Climbing the three Cairnwell Munros in Glenshee (Cairngorms National Park, Scotland)

Munro climbing in Glenshee: map & data

13.3 km walk in 5h20 from 09:50 to 15:10 0 average 2.5 km/h

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Our story: Munro climbing in Glenshee

Even though the weather forecast wasn’t great, we drove off by 6.30am to climb three Munros in Glenshee, in the Cairngorms National Park.

We hoped the fog would eventually lift, and that we’d get some sun on and off from mid-morning; but Nature had a different plan.

By the time we arrived at the Glenshee sky centre car park at around 9am the fog was so thick we could hardly see the sheep on the road. Undeterred, we headed for the fog-hidden hills in our hats, gloves and jackets, as if it was deep winter rather than midsummer.

From the start, the wind was terrific, and it only eased off at the end of our walk, five hours later.

Throughout the day, every so often we spotted a mountain hare, a covey of ptarmigans, a few grouse, black beetles, and the occasional sheep.

The first Munro must be one of the easiest climbs we’ve ever done. Before we knew it, we’d arrived at the summit.

On our way to the second Munro we stumbled upon a curious bench, I played with my camera, we chatted, and soon got to the intriguing pile of stones that marks the summit.

As usual, we faffed around for a bit, and still with poor visibility we wandered back down to our third and final Munro.

Munro climbing in Glenshee: our new record

This was my favourite part of the walk, with precipices, a steep rocky descent, and intermittent views of the hills around.

By then Simon was having a spot of trouble with his paper map. You see, with all that humidity the map had got a bit too wet and was starting to fall apart. After a brief sandwich stop, he put what was left of the map back in its holder as best he could, and we headed for the ridge.

It was the longest stretch of the day, and an awesome sight.

From the third summit we had a gentle descent back to the van. We walked past the lochans we’d seen earlier, and for the third time we saw the ghostly ski lifts. We were so happy.

— “25%”, Simon had said at the third top. “We’ve now done 71 Munros. 25% of the total”.

What I loved the most about this adventure was the formidable wind, and the relentless fog. Thanks to them we’d had nothing like the dull cloudy day I’d feared.

Munro climbing in Glenshee: an adventurous chick

But what truly made this day unforgettable was a lovely scene we witnessed after our third Munro. As we were walking along a narrow path, a grouse chick suddenly came out of the heather onto the path. It saw us, and run ahead of us in teeny jumps. Mummy-grouse quickly joined it, and walked along with her frantic baby. Then daddy, who was hiding in the heather, took off and landed next to them. The three of them walked away, with baby in the middle, and a parent on each side protecting their precious chick.

Simon and I stood there, motionless, the few seconds that the scene lasted. Meanwhile, my camera was in my pocket, keeping away from the rain.

But the scene will forever be in my memory, like this wonderful adventure:

Camera used: all the photos in this post were taken with my iPhone 13 Pro.