I've been meaning to up my mileage since about the new year, but finally I have time to actually decide to do it rather than turn up and do what suits. This time I made my mind up to do some munro bagging - hill runner style. Looking for something suitable near Braemar leaves you a little spoilt for choice, but I didn't really fancy a long landrover track that I've done before - e.g. past Derry Lodge, and I wondered how much snow etc would still be up by Glen Shee ski centre. Fortunately, there are several hills north of Glen Shee, but south of Braemar, so I set off to Inverey. Inverey is cunningly set on the river Ey, which is very pretty as it winds it's way though gorges and higher plains in Glen Ey. Even the landrover track isn't too bad.
It took me 55 mins to cover the 8 or 9 km to the end of the track along pretty flat ground. The guidebooks say that you should come down from Carn Bhac via the Alltan Odhar, but I headed uphill before the stream. From above, it looked like the stream bed was deeply inset, so the views would be less, but I have no idea if there is a decent path. The route I took was virtually pathless up to the summit, however the heather is short and various sheep tracks help out now and then, so I'd recommend it. About 1h 45m to the summit.
From the summit, I decided to head over to Top of the Battery, as the OS map describes it. It is a gentle ridge with short heather, small rocks and frequent sections of deeply eroded bog. Actually, the tufty grass was the hardest to run across as paths did usually show the best way through the peat sections. When my legs were glad of the springy, gentle terrain, suddenly I had to go uphill, but the two 50m ascents are gentle and well worth it. Descending the nose of the ridge was actually the trickiest bit. Much longer heather and steeper slopes without path made it a relatively slow descent. Fortunately, from the bottom there is only 2km back to the car park in Inverey, so with 2h 43m under my belt, I ran out to make it in, in under 3hrs - just!
Of course, those out for a longer run would do well to add in the other munros, some of which are connected by high level belachs and others require significant descent/ ascent. Check the weather too, because I know this route would be unpleasant in the rain, but as I found - it is pure joy in the sun, with a touch of wind to keep you cool.
Total distance 22.3km, 940m ascent (my watch said only 730m).
Map is (C) Crown Copyright - courtesy of Ordnance Survey
