I left my vehicle in the car park in the centre of Ballater, walked through the village, and crossed the Bridge of Dee then the South Deeside Road into Craig Coillich Wood. Here I path to the right led to the access road for the House of Glenmuick with its uninviting signage. I walked along this road, round the outskirts of the big house and before reaching the Estate Office passed through an unlocked gate in a deer fence.
A vehicle track (wrong one) was followed but it came to an end so I walked through long and rough vegetation above the south side of a stream before crossing it. Higher up the going became a bit easier and I joined the vehicle track I should have used. This track took me onto the north side of the Tump, Pannanich Hill, then a short walk up the side of a fence led to the summit trig point and cairn with a small statute of what appeared to be a gamekeeper.
A path headed off south then I briefly used the vehicle track that ran below the west side of Pannanich Hill before descending south-east through heather, crossed the Pollagach Burn, and ascended Knockie Branar. The summit of this Tump was probably at a junction of fences but I also checked out a heathery clump to the north-east.
On leaving this hill I followed a fence in a south-westerly direction later crossing an area which would usually be boggy if it wasn’t for the recent dry spell of weather. I walked round the knoll Lach na Gualainn and crossed some long heather and tussocky ground to an area of peat. A vehicle track then took me onto the one heading over the Graham Top, Cairn Leuchan, taking me close to its summit which was just off to the west and was probably one of several rocks.
After a break here I returned to the vehicle track and used it to descend north through a junction of tracks briefly leaving it to follow a path to the summit of Craig Vallich, the highest point of this Sub Simm wasn’t obvious. The track then wound its way round the hillside, took me to just below Pannanich Hill and descended to the House of Glenmuick keeping close to the forest then I walked back to Ballater.
- Time taken 5.75 hours.
- Distance – 20.75 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 830 metres.