I was quite looking forward to this one, the mountain of Prince Charles, Queen Victoria and Byron. For once the mountain was close by, just a drive of about five miles from the campsite, down a country road to the car park at Spittal of Glenmuick. I know it was a Saturday but I had not expected it to be so full and despite being a large car park we were lucky to find a space. On this hill there is a good warm up as the path starts with a stroll across the glen before it starts to rise through some pleasant woods. The trees, pines I think, have been planted well apart and it gives the woods a really nice impression.
We knew this was going to be a long walk day, being six miles to the summit and another six back, but what we did not expect was that there would be a wide path almost all the way. For the first three miles or so there is a track which eventually moves off onto a path but is always prominent. Prominent too were the numbers of people making the trip. It was almost like Ben Nevis with a constant stream of all kinds of people walking. As you get higher too the path gets more eroded but a lot of work is going on to improve it. Four men and women were sweatily putting rocks together to form what looks to be an excellent path. Every so often we could see the peaks of Lochnagar poking above the hills. The path gets steeper but never difficult right up to a col or saddle between Lochnagar and Meikle Pap. From here a turn to the left and up takes you to the start of the ridge. From here you see the famous view of the Lochnagar cliffs, a really impressive sight.
The climb now is rocky and steep, with no path for this part so you have to find your own way up to the ridge, though obvious and not far. A path then goes right along the ridge, not even near the edge which we found a bit disappointing. The first summit and cairn is Cac Carn Mor which had lots of people on it, though I can't believe they thought it was the real summit. At one point, watching the path going off left to what looked like a higher point I first thought that was where we had to head. It looked a long way off. However the very obvious real summit of Cac Carn Beag soon revealed itself and when I checked my map could see that the other path was actually leading to the Stuic. This in fact is the alternative route to Lochnagar as described in one of the books. The summit is a pile of rocky slabs with both a trig point and a cairn. There is also an indicator but although it names many places they are mostly far away and difficult, even impossible, to identify. Similarly although the views are beautiful they are not as photographic as say the Mamores where all the mountains are on top of you. We could however see the town of Ballater and had our sandwiches and Guinness in the presence of dozens of people. One of them was a real buffoon who not only knew where Ben Macdui was but was determined to let everyone know he knew. All of the above aside this was the nicest and most pleasant top we had been on since Ben Lawers. The views are very pleasant, weather good and there is something good and relaxing about this top.
On the way off the top we found that there is in fact a path leading along the edge of the cliffs. It provided some fantastic views of the buttresses. The Central buttress which is a graded scramble looked really difficult though perhaps a bit easier when seen from the south. One walker had a closer look by strolling out on to a projecting ledge and scrambled up to a precarious seat. I wish I could do that. The way down was simple and easy, the track being very well made. We reached the car park having done the trip in 6 1/2 hours.
