Lochnagar

26 May 2022

Almost as soon as I left Edinburgh to move into my new Groningen accommodation in mid-February, I was booking my return for a few weeks of remote work. The primary reason for the return was to spend time with my girlfriend, but I had plenty of time to arrange another excursion with my climbing partner. After settling on a day, weather on our preferred Wast Coast was looking very pessimistic. The Cairngorms looked far more passable and we therefore changed gears and settled on the White Mounth Round around Lochnagar.

Immortalised by Lord Byron with Lachin y Gair (Dark Lochnagar), it would be interesting to see if the region could live up to the praise. Lochnagar’s coire offers some excellent gully opportunities in late-winter, but with snows having long melted, it would be a hike rather than a climb or scramble. Five Munros in a single day is hard to turn down, and sometimes conditions force your hand. The gentle, rolling hills of the southern Cairngorms meant it would not be a difficult walk, and we would be able to blast through the 30km.

Conditions proved a classic example of Scottish spring: very heavy wind with rain and sun constantly rolling in and out. We were nearly flattened by the wind as we topped out the Little Pile of Shit (actual translation of the primary Munro: Cac Càrn Beag, though some argue for a different interpretation). More research would have yielded warnings of doing the loop anticlockwise. I seem to have missed my calling as a meteorologist, doing a superb job of reading the clouds to predict incoming squalls.

sadly, we missed the English Electric Canberra (1950s era jet) crashsite on Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr!

I am not convinced that I agree with Lord Byron’s enthusiasm, but it was a very pleasant spring day out. I’m not sure my girlfriend ever forgave me for doing Lochnagar without her though…

An approximation of the White Mounth Round.