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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms – Creag Ruadh (Graham) & Dun da Lamh fort

February 18, 2019 by Maria Fernandez

Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

Hillwalking: map & data

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Total distance: 8.37 mi
Total climbing: 815 m
Total time: 06:36:00
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8.4 mile walk in 6h30 from 11.00 to 17.30 – average 1.3 mph

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This was our first day on the hills in our week in the beautiful village of Laggan (Badenoch, Scotland).

We’d arrived on Sunday by car from Edinburgh. Fortunately, unlike a couple of weeks before when we hit a snow storm, this time the journey was smooth and uneventful.

Off to a Graham

The weather forecast for today, Monday, was mixed. That’s why we decided to leave the Munros for other days, and went for a smaller hill, a Graham.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

10.52 – Simon heading for the forest

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Click to see the photo gallery
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We left the car in a deserted car park and headed for the forest plantation.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

11.10 – The easy path to the hilltop

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Luckily we were both wearing our softer boots, because that gravel path wasn’t exactly foot-friendly and bouncy.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

11.47 – Simon on a narrower path to Creag Ruadh

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Our plan was to climb Creag Ruadh, a 622 m Graham, and then the 452 m hill which has the Dun da Lamh fort at the top.

Creag Ruadh means “red crag” and is described by the guidebook as an “unremarkable summit”. We couldn’t disagree more.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

12.04 – View towards Laggan

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About Grahams

Grahams are Scottish mountains of between 2,000 and 2,500 feet (that’s 609.6 to 762.0 m, to be exact). To qualify as Grahams, hills must also have a prominence of more than 150 m (492.1 ft).

I’m not sure who decided to jumble up the imperial and metric systems in that unhelpful way.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

12.37 – Simon finding the way

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I don’t know how Simon finds those paths where I often can’t see any trace of them. I confess, I just follow him, and hope for the best while I take photos of his orange outfit and the landscape.

Then, when we get back home, I look at our route on the map and I see that it neatly matches the official path. Abracadabra.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

12.41 – An unexpected fence with no gate

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Extra climbing

Everything was going splendidly when we suddenly came across this unforeseen fence which wasn’t in the script.

It had no gate and no stile, so I stood there, wondering how on earth I was supposed to climb it. I could see the whole fence collapsing under my weight, and me and my bum in the mud.

But, since the only other option was to turn back, I plucked up some courage and up I went.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

12.48 – Simon climbing the tough fence

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Then it was Simon’s turn, and I immortalised his orange outfit once again with my camera.

Alas, we were both so determined to conquer the fence that we failed to notice the poles. It wasn’t until we were both on the other side that we spotted them. There they were, leaning on the wrong side, abandoned.

And that’s how Simon got to climb the fence a second time, and a third.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

13.27 – Maria touching a cairn *

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The day had started off dry. It had rained the night before, and the paths were only slightly muddy.

That was at the beginning. Later on they got muddier and muddier as the rain persisted.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

13.31 – View of Loch Laggan

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There were grey clouds not too far away.

Until lunchtime the rain had come on and off, but now it got relentless, and we got drenched. But, since we had a warm cottage to go back to, we continued with our plan.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

14.16 – Simon at the top of Creag Ruadh

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Conquering Creag Ruadh

This photo doesn’t show it, but at the top of Creag Ruadh there was a gale. I could hardly keep both feet on the ground and operate the camera.

In spite of the sleet and wind, or rather, because of it, I felt great.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

14.44 – A boggy ground

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When you’re fighting a gale, all those nagging little thoughts that inhabit your brain suddenly vanish. It’s just you and your gale.

I guess it’s Nature’s way of telling you who’s boss.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

14.52 – Maria back at the familiar fence *

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On the way down from Creag Ruadh we had to climb our fence once more. This time, it was easy-peasy, and we made sure the poles went through first.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

15.30 – Simon observing the low cloud over Geal Charn

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It was a beautifully melancholic and quiet day.

I thought we’d bump into people at some point, but we only saw a mountain biker at the beginning of our walk, and that was it.

We didn’t see any deer or sheep either, we just heard a few grouse.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

15.47 – Some very mossy trees

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Off to the Pictish fort

We were now heading for the Dun da Lamh fort.

To get there, we walked past some awesome trees covered in moss. It reminded me of the rainforest we saw more than ten years ago in the Olympic National Park (Washington State, US).

Those bearded trees make you feel like you’re walking inside a dream.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

15.53 – Simon surveying the Pictish fort

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To me, walking up a mountain with no other purpose than finding a Pictish fort is life at its best.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

16.15 – View of the Spey Dam Reservoir from the Pictish fort

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Dun da Lamh is the name of this ruined Pictish fort.

Dun da Lamh is a Gaelic name that means “fort of the two hands”, probably referring to the two summits. The hill the fort is on is called Black Craig, and is 1484 feet high (452m).

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

16.15 – Looking at the Pictish fort highest hill

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About Dun da Lamh

According to the information board we saw near the fort, the rock raised to the summit to build the wall totals at least 5,000 tons.

On three sides, the steep rock makes the fort impregnable, and on the forth side the walls are over 20 feet wide.

What isn’t known, though, is what the main purpose of the fort was.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

16.19 – Remains of a Pictish fort wall

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In case you’re wondering, the Picts lived in what today is eastern and northern Scotland, between roughly 100BC and 800AD.

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Hillwalking in the Cairngorms - www.simonking.bike

16.42 – On the easy path down

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By the time we got back to the car, we looked like drowned rats.

The day was what the Scots call “dreich”, an eerie word that sounds like this: /driːx/. But, far from unremarkable, as the guidebook described it, this was a most memorable walk.

We returned to our cottage more than six hours after we left, pretty knackered and more learned. For dinner we had vegetable haggis, neeps and tatties.

Days don’t get more Scottish than this.

To celebrate it, I’ll leave you with Robert Burn’s Address to a Haggis:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye worthy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

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And here’s a video that has kept me entertained:

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See our next excursion on this trip
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Our week in Laggan (Scottish Highlands)

Here are the links to all the other posts for this trip:

Overview: our cottage, surroundings, Newtonmore & a bit more.

Tuesday: climbing Carn Liath (Creag Meagaidh), a Munro near Loch Laggan.

Thursday: climbing Geal Charn, a Munro in the Monadhliath mountains.

Friday: attempting Meall Chuaich in high winds – a Munro in the Cairngorms.

2018 in Bridge of Orchy: our trip 12 months earlier.

2017 in Bridge of Orchy: our first winter week in Argyll and Bute.

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I took all the photos with the Panasonic.

* Simon took this photo.

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Filed Under: Blog, Fiona, Scotland Tagged With: Car, Walking

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