• Drumochter

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Meall Chuaich is a Munro in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland, located east of the village of Dalwhinnie and Drumochter.

It has been said that this mountain lacks any distinctive features, or that its rather featureless but that it can still offer good views from its summit towards Badenoch and Strathspey in the north, so that sounded  good enough for us.

The weather lately, and when I say lately, I mean about the whole of October has been 99% wet and windy.  This weekend has predicted once again rain with gale force winds. 

Descriptions for the tops of Munro’s have said “torturous”…not sure I’ve ever heard that description before so before things turned ‘torturous’ we decided to undertake this quick and easy Munro which should take us no longer than four hours, now that sounded pretty good!

After setting off from home late morning, we arrived at our destination and parked in a nearby layby.

We began our walk on a good estate track that passed by a hydro which we briskly walked along for approximately one hour. 

After passing by the hydro, we came across a hidden bothy before reaching the base of the hill.

From here the terrain changed as we ascended upwards towards the wide shoulder of Stac Meall Chuaich. 

We were now onto a rather wet, soggy, mucky and slippery path, over heather, then grass, then boulders, then more grass.

Eventually near the summit we left the wet grass behind but entered the clouds so views were lost so we followed some old fence posts which took us to Meall Chuaich’s  summit.

This Munro summit was marked by one huge cairn which was beautifully constructed, it felt like it needed a door somehow.

Due to a non existing view we turned and headed straight back down the same route.

This was definitely a shorter and more straightforward Munro and before we knew it we were back at the van before daylight vanished.