Walk This Wayne: Meall nan Tarmachan

Gaelic meaning : Hill of the Ptarmigans
Height : 3,422 feet
Walk distance : 7.5 miles
OS Map : Ben Lawers
Difficulty rating : 2.5
Meall nan Tarmachan is perhaps more famous not for it's beauty or height, but for the challenging Tarmachan ridge that runs North to Creag an Lochain.

Meall Nan Tarmachan is part of the Lawers range and sits West of the more renouned Ben Lawers. It's a relatively straight forward climb and has a pretty high start point so isn't too much of a challenge.

I set out early on a pretty dreich morning with the weather forecast promising a slight improvement later on in the day. Arriving at the car park slightly further up the road from the Ben Lawers visitor centre (now closed) the weather hadn't improved much.

Car park just after Ben Lawers Visitor Centre

The truth that every Munro bagger needs to face up to is that Munro's are in Scotland, so good weather is never guaranteed, but with the old saying "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes and it'll change" in my head I set of for what would be an interesting climb.
The Path is well maintained and easy to follow. Once you set off from the car park head along the road (Past the Ben Lawers Nature sign) then look for a path that heads of to the right about a quarter of a mile along. It's easy to miss so keep your eyes peeled.

Dam beneath Loch an Daimh

Follow the obvious path and eventually you will come to a 923 metre minor summit, I passed a few people on the way down who were confused and thought this was the summit proper.

Trixy little minor summits' !

Carry on over this and decend for 100 metres or so, cross the style and head over the boggy bealach until you reach the foot of the summit proper.

Handy!

Now the real climb begins, you will soon reach a steep and rocky gully with some substantial and slippery stone steps cut into them. Take care on these as they are a potential hazard, the gully is around 50 metres so not huge but it's steepness led for a few stops to ehm . . . take in the view !

The view !

Once through the gully you are almost there, follow the path then take a left at the plateau to reach the summit proper. It was at this point I decided to head back down. I had gone up hoping to cross the Tarmachan Ridge but the much promised improvement in the weather never materialised when I was there, in fact it worsened and the winds were some of the worst I'd experienced while walking. Faced with an 80 metre long and 1 metre wide ridge traverse I decided the weather had won and headed back down. The ridge will have to wait for another day . . . .