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ROUTE 11

Beinn nan Imirean, Meall Glas

Start/finish	Car park between road and river east of Kenknock NN476367
Distance	22.5km/14 miles
Ascent	1000m/3300ft
Approx time	7½hr
Max altitude	Meall Glas 959m
Terrain	Tracks, and high-altitude grassy hill slopes
Note	See map in Route 10

The tough bits of Perthshire hills are the bottoms. Below the 600m mark the tussocks are lumpy and the heather is high. So it makes sense to seek out walks where ready-made Landrover tracks take you up through this less likeable ground, onto the grass and gravel of the heights. It’s a bonus when those tracks also give you a few miles of sheltered riverside rambling on the way in.

Beinn nan Imirean is unvisited and pathless, a couple of cairns at the summit the only mark of man. The extra 100m of height on Meall Glas mean it’s somewhat rocky, and gravel replaces grass. But the main difference between 850m and 950m is Munro status, which means a trodden path, and a human being or two to chat with at the cairn.

Start at a new car park 1km east of Kenknock (see Route 10). Follow the public road to Kenknock drive end, where it becomes a private (hydro board) one. Where it turns uphill, keep ahead past a vehicle barrier and over a bridge. Follow the track up-valley to right of the river.

Beinn nan Imirean, to Creag Mhor

By a gatepost 1km from the end of the tarred road a strange boulder shows black starburst crystals that I take to be graphitic schist (NN456357). Later on the route the track alongside the Lubchurran Burn offers fine displays of garnets, up to the size of peas. Spot them in clean rocks turned over by track construction. The red-brown crystals are indicators of the high temperatures and pressures sustained by this metamorphic stone.

A track turns off left for the ford to Lubchurran, and will be the return route: for now, keep ahead. Pass below Badour and then below a mountaineering club hut, Badvaim (or Batavaime). At the head of Glen Lochay the track crosses two streams, and bends to the south.

As the track starts to climb towards Lochan Chailein, look out for a smaller grassy track forking down left. It fords the stream then zigzags up towards Meall Glas. Waterfalls are to right of the track. It ends in a shallow grassy bowl at 550m altitude. Turn south, crossing various feeder streams of the waterfalls, onto the north ridge of Beinn nan Imirean. Go up the pathless grassy ridge to the summit cairn.

Turn down east at first, keeping to right of a cairn apparently placed to guide you over the one small cliff hereabouts. Go down grassy slopes, to pass a conspicuous quartz boulder. The col below is peat-hagged on the right (southeast) side, but at its highest point a short peaty crossing leads to a series of firm hummocks. Go straight up Meall Glas to a shoulder to right of the summit, then turn up northwest to the top. The summit cairn is mostly made of quartz from a nearby vein.

Head east along the broad summit ridge, with a small path. The path skirts to left of the 908m top to the trig point on Beinn Cheathaich. Head north, on a pleasantly angled grassy ridge ideal for descent. At 680m look out for a track on the right – its start is just beyond a bare peat patch, itself just to right of the ill-defined crest line. The track contours right, southeast, across a stream, then turns downhill to left of the main Lubchurran Burn.

The track passes a small water intake, then passes to left of Lubchurran house. The river crossing beyond is a shallow ford – a former footbridge downstream no longer exists. Turn right on the track beyond, back to the car park.

Meall Garbh summit ridge (Route 12)