A Happy Birch-day in Coire Ardair

About trip

Ascent: 1,400ft Difficulty Level: 3 - Hard Paths: Very good, rough around the loch, no stiles Landscape: One-ended valley leading to lochan under crags Dog Friendliness: No dogs allowed as they disturb wildlife Parking: Nature reserve car park at Aberarder track end beside Loch Laggan Public Toilets: None en route or near by Description: As the path curves westward after Point 2, you’ll see the crags of Creag Meagaidh ahead of you. When well iced up, these create many famous winter climbs. On the right, they’re bounded by a narrow pass high on the skyline. Bonnie Prince Charlie. After the defeat of the Jacobite cause at Culloden Moor on 16 April, 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart went on the run in the Scottish Highlands. From then until 18 September he sheltered in caves and bothies (shepherds’ huts) and in the open heather. He was often hungry, usually wet, hunted by redcoat soldiers and plagued by midges. His flight took him across the country to Mallaig, for an 80-mile (129km) journey by open boat in a storm to the Outer Hebrides. He came back to Skye disguised as the maidservant of Miss Flora MacDonald. The prince adapted well to the life of a long-distance backpacker, living for weeks in the same dirty shirt and greasy black kilt, growing a long red beard and learning to enjoy the oat bread and whisky of the country. In a bothy on South Uist, he out-drank all of his companions and then proceeded to intone a penitential psalm over their unconscious bodies. In the face of the weather and a barbarous and implacable enemy, he showed not just strength and courage, but good humour as well. He made jokes with Flora MacDonald - ‘they’ll never guess what I’ve got hidden up my skirts’ (it was a pistol). The prince came to know Scotland like no monarch before or since, and at the same time, Scotland’s people - from clan chieftains to crofters and fishermen, and even outlaws like the Seven Men of Glenmoriston. Despite a price on his head of £30,000, equivalent to more than a lottery jackpot of today, not one of them betrayed him. Back on the mainland, in July he was encircled by Hanoverian soldiers, but slipped between two sentries in the dark. By mid- August the manhunt had been abandoned. Soon afterwards he heard of a French boat waiting near Mallaig. Travelling away from the main roads, on 18 September he passed along the route of the walk, up to Coire Ardair and then through the high pass alongside Creag Meagaidh into the empty country around Glen Roy. That pass is called Uinneag Coire Ardair. Translating it into English we can say that Prince Charlie left Scotland through the Window. While you're there: The Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore is the site of Baile Gean, a working reconstruction of an 18thcentury township where you can immerse yourself in the peat reek of a traditional black house with heather-thatched roof and smoke-stained walls. The site is so large that a number of pre-war buses take you round it. What to look out for: The natural forest of the lower slopes of Scotland is the birch. In Creag Meagaidh Reserve, deer numbers are being carefully controlled by shooting to allow the woodland to regenerate without the use of fencing. Early on the path, a signboard shows the treeless slopes as they were in 1986 - they’re greener now. Further up, the path passes through young birches. These end quite suddenly at the top of the steeper section. Further up the corrie, just a few tiny rowans can be found struggling out of the heather. Where to eat and drink: Scotland has few pubs, and the traditional drinking place has always been the bar of the local hotel. Laggan’s Monadhliath Hotel caters mainly for locals, but serves bar and restaurant meals to visitors too (children and dogs welcome). It’s a former manse, easily recognised by the ruined church in its garden. Directions: A new path runs alongside the grey gravel track, leading to Aberarder farm. Here there’s an information area and a bench under a roof. Pass to the right of the buildings following a footprint waymarker on to a rebuilt path. 2 The well-built path rises through bracken, then crosses a boggy area. It heads up the valley of Allt Coire Ardair, keeping a little way up the right-hand side, becoming steeper as it ascends through an area of regenerating birch trees. Now the crags of Coire Ardair come into sight ahead. The path crosses many small streams - here it is still being reconstructed. It bends left, slightly downhill, to join the main river. Tiny rowan trees can be seen attempting to regenerate among the heather. Wild flowers in the boggy ground include the pink or white pyramids of the heath spotted orchid (the leaves have the spots). The path winds gently near the stream, then suddenly to the outflow of Lochan a’Choire. 3 The outflow is a fine viewpoint for the crag walls of Coire Ardair. These walls are too loose and overgrown for rock climbing, but when covered in snow and hoarfrost give excellent sport for winter mountaineers. The circuit of the lochan is considerably more rugged than the path up the glen, and could be omitted if the outflow stream is too full, or if a picnic is preferred. Cross the outflow stream near where it emerges from the lochan and follow a trace of path round the shore to the notable clump of boulders marked by a stretcher box. (The stretcher is used for removing mountain casualties from the foot of the crags.) One of the boulders forms a small cave, with a spring running through it. A vigorous rowan tree, seeded where deer can’t get at it, shows that without grazing pressure this glen would be wooded even at this altitude of 2,000ft (610m). 4 After the boulder cave you must cross rocks and scree. This short section is awkward. Once past the head of the lochan, slant up away from the shore. A path descends from high on the left, coming out of the notch called the Window. Join this and turn down to the loch’s outflow (Point 3 again). Quite clearly there’s no way out of this dead-end valley that doesn’t involve serious mountain walking - or one of those winter climbs up the icy gullies. Return down the valley by the outward path.