I was en-route home after spending a week hill walking in the Fort William area and stopped off to climb Creag Meagaidh. Years ago I made a direct ascent of this Munro from the A86 Spean Bridge to Newtonmore Road rather the usual easterly approach from Aberarder but had no recollection of the route.
I left my car in the parking area east of Moy and walked west along the A86 to west of the Moy Burn. Here I stepped over a crash barrier then pushed my way through some trees expecting to find a path but there was nothing, just lots of long wet vegetation.
Occasionally I thought I had found a path but it either soon came to an end or disappeared into the long bracken.
An old stone dyke and a tributary of the Moy Burn were crossed then it was a plod through wet and marshy vegetation until higher ground east of Creag na Cailliche was reached. I climbed this rocky hillock to a stone dyke which came in from the south-west and ran up the south ridge of Creag Meagaidh.
The stone dyke was followed north with a few undulations until high up on the ridge the dyke came to an end to be replaced for a few hundred metres by some old fence posts.
It was then a short climb to the cairn marking the summit of Creag Meagaidh encountering a couple of showers and a cool breeze.
I didn’t linger and returned by the ascent route. At the foot of Creag na Cailliche I crossed the Moy Burn to follow a couple of wet and boggy quad vehicle tracks back to the A86 and closer to where I had left my car.
- Time taken – 4.75 hours.
- Distance – 13.75 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 920 metres.