the views west.

Despite the lady's ominous warnings, we had timed it perfectly, as on our descent (the schoolchildren now well out of sight) we were privileged to witness a magnificent display of shifting colour as the sun slowly dropped behind An Caisteal's bulk. A quick trot down through the forest in the gathering gloom saw us back to the car before 6, and anticipating many more wonderful winter days in the months to come.

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A high snow line on Ben More and Stob Garbh