I left my car at the side of the minor road north-east of Grantown on Spey and just north of the access track leading to Knock of Auchnahannet, accessed from the B9102 Grantown on Spey to Archiestown Road. I then walked up this track, by-passing the property to the west, passing some ruined buildings then through a stock gate onto the open hillside where sheep were grazing. The shortest route to the summit of Tom Mor would be to follow the tree line east across pathless vegetation but I continued north along the vehicle track then east as it crossed the shoulder of Tom Mor. I had used this route back in November 2011 to climb the Marilyn, Carn na Loine.
Beyond a non-existent gate in a stock fence the track turned south-east still gaining height. On reaching the access track to the radio mast I followed it south-west although still obvious the track was now overgrown as the vegetation regenerated. On reaching the radio mast it was another couple of hundred metres to the summit of the Tump, Tom Mor, the highest point being beside a sapling although there were a few of them around.
After a break sheltering from the cool breeze behind one of the viewpoint cairns I descended north-east across rough ground and vegetation, crossing the estate track, to reach the Allt Luachair then it was a fairly steep climb north-east through heather. The gradient later eased but the heather was longer then higher still the vegetation became shorter as I made my way to the summit of the Tump, Carn an Fhradhairc. The highest point appeared to be a grassy tussock although there were a few of them.
I descended west, the going was pathless but easy enough, until the head of the Allt Luachair where it became pretty awful with a mixture of heather, tussocks and rushes. Once through them it was a short climb to the track near the fence with its missing gate, thereafter the track was followed back to the start.
- Time taken – 3.5 hours.
- Distance – 9 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 405 metres.