I pulled on my big girl pants and recently climbed my first munro and I have to say, it's made me realise just how unfit I probably am! Never mind, I knew that anyway and it is the precise reason why I'm on a trail to conquer the hills in the first place.
Getting There: From Aberdeen, drive south on the A90 towards Forfar. Turn off just after Peggy Scott's onto the B955, through Tannadice and follow the signs to Glen Clova.
Having parked up at the Glen Doll car park, it was a bit of a grim day....or dreich, which is quite appropriate considering the munros which we had targeted for bagging that day - Mayar and Driesh. Click here for the walking route.
Top Tip: coins required for parking at the Glen Doll car park - cars are £2.
You may note from the title that this particular first experience didn't go quite as planned, but I'll carry you along on this inaugural munro journey as it was really good, regardless of the weather!
Part One: It was a typical Scottish summers day really - drizzling and foggy - nothing like the glorious we've been having this week, but hey ho, me and my boyfriend were here now so there's nothing to lose! We set off from the Glen Doll car park and into towards the forrest, stopping to remove a coat and a jumper along the way. Despite being rather drizzly, it was intensely muggy and humid! We carried on through the woods on the green trail, past the beginning of Jock's Road and onwards into the forrest. This is a good, wide path, which is suitable for everyone.
Part Two: The forrest trail has lots of interesting signposts along the way, which detail key features in the landscape and woods, which include things like the journey of the glacier during the Ice Age and tips for spotting wildlife. This part of the walk then opens out into what's been dubbed as 'Nature's Wild Amphitheatre' - the spectacular Corrie Fee Nature Reserve.
Part Three: Having gawped at the beauty of Corrie Fee for a good ten minutes, it was time to descend the path to the left and march on through the heather, while spotting a good few frogs along the way. The bumps along the Corrie are the result of the retreating glacier all those years ago. The rough path banks up to the left, where we started our ascent to the summit. The path became slightly more challenging, with a few climbs over large boulders, but in the main, still very manageable.
Make sure to look back as you approach the waterfall, to see this:
This was around the half way mark to the summit and is also where you will come to a nice spot to inspect the waterfall a little more closely.
Part Four: As you might notice, from the waterfall onwards, the thick fog descended on us! However, the path continues fairly steeply before flattening out to plateau. Continue SSW to climb gently towards the summit, which is marked by a small pile of stones, known as a cairn (I didn't know this was what they were called!). These are a common sight at a variety of different landmarks around Scotland.
From here, we had intended to continue on to Driesh, which is just a short walk and just 100m higher than the summit of Mayar, however, since the fog was so bad (literally could not see a thing), we decided it was sensible to descend, retracing our steps back to the Glen Doll car park.
Final thoughts: To be honest, I was slightly gutted that my first munro didn't deliver on the views at the summit but it has motivated me to strive for my first spectacular victory even more. I still feel really pleased that my ankle held up and I managed to get to the top! Boom - number one in the bag!
I supposed I was equally gutted we didn't tick off two munros from the list but there's always next time. The walk was superb and the best part for me was definitely the imposing views at Corrie Fee.
I'll get you next time Driesh!
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