A Walk along a hill that wasn't in the books

Carn Liath and Carn na Moine south of Inverey west south west of Braemar!

Sunday 6th January 2024

There was some discussion at the beginning of the walk on Saturday about the hill Carn Liath (the focus of the walk) - that it had been difficult to find because it wasn't in the Munros book, nor the Corbetts book and not even in the Grahams and Donalds book.

The walk: 12 of us met the Inverey car park on a cold but sunny morning for the the first walk on the new year - Ken, Chris, Gail, Graham N, Gillie, Sandra, Moira, Alison, Ben, Alan, Irene and Iain. Ken had already done this walk and opted to bag Carn na Drochaide and rejoin us later.

We set off at 9.30 and took the clockwise direction following a track beside the Allt Connie south until we turned west and followed the Allt Cristie Beag rising steadily up the southerly side of Carn Liath. There was snow lying on the track higher up but it was hard and easy to walk on. Things warmed up once we rose high enough to experience the glorious sunshine.

We made good steady progress and at the end of the well defined track we turned north to follow a path up to the summit where we discovered the delights of the hill because the views of the snow covered mountains all around were fantastic, especially to the north. Many of the Cairngorm mountains were picked out clearly due to wonderful visibility.

The little known Carn Liath 818

What wind there was at the top was chilly so we walked NE down the broad ridge a little way for lunch before continuing to Carn na Moine.

We continued along this amazing broad ridge with views either side of us to Carn na Moine and then descended back to Inverey.

Renovated Braemar Castle in the distance

Carn na Drochaide, 818m

Ken decided to boost his Corbett count by doing Carn na Drochaide.

The route started at the Linn of Quoich car park, then passed the Punch Bowl before heading generally NW via a land rover track. At the end of the track, a good path led to the summit of Carn na Criche (737m). The walk across to Carn na Drochaide was made easier by the large banks of frozen snow. Visibility was good in most directions, although Beinn a'Bhuird had some persistent cloud. The sun shone and winds were very light. A good path through deep heather led back to the car park.